Work, capital and the ’administration of punishment’ | MR Online
▻https://mronline.org/2017/09/19/work-capital-and-the-administration-of-punishment
Earlier this summer, the British Prime Minister Theresa May launched the report of the ‘Taylor Review of Modern Employment Practices’: the outcome of a ten-month fact-finding exercise taking in evidence from a range of bodies and organisations across the UK, as well as a series of regional public meetings and ‘innumerable’ roundtables and discussions. Billed by the government as an ‘independent review’ considering ‘the implications of new forms of work on worker rights and responsibilities, as well as on employer freedoms and obligations,’ the report culminated in a ‘national strategy for work’ claiming to ‘enable a significant shift in the quality of work in the UK economy.’
At the heart of the Taylor Review was the notion of a ‘good work economy’: one building ‘on the distinctive strengths of our existing labour market and framework of regulation; the British way.’ And from the outset it bombastically championed a labour market which it described as ‘rightly seen internationally as largely successful,’ as well as lauding the ‘flexibility’ that ‘is a key contributor to [its] positive performance.’ Despite stating that its measures would ‘tackle exploitation in the labour market’ then, it actually appeared more interested in strengthening this labour market model’s dominant trajectory. And this was as unremarkable as it was unsurprising. The review was led by a former policy advisor to Tony Blair; and as one among many of its critics pointed out, given that the four-strong panel also included a solicitor whose firm advises employers on industrial relations and a Deliveroo investor who ‘didn’t sell his stake in the company until four months after the review began,’ many had low expectations from the start. Indeed, as one expert in industrial relations succinctly put it, one of the main outcomes of the entire process was to encourage the government ‘to merely carry on doing what it is already doing – coaxing, encouraging, cajoling and exhorting employers to be nicer and better to their employees for their own sake as well as those of the employees – but all without the force of law.’