Ciclo de vida del proyecto

The Secretary of State is completely responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). He is directly responsible for expenditure and management of this department. DWP administrates the State Pension and working age benefits system and provides assistance to:

• working age people,

• employers

• retirees

• families and children

133 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the nation-wide independent supervisory body for health, safety and illness related to workplace. It performs or takes actions in the public interest to cut job-related death and severe suffering across workplaces in Great Britain. However, HSE is sponsored by the DWP, but an executive non-departmental public body (GOV.UK, 2017).

In UK, local council inspects (by special trained team) for routine check regarding the workplace health and safety. If they find any serious hazard for either staff or customers, they will take necessary actions against the company. If anything, minor but still hazardous or something is not correct they will give enough time to correct it.

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) is an independent body which is responsible for advising the ruling party about the National Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage. This is also a non-departmental, advice-giving public body. LPC is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (GOV.UK, 2017). The commission involves:

• Performing wide-ranging research and discussion, and assigning research projects

• Examining related data and strongly inspiring the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to create better estimations of the rate of low pay

• Conducting surveys of businesses in low-paying sectors

• Discussing with employers, employees and their delegates and taking evidence on paper and by word of mouth from a wide range of organizations

• Making information-gathering visits all over the UK to meet employers, workers and representative organizations

Every year the real Living Wage is independently-calculated based on the requirements of employees and their families to survive by Living wage foundation UK which is called real living wage. UK’s current real living wage is hourly £8.75 for the employees who is living outside of London city and who are living in London, their living wage is hourly £10.20 (Living Wage Foundation, 2017). Employers are not bound to pay the real living wage. Employers who are paying is voluntarily and from their humanity point of view. This rate is applicable for any over 18 worker as young people also need the same living expenses as everyone else (Table 9).

134

Table 9: Historical Living Wage Rates (Living Wage Foundation, 2017)

Living Wage Foundation is the centre of the free movement of organizations. They campaign for ahard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. The foundation appreciates and the leadership of responsible employers who make themselves different from other employers by deciding that they will pay a real living wage instead of paying just the national living wage (Living Wage Foundation, 2017). The foundation performs following three things:

Accredit: The foundation offers accreditation by awarding the Living Wage Employer Mark to those employers who pay real living wage to their all staff in London and the UK, or those who haven’t started to pay yet but agreed that from a certain date they will implement. The foundation is also offering a Service Provider Recognition Scheme for those businesses who are trading as third party contractors and they make sure that they are paying real living wage to their own staff and always presents a real living wage choice when submitting tenders (Living Wage Foundation, 2017).

Intelligence: Every year in November, the foundation organises the declaration of the real living wage rates. The rate has been announced on the basis of the best available data about living standards in London and the UK. The foundation also offers guidance and care to real living wage paying employers and service providers, which include guides of best practices, case

135 studies from big companies, model finding contexts and right to get help from legal and HR specialist (Living Wage Foundation, 2017).

Influence: There is a forum for top employers and service providers which is provided by the foundation and offers to openly join the independent movement of organizations and people circularising for a real living wage. Foundation works with Main Associates who bring economic and strategic assistance to their work. Living Wage Foundation coordinates yearly Living Wage Week each November, which is a UK-wide celebration of the Living Wage movement (Living Wage Foundation, 2017).

In January 2016, the Living Wage Commission was established to supervise how the Living Wage rates in London and the UK is being calculated. The Living Wage Foundation employed the Commission which collects information from top employers who are accredited by the foundation, trade unions, public societies and independent specialists. Then the commission analyse the collected information and promotes the aims and objectives of the Living Wage as an achievable target for employers who decided to pay their employees real living wage which will meet their actual cost of daily necessary goods and services. Based on what happens to standards of living in one year, the Living Wage is prepared by a formula. A clear decision-making

opportunity is provided by the commission to discuss and resolve particular decisions about how to combine changes of strategy and new sources of data into the estimation. It also guides the way to cope with the extreme yearly differences from usual increases in living expenses (Living Wage Foundation, 2017).

Purpose of the commission: The main objective of the commission is to supervise how the rate of real Living Wage in London and the UK is being calculated.

Aim of the commission: To generate strong and sustainable rates of Living Wage, on the basis of the best accessible evidence regarding the standards of living in London and the UK.

Responsibilities of the commission: Commission’s responsibilities are as follows; • To provide strong, independent way of calculating the rates of living wage.

• To make decisions about how to combine changes of strategy and new sources of data into the estimation.

• To review the methodology regularly for making sure the living wage continues as complete representative of life in the UK currently and utilizes the latest available data on the living expenses.

Activities of the commission: Living Wage Commissions’ activities are as follows; • Meet as essential to analyse development against purpose along with and aims.

136 • Discuss with and take verification from main participants on the possible effect of

strategy and living cost tendencies on the rates.

• Carry out investigations, commission projects and research as appropriate and required. • Recommends to the Living Wage Foundation the methodological matters (Living Wage

Foundation, 2017).

It is not required by law that UK companies have to pay real living wages but still lots of companies pay real living wages which is more than NLW. For people who are getting the real living wage it means full time employees earning the real living wage which is £108 a week in London and £50 a week in rest of the UK more than those on the national minimum wage, so they can afford the things they need to live, like a decent meal, a warmer home and a birthday treat for their children. This implies employees are satisfied with their job and lifestyle. Paying living wages is also good for the companies. Living wage employers think paying living wages had improved the quality of the work of their staff. However, employers are paying living wage for fairness and ethical awareness, consumers also appreciate these companies’ initiative.

UK is a member of International Labour Organization (ILO) and most of the organizations’ code of conducts show the core rules that suppliers and factories must follow to make sure products are made in good working conditions and that the workers, who are related with the production are treated decently and earning a decent salary. This code of conducts is based on the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code, which is itself founded on the International Labour Organization’s conventions and is a worldwide standard code of labour practice (ETI, 2017).

Trade Union has a long history in UK. Today the rights and benefits that workers in UK are enjoying, have been achieved over years and years. It was not very easy, and employees had to go through a terrible experience, in some contexts, reflect the collective action by workers and their unions over two centuries. The backgrounds of the trade union movement can be tracked to the time of the industrial revolution. Britain has been transformed by the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th century from an agricultural and rural society to an industrial production in factories, textile mills and mines based society. In these new industries the conditions of working places were not very good. The situations were often rough, with male and female workers and even children were pushed to work long hours and the wages were very low. The employees did not agree to take these conditions which caused a number of trade arguments throughout the 18th century where labours came organized to solve one-off problems at their workplace. At that time the government was elected by only 3% of the adult population and the voters were only the landowning men. The government, the factory owners, and the media were unfriendly and aggressive towards any grouping or movement of workers to protect their rights. In 1799 and 1800, the Combination Acts passed which described that any type of strike action is illegal. Also

137 Striking was liable to be punished by imprisonment of up to three months or hard labour of two months (GOV.UK, 2016).

Six farming workers for the first time had formed a trade union in March 1834, in the

Dorsetshire village of Tolpuddle. They were under arrest and considered guilty of 'administering illegal oaths' in what was a provisional show. The Trade Union Act 1871 accepted trade unions as authorised beings allowed to protection under the law. However, in 1875 it was only lawful for trade unions to perform efficient action of strike by picketing. Trade unions were in action by the 1880s in the engineering industries and cotton, coal, iron and later in steel manufacturing businesses. Trade unions expanded very rapidly between 1888 and 1918. Ant it started to spread out to inexpert workers and to women employees. In 1979, in the UK, membership of trade union touched a peak of 13 million and then by the end of the twentieth century it dropped gradually. Between 2000 and 2012, the numbers stabilized at around 7.3 million, and started to increase again, specifically among private sector employees. Trade unions still remain among the biggest membership organizations in the country. In 2011, According to Fulton (2015), 27% of all UK workforces were a trade union’ members. Among the members 57% were from public sector and 15% from the private sector. Workers in UK are entitled to join a trade union

wherever they work, and this is established by the Trade unions and the law, UK 2013. This right applicable even a union has been recognised or not by the employers. Employees are secured from being deprived by their employers for being a member of the trade union. It is not legal for an employer to reject a worker to employ or fire because of being a member of trade union and any related activity. By law a worker is not bound to join a trade union. If any employer

recognises union, then members also are entitled to take time off at a suitable time for taking part in the union’s activities which may involve any type of voting on industrial action or voting in elections of union and meeting to discuss important issues (Anitha and Pearson, 2014).

Employment law: Employment law controls the relationship between employers and workforces. Employment law involves what employers can anticipate from workers, what they can include on employees’ responsibility and rights at workplace. Employment laws also cover the legal obligations at work, entire recruitment processes; the terms and conditions of service; data security; breaks and holidays, working hours, overtime and wages; health and safety guidelines; maternal and parental rights; equality based on age, sex, ethnicity and sexual orientation; discipline, grievance and dismissal procedures; whistleblowing on ethical issues; employment tribunals; TUPE regulations; and redundancy (CIPD, 2016).

5.5 Ethical Practises in Managing Labour of Big Brands and Multinational