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Unpredictable times: the extent, characteristics and correlates of insecure hours of work in Britain
Author(s) -
Felstead Alan,
Gallie Duncan,
Green Francis,
Henseke Golo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/irj.12279
Subject(s) - dismissal , notice , work (physics) , demographic economics , working hours , work hours , representation (politics) , job loss , psychology , labour economics , work intensity , business , social psychology , political science , economics , unemployment , law , economic growth , engineering , mechanical engineering , politics
This article presents new British evidence that suggests that cutting working hours at short notice is twice as prevalent as zero‐hours contracts and triple the number of employees are very anxious about unexpected changes to their hours of work. The pay of these employees tends to be lower, work intensity higher, line management support weaker and the threat of dismissal and job loss greater. In addition, the well‐being of these employees is lower and they are less committed to the organisations that employ them. However, the prevalence of insecure working hours is reduced by workplace level employee involvement exercised individually or through collective representation.