02/09/2008
One in four of the UK workforce are not satisfied with their job - and almost one in three (30%) do not feel engaged with their employer, according to a new report from the TUC. The 'What do workers want' study is based on a YouGov poll of more than 2,857 workers, published in the run-up to the annual TUC Congress next week in Brighton.

Nearly half of workers, or 42%, questioned believe they are now worse off because their pay has not kept pace with the rising cost of living. And nearly a third, or 31%, feel they do not get the same pay as people doing similar jobs for other organisations.

But the commonest complaint concerns workloads, with 46% saying the amount of work asked of them has risen.This, in turn, is linked to an increase in both stress levels (39%) and working hours (23%).

Training and progression are other key areas of grievance. While 30% complained of poor promotion prospects, 27% - which if extrapolated to the whole of the working-age population would be equivalent to seven million people - said they lacked training.

14% of those asked - which, if extrapolated would be equivalent to three and a half million people or one in seven of the active workforce - say they have been bullied in their current job. If other findings are extrapolated, just under two and a half million say where they work is unsafe while more than one and half million say they have been unfairly disciplined.

The most commonly reported discrimination is on the grounds of age which is complained of by 640,000. Nearly six million say they suffer from boring or repetitive work.

"There are some challenging figures here for British employers," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, "with a quarter of the workforce saying they are not satisfied with their jobs and almost one in three saying that their employers do not engage with them".

"While most employees are reasonably content with their lot, there is clearly a minority who are suffering from real problems such as bullying, dangerous workplaces and unfair discrimination.

"There may be no magic bullet for improving Britain's productivity, but without engaging staff and providing the training and advancement opportunities they want we do not have much chance".

One in five (21%) said that unions were 'no longer relevant in today's world' and a quarter thought that unions 'held back companies in today's competitive world'.

• TUC report

Sources: BBC, www.PersonnelToday.com