The meaning of the terms precarious work and vulnerable workers

This paper is a work in progress. Our research questions include the issue of whether the two terms are inextricably linked. Are those in precarious work more likely to be vulnerable workers? Are vulnerable workers more likely to be in precarious work than others? Are workers made vulnerable by being in precarious work? Our first step is clearly to understand what is meant by these two terms in the work context and perhaps to further refine any definitions

A study of the implementation of the Acquired Rights Directive in the United Kingdom and other member states of the European Community.

The Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings. businesses or parts of businesses was approved by the Council of Ministers on February 14 1977. It fell to be transposed into national law within two years. In 1979 the Labour Government in the United Kingdom was defeated and a new Conservative Government assumed office. In 1981 the Government transposed the Directive into UK law with great reluctance. Thus a flawed European Directive was transposed into inadequate Regulations by a reluctant Government. The advent of the Conservative party to power resulted in a change in Government policy away from partnership with the representatives of employees and employers to a policy of de-regulation and an attack on the strength of the trade unions. A series of Employment Acts during the 1980s transformed industrial relations within the country. Within this changing environment the Acquired Rights Directive appeared as a paradox, as its intention was to increase protection available to employees in the event of a transfer. At the same time the European Court of Justice gradually defined and widened the scope of protection offered by the Directive. The changing nature of industrial relations in the United Kingdom has been in contrast to that of other Member States of the European Community which are studied here. These Member States are examined as a contrast to the UK approach. Additionally the European Community has been developing its relationship with the representatives of employees and employers. There has been a process of creating a social dialogue at Community level and the role of the social partners has been of increasing importance. A central theme of this thesis is that it is this contrast between the approach of the Community and Member States, on the one hand, to the approach of the United Kingdom, on the other, that has contributed to the problems experienced with the Directive. It is likely that problems will also occur with the new Acquired Rights Directive unless there is a short term change of approach by the United Kingdom. In the longer term, it is argued, there needs to be an acceptance by the Community of the diversity of the Member States so that any such conflicts can be avoided in the future

The gig economy and the future of work

This is a review of what has become known as the gig economy; its size and characteristics. The article suggests that there is little that is new as far as employment is concerned and that it is just another aspect of more flexible working

Variance of the decay intensity of superdeformed bands

We present analytic formulae for the energy average and variance of the intraband decay intensity of a superdeformed band.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, presented at the VIII International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions in Moscow (Russia) on June 17-21, 200

Working in the UK without a default retirement age: health, safety and the oldest workers

This article considers the impact on individuals seeking, or in continuing work, and on organisations needing to manage older workers of the abolition of the default retirement age. Organisations will need to develop policies to cope with increasing numbers of workers in their late 60s, 70s and beyond. Here, we focus on the need for employers to plan for an ageing workforce in respect of the health and safety issues which will result from employing increasing numbers of older workers

Evaluation of Effective Astrophysical S factor for Non-Resonant Reactions

We derived analytic formulas of the effective S astrophysical S factor,S^eff for a non-resonant reaction of charged particles using a Taylor expension of the astrophysical S factor and a uniform approximation.The formulas will be able to generate generate more accurate approximation to S^eff than previous ones

Sparrows can't sing : East End kith and kinship in the 1960s

Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963) was the only feature film directed by the late and much lamented Joan Littlewood. Set and filmed in the East End, where she worked for many years, the film deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Littlewood’s career spanned documentary (radio recordings made with Ewan MacColl in the North of England in the 1930s) to directing for the stage and the running of the Theatre Royal in London’s Stratford East, often selecting material which aroused memories in local audiences (Leach 2006: 142). Many of the actors trained in her Theatre Workshop subsequently became better known for their appearances on film and television. Littlewood herself directed hardly any material for the screen: Sparrows Can’t Sing and a 1964 series of television commercials for the British Egg Marketing Board, starring Theatre Workshop’s Avis Bunnage, were rare excursions into an area of practice which she found constraining and unamenable (Gable 1980: 32). The hybridity and singularity of Littlewood’s feature may answer, in some degree, for its subsequent neglect. However, Sparrows Can’t Sing makes a significant contribution to a group of films made in Britain in the 1960s which comment generally on changes in the urban and social fabric. It is especially worthy of consideration, I shall argue, for the use which Littlewood made of a particular community’s attitudes – sentimental and critical – to such changes and for its amalgamation of an attachment to documentary techniques (recording an aural landscape on location) with a preference for nonnaturalistic delivery in performance