The Lived Experience of Isolation for Vulnerable Workers Facing Workplace Grievances in 21st-Century Britain

Abstract

In the ‘Warwick Agreement’ with trade union leaders in 2004, the British government pledged support for ‘vulnerable workers’ and developed this policy in 2006. However, there is no policy acknowledgement that weak collective organization is the cause of worker vulnerability. This article is based on a definition of vulnerability as non-unionism and low pay and presents findings based on in-depth interviews with low-paid, non-unionized workers with employment grievances who approached the major British charity providing free advice, the Citizens Advice Bureau. This is framed in a contemporaneous survey of 500 low-paid, non-unionized workers with problems at work, which provides data on the kinds of problems experienced, responses to them and the pattern of outcomes for such workers. The study found a very low level of successful resolution. The significance of the qualitative evidence is that it illuminates the lived experience of isolation and poor resolution among workers seeking external help.