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Marx, Keynes and the future of working time
This paper re-examines the different visions of the future of working time offered by Marx and Keynes. While Marx and Keynes differed radically on some fundamental matters, they agreed that society would benefit from reducing work time. The idea of society using technology to curtail work hours was a [...]
A Four-Day Working Week: its Role in a Politics of Work
From a fringe idea with limited wider support, the goal of a four-day working week has moved into the spotlight in contemporary policy debates. Indeed, a growing number of businesses have agreed to pilot a four-day working week. This article examines what the turn to this goal means for [...]
What impact did Furlough Policies have on Workers’ Mental Health?
Ioulia Bessa on new research comparing the wellbeing of those who experienced reduced working hours, or who stopped work completely, with those who continued to work full-time.
How to make automation work for workers
David Spencer argues that if workers and society rather than big tech companies such as Amazon are to benefit from automation, they need to have a larger influence and stake in it.
Amazon still seems hell bent on turning workers into robots – here’s a better way forward – David Spencer in the Conversation
Professor David Spencer has written a new article for The Conversation about ongoing strikes by Amazon workers protesting about pay, long hours and surveillance systems.
Wage Theft and the Struggle over the Working Day in Hospitality Work: A Typology of Unpaid Labour Time
Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Through a detailed, qualitative study of workers’ experiences in London hotels, a novel typology is developed that reveals how managers extract additional unpaid labour time through wage theft. The article argues that both the legal definition [...]
Furloughing and COVID-19: assessing regulatory reform of the state
This article assesses regulatory reform of the state in the context of the move to furloughing in the UK. It establishes that furloughing was a successful response to the COVID-19 crisis, partly because it challenged the traditional UK crisis response of non-state intervention in the labour market. Furloughing prevented [...]
Automation and Well-Being: Bridging the Gap between Economics and Business Ethics
Some economists now predict that technology will eliminate many millions of jobs and lead to a future without work. Much debate focuses on the accuracy of such a prediction—whether, or at what rate, jobs will disappear. But there is a wider question raised by this prediction, namely the merits [...]
Furloughing and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in the UK: Managers’ experiences and perspectives
We report initial findings from a unique survey of managers on the practice of furlough, their experiences of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and workplace change during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study draws on an online survey of managers in the UK with responsibility for staffing (HR managers, [...]
Lighter work for all
The goals of both better and less work require us to rethink and reorganise work as well as technology, and to adopt new ideas about what it means to work and live well in society.