Welsh Workers Goodwill

WELSH workers are the most flexible in the UK when it comes to accepting pay cuts to save their colleagues’ jobs.

That is the finding of a major survey of more than 2,500 people by the independent campaign Keep Britain Working.

The research found that 93% of workers in Wales would accept changes in their working conditions to help colleagues keep their jobs and 37% would accept a cut in pay.

It also found a staggering 61% would accept a reduction in hours.

All three figures are higher than any other part of Britain.

The poll is published in advance of Wednesday’s Budget statement, which Gordon Brown has acknowledged needs to be “a Budget for jobs”.

Yesterday veteran Corus blast furnace worker and former Neath Port Talbot mayor Tony Taylor said the poll’s findings came as no surprise.

He said: “We in Wales have undergone a dramatic shift from heavy industry to lighter industries and have had to accept wholesale change in a relatively short time period.

“The inward investment we have enjoyed in Wales in recent years, for instance, is partly a result of the fact employers know they have a flexible workforce in Wales, willing to change and willing to get on with the job.

“The changes in the steel industry, as just one example, have been really, really drastic in the past 10 years alone and changes over 30 to 40 years have been huge.

“But like in other industries in Wales where there have been big changes, Corus workers have got on with it.

“But we are used to changes here now, both demographically and in terms of working practice.

“And the stark truth is we have had to get on with things because the changes have been coming so thick and fast.”

Mr Taylor, of Aberavon, Port Talbot, who works at the town’s Corus steel plant, added: “I really think the attitude of the workforce here puts us at a big advantage when it comes to winning inward investment projects and new jobs.

“It’s still sad of course to see heavy industries steadily declining but that is something we have to come to terms with.”

The survey also found that, across the UK, 31% would agree to lose certain benefits to keep their jobs, 6% would accept a three-month unpaid sabbatical, and 19% would accept a sabbatical on 30% pay.

Three out of five would take on extra responsibilities, while 48% would change their role entirely if it kept their colleagues in work.

However, the survey found such measures needed to “feel fair” to retain support.

If employers asked for sacrifices without making any themselves, 49% of those polled in the UK said they would challenge their managers, while more than one in 10 would take more direct action.

And 3% would go slow at work, 4% would walk off the job or seek redundancy, and a further 3% would consider strike action.

Also, in a separate poll on the Keep Britain Working campaign’s website (www.keepbritainworking.com) more than two in five (46%) said they would consider following the recent Belfast example and occupy a factory rather than accept wholesale redundancies.

James Reed, founder of Keep Britain Working, said: “There seems to be a new altruism at work. If people believe that being flexible about their own employment conditions will help stem job losses, they will take on change and make personal sacrifices – especially if bosses do their bit.

“Indeed people are full of innovative and effective ways to help employers cope with the downturn other than by simply cutting jobs.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/authors/robin-turner/