Them and Us: So why don't UK workers trust senior management?

The CIPD (professional body for HR) reports today that the lack of trust between employees and senior management is holding back sustainable economic recovery.

They conclude not unreasonably that employees who don't trust their senior managers are likely to be less productive and and less engaged.

Only 37% of employees trust them apparently which is an appalling figure.

The CIPD think that this is a problem that has been getting worse and may be linked to "hard" decisions due to the recession. I think it is much more basic than this. Some thoughts on why and what to do about it...

Number one is the huge and growing difference in pay between the top and the bottom. How can employees respect senior managers if they are content to fill their own pockets with gold while the people who clean their toilets live in poverty?

Even so called blue chip companies pay their workers so little that the tax payer has to subsidise their pay. 

Not only pay but  why do so executives in top companies often get decent pension contributions when their workers get rubbish?

Why if you need a company car to carry out your business do executives get luxury status cars while ordinary workers get basic models?  Surely everyone just needs a safe, comfortable and reliable car?

Why do some companies pay statutory only compensation to employees they make redundant but make huge payouts for executives they "let go"? 

Finally, a pet hate is the the "happy clappy" company culture guff.  Where everything is so, so wonderful.  Where staff are expected to volunteer to be "change champions" even if it means that their jobs and conditions are under risk by this change. This sort of things is bonkers. Demeaning "Ab Fab" superficiality. People can see through this nonsense.

The solution to this? How about a living wage plus for all; wage councils for sectors that can afford more than a living wage plus; modern rights and freedoms for trade unions; employee representation on boards and remuneration committees; truly progressive taxation of the higher paid, statutory pay ratios of low to highest paid....? Anyone else any other ideas?

Interestingly that only is such inequality bad for society (see "The Spirit Level" et al) but it is is making our economy uncompetitive and inefficient. Perhaps this imperative will mean that things might finally change?

Rowenna Davis "What could One Nation Look like under Labour?"

I've been catching up on a back log of blogs based on my twitter feeds from events I have attended. This picture is of journalist, author and Labour Councillor, Rowenna Davis, speaking to West Ham Labour Party General Committee last month on March 28 at our Stratford HQ.

Each month the GC invites a political guest speaker to address the committee and take questions.  Rowenna wrote the book "Tangled up in Blue: Blue Labour and the Struggle for Labour's Soul".

Rowenna started off well by describing how she got her Labour values while on the play grounds of a South London state school but she showed her sarf origins by getting her East London geography slightly wrong and thought she was on the other side of the River Lea.

She rightly attacked the disgraceful Curzen Cinema chain for lauding middle class lefty films while treating its workforce like dirt, with poverty pay and zero hours contracts. New Labour was wrong to push the market so that the State provides less. Labour now has to collectivise and organise to change society.

What “Blue Labour” is really about is decent jobs and homes. There use to be a social contract that if you worked hard at school you would end up with a decent job. This has now gone.

She thought that the bedroom tax is so unfair since it is a symptom of an economy dominated by London with its desperate shortage of housing while there is rows of empty homes in the north.

She supported the German regional bank model with worker reps on company boards as the best way to raise wages, improve sick benefits and pensions.

In the Q&A I thanked her for being in affect the first speaker on the West Ham Ward and UNISON Housing Association motion on a “Living Wage Plus for all in Newham”. Which was later passed by the GC with a large majority (including even Newhams own "Red Tel").

London Labour Link Election for Delegate to Labour Party Conference 2013

Election Statement - John Gray (Vote John). "I am seeking election to represent the views of APF payers in the London Region at this year’s Labour Party Conference.

I support the link we have with the Labour Party. Labour in power has delivered real improvements for our members, but, Labour needs to change and do more to win the next General Election.

We need an alternative economic policy. We need to champion trade union issues within the Party at Conference and move our members concerns up the political agenda.

As an active UNISON and Labour Party member I believe in supporting the Party, but also in campaigning for or against change where it impacts on our members.

Campaign within the Party for policies that lead to:

• A real increase in public sector pay. Our pay in real terms has been cut. Our economy is suffering from a lack of demand. To increase demand, pay more to ordinary workers who will spend it and not give tax breaks to millionaires who will save it.

• All public sector contractors should be forced to pay a Living wage, Sickness benefits and a Living pension.

• In a recession you should invest in public services not cut it. Reduce the deficit instead by progressive and fair taxation on those who can afford it.

• Defend all public sector pensions.

• Access to quality and affordable housing for public sector employees and their families.

Next year there will be local Council and European elections in London. It is vital that Labour does well in these elections in the run up to 2015. We need at all costs to get rid of this Tory led Coalition government which is destroying the NHS and public services. To do this we need a Labour Government that will be as bold, radical and reforming as in 1945-1950".

Please also vote for Jason Anderson, Mike Davey and Jonathon Slater (and not the Miserablist One) for National Labour Link Forum (see next post).

Why a Living Wage is not enough

It may seem just a little churlish on Christmas Eve to try and take anything away from this very worthy article by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, on the “imperative for a Living Wage”. This is also at a time that it seems likely that in the public sector at least, the Living Wage will become a reality for all directly employed and contracted staff.

Yet I think it falls on me to be a bit of a Bah! Humbug! Christmas misery guts on the issue.

While anything that increases the amount of money being put in the purses and pockets of the low paid should be welcomed, it will not get rid of the evil of low pay and poverty.

The Living Wage level is set right on the poverty line. There is no element for any saving. Nothing to put aside for being sick or for when you retire.

So if you do become ill while at work and there is no sickness pay you will go straight back into poverty and be dependent upon the taxpayer. The same thing will happen when you retire. With no company pension you will retire and die in poverty. Again, being dependent on the State.

What we need is a Living Wage “plus”. A Living Wage, a Living Sickness benefit and a Living Pension in the public and private sector. The best way to delivery this is by strong trade unions and binding national/sectorial pay agreements.

In the last depression in the 1930’s we had a Tory government introducing such “Wages boards”. Like their modern day counterparts, this was not so much any wish to get workers out of grinding poverty but unlike this lot, they realised that to get the country out of doldrums you had to increase demand. The best way of doing this is to increase the pay of the low paid who will spend any increase (and not give tax cuts to millionaires who will just save it).

A Living Wage in the public sector would (if it happens) be a huge advance but can only be a first step.

Fair Pensions Living Wage Standards (& poverty pay Metropolitan)

Late yesterday I attended most of a briefing by Fair Pensions on their campaign to get a Living Wage for all employees and subcontractors of the FTSE 100.

Check out my twitter feed for 5 November for some of the stuff I found interesting.

Some key points from seminar: Fair Pensions CEO Catherine Howarth, that they had some form of contact with 50% of FTSE 100 companies and 11% are or will be Living Wage employers.

While Rhys Morgan, the Director of the Living Wage Foundation said that 80% of employers who pay a living wage found that quality of work was improved. I was glad that he also quoted Labour Leader Ed Miliband as saying that a Living wage was "important but not the summit of our ambitions". UNISON argues for a Living Wage "plus" - not just £8.30 per hour (as welcome as it is) but also decent sickness pay, pensions, annual leave as well as trade union recognition and collective bargaining.

I had to leave early for a Pension committee meeting.

It is also rather ironic that during the "Living Wage week" that UNISON is running a campaign against Metropolitan Housing Association, which claims to be a charity and responsible employer.  Yet it paid £412,000 to get rid of its former CEO, while at the same time planning to pay its care workers less than a living wage and employ part time staff on poverty rates, so their their wages will be topped up by the taxpayer. How completely disgusting and shameful.

If you work for Metropolitan or want to show solidarity sign the Petition here and read the comments by staff who in 2012 face being forced below the poverty line not above.