New Forms of Work

How the workplace is changing and what the left should do about it, with Andrew Adonis, David Coats, Sara Horowitz, Chi Onwurah and many more

a collection of essays published by The Fabian Society

Foreword by Andrew Adonis, Labour peer

These essays offer an excellent overview of the debate on the future of work. They emphasise continuity as much as change. Despite the growth of independent and more flexible forms of work, full-time jobs with conventional employers remain the norm and the objective for the great majority. As David Coats puts it, despite the rise and fall of industries over recent decades, “the structure of the labour market has scarcely changed over the last 30 years.”

As in past recessions, so in the present one the biggest problem with work is that there isn’t enough of it. With unemployment at 2.5 million, and youth unemployment constituting more than 20 per cent of under 24-year-olds, the imperative is to generate more jobs. For under 24s, we also need far more good quality apprenticeships leading to jobs. The reinvention of apprenticeships is an especially urgent national priority and needs to be at the heart of Labour’s future policy.

Making work pay is also vital. The minimum wage has made a significant difference to pay levels at the bottom, but the debate about a “living wage” is gathering pace and Labour needs to take account of this too. Decent wages are the first and most fundamental form of ‘flexicurity’, as described by Wilson Wong.

Other big issues raised here include the right balance between flexibility and security, the appropriate treatment of the self-employed as against the employed, and the definition of ‘freelancers’. The role of trade unions is also central. In all these areas, these essays contribute new thinking and will help inform Labour’s response to the present economic crisis.

Editorial

The nature of work in Britain is changing. Increasing numbers of workers are turning to flexible working and freelancing in a labour market which is unable to support as many full-time, traditional employees as it was before the financial crash in 2008. But this trend is not just driven by economic necessity – flexible work and freelancing is increasingly attractive as people seek to gain greater control over their working lives, achieve better work-life balance or take opportunities to be entrepreneurial.

New Forms of Work investigates how an increasingly flexible labour market can deliver not only growth but also promote a fairer society. What is the place of flexible working and freelancing in a high wage, high skill economy? How does the workforce need to adapt to the changing labour market and what does this mean for the role of trade unions? Can the left accommodate freelancing and flexible working as part of wider pro-business agenda that emphasises entrepreneurship, whilst maintaining its core mission to protect the rights of working people?

Contents

Labour market myths and realities: David Coats
New forms of union: Chi Onwurah
Future present: Sara Horowitz
Policy fit for purpose: Patricia Leighton
Security for the flexible: Erika Watson
The new deal for Britain?: Wilson Wong
Clarity and consistency: George Anastasi
Taxing employees, the self-employed and small companies: Stuart Adam
The entrepreneurial economy: Andrew Burke
Shaping our success: Gillian Econopouly

Full text (PDF 20pp) well and appropriately illustrated. A good read whether or not you agree with the policy position.

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