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Critical Perspectives on Youth, Community and Urban Regeneration

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In an insecure post-industrial society working-class young men must forge new youth transitions. This entails rethinking what it is to be a 'man' beyond the world of industrial paid employment. It also involves a reshaping of a whole 'way of life' with the erosion of traditional labour and leisure lifestyles.

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UK service sector growth slows while prices rise

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UK service sector growth slows while prices rise

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Firms in the UK's key services sector raised prices at the fastest pace for nearly a decade last month as they faced higher costs for food, fuel and salaries, according to a survey.

The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) for services also said growth in the sector had slowed.

Growth in new orders cooled as consumers were hit by a "double whammy" of higher prices and weak wage growth.

The services sector accounts for nearly 80% of UK economic output.

The closely-watched PMI reading fell to 53.8 for the services sector in November, down from 55.6 the previous month. However, this was still above the 50 threshold for growth, which the sector has achieved for 16 consecutive months.

'Disappointing portrait'

The report noted a "sharp and accelerated rise in prices" by firms.

The fall in the value of the pound has pushed up the price of imported goods for companies, and the sector has also been hit by changes to business rates and higher salaries after the launch of the National Living Wage.

Duncan Brock, director of customer relationships at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), said: "November's data painted a disappointing portrait of a sector struggling against Brexit-related uncertainty and a weaker economic outlook.

"Businesses could no longer fight against the tide of higher prices for food, fuel and salaries as input cost inflation remained close to its strongest for six years, and businesses passed these increases on to consumers at the fastest rate since February 2008.

"The level of new order growth lost some momentum, as inflation also ate away at household incomes for a double whammy effect on the UK population reluctant to spend," he added.

However, while the PMI service sector survey was weaker than expected, similar studies of the manufacturing and construction sectors have indicated a better performance last month, with activity in the manufacturing sector growing at the fastest pace for four years.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said the surveys as a whole indicated the economy would see "robust growth" in the final three months of the year of about 0.45%.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, also said the figures "suggest that the economy is maintaining a modestly improved performance in the fourth quarter".

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Services price rises 'at near-decade high'

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Firms in the UK's key services sector raised prices at the fastest pace for nearly a decade last month as they faced higher costs for food, fuel and salaries, according to a survey. The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) for services also said growth in the sector had slowed.

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“Differences in living standards between ethnicities in Britain

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“Differences in living standards between ethnicities in Britain

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Amazon 'regime' making British staff physically and mentally ill, says union

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Amazon 'regime' making British staff physically and mentally ill, says union

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Staff at Amazon's UK operation have developed physical and mental illnesses because of the "regimes" they work under, the GMB trade union has warned.

Employees at the online retailer's distribution centres across the UK were under pressure to be an "above-average Amazon robot", the GMB's lead officer for Amazon, Elly Baker, told the Times.

Baker's comments follow a New York Times article that alleged employee cruelty at Amazon's corporate headquarters in Seattle, including gruelling working conditions and harsh treatment of staff suffering personal crises, such as cancer and miscarriages.

In a rare communication to staff, Amazon's founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, defended the company after the investigation was published.

Baker said: "It's hard, physical work, but the constant stress of being monitored and never being able to drop below a certain level of performance is harsh. You can't be a normal person. You have to be an above-average Amazon robot all the time."

Baker said some employees were suffering from musculoskeletal problems, work-related stress and anxiety. "We're seeing this specifically because of the regimes they work under."

Amazon UK has been approached for a comment on GMB's claims.

More than 100 former and current Amazon employees were interviewed for the New York Times's 5,400-word exposé, describing working conditions devoid of empathy and which push staff to their limits in the name of productivity and efficiency.

The article illustrated the alleged poor welfare with anecdotes from employees. One woman with breast cancer was allegedly put on a "performance improvement plan", while another was sent on a business trip the day after having a miscarriage. A staff member with thyroid cancer was also allegedly marked with a low performance score on returning to work and told that Amazon was more productive without her.

Employees' working and personal lives were tracked and quantified, with their movements, productivity and successes or failures being constantly measured, while managers were forced to rate their employees and fire their lowest-scoring workers, according to the article.

Instant replies to emails were expected, even if sent in the middle of the night or the weekends, and employees were apparently encouraged to secretly funnel their back-stabbing or praise through Amazon's "Anytime Feedback Tool".

The interviews described Amazon's atmosphere as one that saw employees actively competing against each other, where the fully committed who were prepared to make sacrifices to get ahead thrived, while others were stamped on.

More than 7,000 staff work at Amazon's UK distribution centres in Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Swansea, Peterborough, Rugeley near Stafford, Doncaster, Dunfermline and Gourock in Inverclyde.

In his message to staff, Bezos, who is worth $49.5bn, said: "The [New York Times] article doesn't describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR."

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Amazon 'regime' making British staff physically and mentally ill, says union

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Staff at Amazon's UK operation have developed physical and mental illnesses because of the "regimes" they work under, the GMB trade union has warned. Employees at the online retailer's distribution centres across the UK were under pressure to be an "above-average Amazon robot", the GMB's lead officer for Amazon, Elly Baker, told the Times.

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Amazon accused of 'intolerable conditions' at Scottish warehouse

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Amazon has been accused of creating "intolerable working conditions" after allegations that workers have been penalised for sick days and that some are camping near one of its warehouses to save money commuting to work.

Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrat leader in Scotland, said Amazon should be "ashamed" that workers at its warehouse in Dunfermline have chosen to camp outside in the winter.

He made the comments after the the Courier newspaper published photographs of tents near the site that it said were being lived in by Amazon workers. It said at least three tents were pitched close to the warehouse by the M90 in Dunfermline and that a man living in one of them had said he was an employee who usually lives in Perth.

A Sunday Times investigation found that temporary workers at the warehouse were being penalised for taking time off sick and put under pressure to hit targets for picking orders. It also claimed that although workers could walk up to 10 miles a day doing their jobs, water dispensers were regularly empty.

Amazon has hired 20,000 agency workers for the peak Christmas season, more than doubling its workforce. Staff have to pay to catch an agency-provided bus to the Dunfermline site.

Rennie has repeatedly called for the firm to improve conditions at its Dunfermline site and said the latest claim "chimes with the feedback I have received from local people over a long period of time".

He said: "It confirms that Amazon have created intolerable working conditions for many. The company don't seem to be interested in keeping workers for too long as they work them until they drop. They have generated an oppressive culture where management and some workers put undue pressure on workers.

"It's time for Amazon to finally change their ways. That means a change to wages and to working conditions."

Rennie said the firm should be "ashamed that they pay their workers so little that they have to camp out in the dead of winter to make ends meet".

Amazon, which has 12 fulfilment centres around the UK, has come under fire in the past for its treatment of workers, many of whom are employed through agencies. Three years ago, an undercover reporter for the Observer wrote about the long hours and physical work carried out for low pay, while more recently unions have claimed that workers are falling ill as a result.

Online job forums have reviews by former workers which describe being expected to "work like robots" and "paranoia with job security". Workers say overtime is compulsory and holidays banned in the busy months of November and December.

When questioned about the tents, Amazon said it "provides a safe and positive workplace with competitive pay and benefits from day one".

It added: "We are proud to have been able to create several thousand new permanent roles in our UK fulfilment centres over the last five years. One of the reasons we've been able to attract so many people to join us is that we offer great jobs and a positive work environment with opportunities for growth.

"We offer associates a range of roles in our fulfilment centres, depending on their preferences. Some roles involve walking a number of miles each day, a fact we make clear during the recruitment process. Many associates seek these positions as they enjoy the active nature of the work. There are many opportunities for people who prefer less active roles.

"As with nearly all companies, we expect a certain level of performance from our associates. Productivity targets are set objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by our workforce."

The company said it analysed wages every year to ensure they were competitive. All permanent and temporary Amazon workers start on £7.35 an hour or more and earn at least £11 an hour for overtime. There are paid 30-minute lunch breaks and subsidised meals. The new national living wage is £7.20 for workers aged over 25.

Water is readily available for staff as they performed their duties, Amazon said, and it has a "fair and predictable system to record staff attendance and take into account individual circumstances".

Michael Newman, an employment lawyer at Leigh Day, said that it was legal for companies to have a policy which meant that workers were effectively penalised if they were off sick. "Absence policies are definitely becoming stricter - one example would be having a bonus or 'attendance allowance' that is then forfeited if the worker is off sick," he said.

"Amazon's policy doesn't seem particularly unusual though - the important thing is to distinguish between days off, and periods of absence. It is usually the latter that counts for unfair dismissal purposes, although many policies look at both how long you are off for, and how many times you are off."

The Labour MP Frank Field, who has been campaigning against poor conditions for self-employed workers, said the government-ordered review into working practices should issue an interim report.

"Inquiries take time but over that time the injustices are growing," he said. " There have been reports on Hermes and Uber done by my office, and now the Sunday Times investigation - there is enough information out there."

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Amazon accused of 'intolerable conditions' at Scottish warehouse

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Amazon has been accused of creating "intolerable working conditions" after allegations that workers have been penalised for sick days and that some are camping near one of its warehouses to save money commuting to work. Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrat leader in Scotland, said Amazon should be "ashamed" that workers at its warehouse in Dunfermline have chosen to camp outside in the winter.

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David Lockwood, who has died aged 85, changed the way British sociologists view and study class with groundbreaking books such as The Blackcoated Worker (1958). Researching the class consciousness of clerical staff from the mid-19th century onwards, he found that they saw themselves as "of different clay" to manual workers. Clerks had greater job security, different workplace experiences and a sense of superiority (encapsulated by the black coats they wore). The book was a rebuke to those on the left who criticised clerks for having a "false consciousness" - failing to realise that they had the same interests as manual workers. It showed that, far from being self-deceiving, clerks did in fact have a unique class position.

Lockwood's approach to class was hugely influential, with researchers subsequently applying it to the study of several different occupations, from coalminers and shipbuilders to farm workers and farmers.

The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure (1969), co-written with his Cambridge colleagues John Goldthorpe, Frank Bechhofer and Jennifer Platt, focused on the newly affluent working class of postwar Britain and examined the claim of "embourgeoisment" - the idea that they were becoming middle class. Lockwood debunked this idea, again emphasising the idea of status: though these affluent workers could now be consumers on a par with some of the middle class, they maintained quite distinct social values, political ideals and lifestyles.

In Solidarity and Schism (1992), his approach to social order demonstrated the deficiencies of both Marxist and functionalist approaches. Marxist thought, which stressed social conflict, did not account for the common values holding society together. The functionalist approach, particularly the work of Emile Durkheim, stressed social consensus, excluding the possibility of disorder or radical change. David's key contribution was to show that any theory of social order requires both a degree of integration - in the form of status - and an element of conflict arising from class.

David's politics and scholarship were shaped by his Yorkshire background. He was born in Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, the youngest child of a working-class family. As he was growing up, Holmfirth, a mill town, found itself in the middle of the 1930s depression. His father Herbert, a dyer, was wounded in the first world war and retrained as a cobbler. He died when David was 10. His stoical mother Edith was left to bring up David on the meagre wages of a cleaner. Although he won a scholarship to the local grammar school, family circumstances forced him to leave and to take a job as a clerk in a local mill (he always insisted that this experience had not influenced him to study clerks).

His academic career came about thanks to national service. Serving in the Army Intelligence Corps (1947-49), he came under the influence of a leftwing corporal in the Education Corps, who introduced him to Marx and encouraged him to apply to university. He subsequently took up a place studying sociology at the London School of Economics.

He graduated in 1952 and within a year he was appointed to a lectureship. He was one of a remarkably talented group of sociology graduate students at the LSE, including Joe and Olive Banks, John Westergaard and Ralf Dahrendorf, all of whom were to make their mark in the discipline. According to AH Halsey, who wrote an essay (Provincials and Professionals: the British Post-War Sociologists) about the group, David was the most impressive of them all.

In 1958 he left the LSE to take up a lectureship at Cambridge University, where sociology was taught as an optional part of the economics tripos. The quality of David's scholarship was influential in the university's eventual acceptance of sociology as a discipline in its own right. In 1968, David moved to the University of Essex as professor of sociology. During this time he wrote a series of theoretical papers, culminating in Solidarity and Schism. In 1976 he was elected to a fellowship of the British Academy and in 1990 to a fellowship of the Academia Europea.

In 1998, he was appointed CBE for his contributions to sociology.

While some may have seen him as a taciturn Yorkshireman, in fact David was a sociable person with a rare ability to engage with all types of people and to put them at ease. He was also endearingly diffident and shy, only truly gregarious with his family and closest friends.

David is survived by his wife, the social historian Leonore Davidoff, whom he married in 1954, their three sons, Matthew, Ben and Harold, and seven grandchildren.

* David Lockwood, sociologist, born 9 April 1929; died 6 June 2014

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David Lockwood, who has died aged 85, changed the way British sociologists view and study class with groundbreaking books such as The Blackcoated Worker (1958). Researching the class consciousness of clerical staff from the mid-19th century onwards, he found that they saw themselves as "of different clay" to manual workers.

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As a call centre worker I saw how employees are stripped of their rights

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As a call centre worker I saw how employees are stripped of their rights

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In the late 18th century, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised a prison, called the panopticon, which would allow a supervisor to watch all of the cells from a single point. The idea was that the inmates, not knowing if they were being watched, would regulate their own behaviour.

The modern call centre has been described as an " electronic panopticon " (pdf) - a place designed in a way that strips workers of their rights. Having spent six months working in one while researching my book, I can confirm this is the case.

In the call centre workers were constantly watched. Every action was logged, from the number of sales made, to the time spent on calls and the length of breaks taken - measured precisely to the second. Because calls were recorded, errors - which were often hard to avoid under such pressurised conditions - were used to discipline and fire workers on the spot.

Adding to the weight of surveillance were gruelling targets. These targets were displayed on whiteboards at the end of each row of desks. A large TV hung from the ceiling showing a running total of how many sales each worker made, ranked in order.

This environment was psychologically draining for many of the workers and created a very tangible feeling of precariousness. This precariousness was used as a managerial strategy to discipline and motivate workers, creating an oppressive, stressful, and exploitative workplace. The workers had to regulate their own behaviour, knowing that at any moment they could lose their job.

The most effective motivator the managers had at their disposal was letting workers leave early if they met their targets. Rather than paying bonuses - or offering a decent flexible working policy to fit in with the employees' lives - the option to knock off a bit earlier was dangled as a carrot, and entirely on the employer's terms. This incentive to escape the workplace perhaps helps explain why there are astonishingly high turnover rates at call centres in the UK.

The spread of precariousness has transformed contemporary work. People do not want to stay in these sort of jobs for the long term, yet at the same time they fear losing them. This fear puts greater power in the hands of bullying and abusive managers, able to engage in spectacle-like punishment, armed with reams of data from the electronic panopticons that watch over us.

With many of the processes in call centres becoming automated, workers face yet another threat to their future job security. But a solution to this precariousness does not have to be limited to stricter employment contracts. When talking about improving working conditions, too often we focus on the issue of pay - important as it is - rather than control. There needs to be opposition to the use of these surveillance methods. Achieving this requires new forms of workplace organisation, experimenting with and updating the best traditions of trade unions.

Work remains the main activity that most of us will spend the majority of our time doing, and so we urgently need to find alternatives to how it is currently organised. The first glimpses of these alternatives come from listening to the voices of precarious workers: hearing the experiences of those at the sharp end of the transformation of work, like those in call centres, and seeing what happens when they start to organise together.
Jamie Woodcock is author of Working the Phones: control and resistance in call centres Looking for a job? Browse Guardian Jobs or sign up to Guardian Careers for the latest job vacancies and career advice

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As a call centre worker I saw how employees are stripped of their rights

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In the late 18th century, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised a prison, called the panopticon, which would allow a supervisor to watch all of the cells from a single point. The idea was that the inmates, not knowing if they were being watched, would regulate their own behaviour.

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Bain and Taylor - Entrapped by the ‘electronic panopticon’? Worker resistance in the call centre 

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Bain and Taylor - Entrapped by the ‘electronic panopticon’? Worker resistance in the call centre 