This book provides a cutting edge look at the experience of worker representation in the employment relations of workplace health and safety. Examining the extent to which existing arrangements deliver results, this book reflects on whether the effectiveness of worker representation is eroded or enhanced by current regulatory and organizational constructs.

Originally published in 1986, the 1970s and 80s saw the emergence of the 'the new working class' or 'new middle class'. This book is an authoritative study of the 'white collar workers' relationship with their unions and analysis of their newly designated class. The authors drew extensively on original fieldwork and verbatim accounts from technical workers and foremen in industry. White Collar Workers examines the particular circumstances of different groups of workers and their functions in relation to capital and labour. It analyses changes in the composition of union membership and the effect of these changes on the structure and policy of unions.

In an attempt to make sense of changes that have taken place in the workplace worldwide, especially since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the two concepts of Fordism and Post-Fordism are often invoked. These volumes perform a valuable service to social scientists in bringing together important previously published contributions which explore this field. In their selection of articles, the editors range from the Fordism of Henry Ford to its oft-touted modern management successors - Japanisation and Toyotaism, flexible specialisation, lean production and McDonaldisation. They also provide useful criticisms of each of these developments. The editors have written an authoritative introduction which offers an informative discussion of the issues.

Although the activities of large industrial and financial corporations dominate economies around the world, their impact on the distribution of employment and the use of new production techniques is much disputed. In this two-volume set, the editors examine the changes which have taken place in the organization of work and the nature of employment over the last half century. The articles selected for these volumes address the issues of work, skills and employment, with particular focus on the manufacturing sector, which has seen rapid change in working practices, and on the expanding service sector, where new kinds of jobs entail serving customers and working in the money, banking and financial services, call-centres and the public and government sector. Many of the studies challenge the utopian view of post-Fordist work regimes and raise questions about the effectiveness of post-Fordist concepts in accounting for the variety of changes in the world economy. In a new introduction, the editors offer a comprehensive overview and discussion of these concerns.

As the title Safety or Profit? suggests, health and safety at work needs to be understood in the context of the wider political economy. This book brings together contributions informed by this view from internationally recognized scholars. It reviews the governance of health and safety at work, with special reference to Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three main aspects are discussed. The restructuring of the labor market: this is considered with respect to precarious work and to gender issues and their implications for the health and safety of workers. The neoliberal agenda: this is examined with respect to the diminished power of organized labor, decriminalization, and new governance theory, including an examination of how well the health-and-safety-at-work regimes put in place in many industrial societies about forty years ago have fared and how distinctive the recent emphasis on self-regulation in several countries really is. The role of evidence: there is a dearth of evidence-based policy. The book examines how policy on health and safety at work is formulated at both company and state levels. Cases considered include the scant regard paid to evidence by an official inquiry into future strategy in Canada; the lack of evidence-based policy and the reluctance to observe the precautionary principle with respect to work-related cancer in the United Kingdom; and the failure to learn from past mistakes in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

A cutting edge look at the experience of worker representation in the employment relations of workplace health and safety. Examining the extent to which existing arrangements deliver results, this book reflects on whether the effectiveness of worker representation is eroded or enhanced by current regulatory and organizational constructs.

As the title Safety or Profit? suggests, health and safety at work needs to be understood in the context of the wider political economy. This book brings together contributions informed by this view from internationally recognized scholars. It reviews the governance of health and safety at work, with special reference to Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three main aspects are discussed. The restructuring of the labor market: this is considered with respect to precarious work and to gender issues and their implications for the health and safety of workers. The neoliberal agenda: this is examined with respect to the diminished power of organized labor, decriminalization, and new governance theory, including an examination of how well the health-and-safety-at-work regimes put in place in many industrial societies about forty years ago have fared and how distinctive the recent emphasis on self-regulation in several countries really is. The role of evidence: there is a dearth of evidence-based policy. The book examines how policy on health and safety at work is formulated at both company and state levels. Cases considered include the scant regard paid to evidence by an official inquiry into future strategy in Canada; the lack of evidence-based policy and the reluctance to observe the precautionary principle with respect to work-related cancer in the United Kingdom; and the failure to learn from past mistakes in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.