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The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work

University of the West of England, anna.polleat{at}vive.ac.uk

Andy Charlwood

University of York, ac614{at}york.ac.uk, Andy.charlwood{at}gmail.com

This article investigates the experience of low paid workers without union representation. It reports on the findings of a recent survey of 501 low paid, non-unionized workers who experienced problems at work. The results demonstrate that problems at work are widespread and, despite a strong propensity to take action to try to resolve them, most workers failed to achieve satisfactory resolutions. In the light of these results, we argue that the current UK Government definition of vulnerability is too narrow because our results suggest that a large proportion of low paid, unrepresented workers are at risk of being denied their employment rights. Therefore we question the ability of the UK's current system of predominantly non-unionized employment relations to deliver employment rights effectively and fairly.

Key Words: non-unionism • workplace problems • vulnerable worker • low paid workers

Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 23, No. 2, 343-362 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0950017009106771


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