Valuing labour

The UK construction labour process rests on casual self-employment, output-based pay, rigid trade divisions, low levels of training, and a sharp divide between operative and professional/technical skills. Skill shortages beset the industry and their solution focuses not on employment regulation and a comprehensive industry-wide training scheme, but on importing the necessary skilled labour. It is demonstrated how qualitatively differently construction labour is valued in the UK compared with other leading European countries. These rely on higher skill levels, based on knowledge gained through the training process and on a more stable and collectively negotiated structure of training provision and employment. In the UK, in contrast, labour is not valued according to the knowledge it incorporates but according to an individual's ability to fulfil the task in hand. Training is geared to meeting individual employers' immediate needs; qualifications are not a prerequisite for entry; and labour is rewarded for its product not for its potential. The key features of the UK system that give rise to concern are identified. The ways the UK system needs to change are outlined in order to accommodate sustainable development of the construction process.