Employee Relations: An International Journal

Leighton, Patricia; Painter, Richard W.

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055103

In recent years, various groups of workers have become causes clbres through being identified by both academics and the media as vulnerable in some way or another. The spectre of child labour in family enterprises causing the children involved to miss school or fall asleep over their books, of homeworkers earning a pittance from boring, repetitive work, of major accidents or the onset of diseases at the workplace, as well as job losses on a massive scale, all indicate that the 1980s have brought or confirmed insecurity and other hardships for vast numbers of workers in the UK. For the purposes of this special edition of Employee Relations, vulnerability connotes disadvantage in the labour market more serious than that derived from simply being atypical or marginal.

Painter, Richard W.

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055104

As we have indicated in the introductory section, the employment protection legislation was drafted principally with fulltime, permanent employees so called core workers in mind. The legislation of the mid70s which established the statutory floor of employment rights effectively excluded millions of workers from its protections because they were considered to be selfemployed, or failed to qualify through lack of continuity of employment. Indeed, it may well be argued that, if the policy behind the legislation was to protect those workers which collective bargaining could not reach, the groups who were excluded the peripheral workers were the ones in the greatest need of protection.

Doyle, Brian

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055105

Contemporary interest in vulnerable employment groups has focused on women, ethnic minorities and the secondary labour market. Social discrimination, marginal employment and low pay are the badges of vulnerability of these groups. As Section 2 shows, labour law's response to employment vulnerability has been piecemeal and tangential with the result that progress towards the enjoyment of basic employment rights by vulnerable workers has been slow and fortuitous. People with disabilities possess many of the traits of vulnerability shared by other disadvantaged groups but receive only a footnote in the pages of labour law. This article records the developing debate on the employment rights of disabled people and places it in the context of the current analysis of employment vulnerability.

Painter, Kate

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055106

In 1986, the issue of violence at work was thrust into the arena of public debate by the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh and the deaths of three social workers in the course of their duties. These atypical cases represent the extreme end of a continuum of violence and vulnerability, but they were sufficient to warrant the formation of a Government committee chaired by Lady Trumpington, parliamentary Under Secretary for Health. The aim of the committee is to develop a common approach to violence across the health, social services and social security fields.

Szyszczak, Erika

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055107

It is perhaps surprising that in recent years the most persuasive and optimistic response to the problems encountered by vulnerable workers has emanated from the European Community EC. The 1970s saw a growing involvement of the EC in social policy and labour law in particular, there have been a significant number of proposed measures emerging from the EC Commission. Many of these measures could have a farreaching potential, particularly for vulnerable workers in the United Kingdom. However, in recent years, progress at the EC level has been slow and has now reached almost a complete standstill, largely due to the opposition of the governments of the member states led by the British Government. As a consequence, the EC programme has become beset by legal, institutional and political wrangles as to how far the EC can and should intervene in national labour markets.

Leighton, Patricia

1987 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb055108

The foregoing sections have demonstrated and analysed the range and complexity of vulnerability in the labour market. Its source can be economic or legal, or can derive from characteristics of work or workers. Vulnerability is not a stagnant or even declining phenomenon. Indeed, we have argued that not only are considerably more workers disadvantaged than, say, two decades ago, but that such a situation is compounded by government policy, concepts of core and peripheral workers, and by forces which have created or highlighted unconsidered or new areas of vulnerability. It is arguable that even the much publicised networkers who may have relatively attractive terms of work can become isolated and demoralised by working solely at home, and thus suffer yet another form of vulnerability.