Tuesday, 12th June 2007

Leading workplace analyst David Coats argued that workers in the south of England find the combination of a long commute, rising interest rates and a job they don't like contributes to their "southern discomfort".

But Coats, the former head of economics at the TUC, also argued in a Fabian lecture that workplaces have actually become more secure and better paid for the most vulnerable in his Next Decade lecture for the Fabians. He threw down a challenge to employers and government to improve workplaces.

Challenging many of the myths of immiseration in the workplace, David Coats argued that there are nevertheless serious challenges to be met in improving job quality for vulnerable workers, narrowing the gender gap in pay and making full use of the skills of our workforce.

In an era of declining trade union membership how can these goals be achieved? Is it time for government to play a greater role in ensuring job quality as well as quantity? What would a job quality policy agenda look like? Could such an agenda help to highlight the real dividing lines between progressives and Cameron's "new" Tories?

Read the full speech here