Unemployment

All organizations want to keep their employees satisfied and motivated to work throughout. They take many measures in order to ensure that their current employees are content with their work and also other professional working in the market are longing to join their firm. Management holds seminars, training programs, does yearly evaluation and goes an extra mile to fulfill all the legitimate demands of an employee working with them. In spite of doing so much, employees tend to disconnect themselves from their current management.

The beginning of a new century has brought many insecurities and anxiety with its self. This trend has taken over almost all the developed and developing countries of the world. Management Crisis Decline, stagnant, slowdown, lull, downturn, financial crisis, these are few words management all over the world are using to avoid the terminology ‘recession’. How ever how hard an organization tends to avoid this word it still can’t be ignored. Managements are forced to shutdown their operation in order to cut cost and meet breakeven. Their crisis is resulting in shape of employee lay offs.

Big organizations tend to lose their very best and most efficient people working with them for years due to the global decline. With the growing inflation every industry is facing a dark sight of their business. From stock market to multi national companies, from banking to advertising, from pharmaceuticals or fast foods all small and big industries are going through a difficult time. Moreover this era seems to be prolonging every day. Due do growing price rises people are finding it hard to meet their ends. Management is faceing the biggest dilemma of laying off their staffs.

It is not something they want to do but it is something that they have to do. Left with no choices most of the managements are making this brutal and difficult decisions. Unemployment rate has been gradually increasing every month (Commercialappeal, October 2008). Local and international operations are being closed down if they fail to meet a balance between expenses and revenues. Many organizations are just meeting the breakeven point. Employers have this strong pressure of reducing staff in order to survive this critical circumstance that no one knows how deep it will be and also how long will it last for.

It is the most difficult task any management is facing these days. They try every alternative method like cutting perks and benefit, overtime and bonus in order to retain their workers. Only in the worse condition when left with no choice they end up terminating their staff. These layoffs reveal the seriousness of the prevailing economic recession and wearing off a management’s norms that protected a permanent employee to be fearful about his job. This current era was unimaginable by managements a few decades back (Pantagraph, n. d. ). Due to non profitability management fails to retain their best employees.

It has affected both blue collar and white collar jobs. People with good educational background and the once with their high school diploma, management disaster has affected all the boundaries. Management is also turning work hours into part-time. It is predicted that management will be forced to cut down approximately 1. 5 to 2 million more jobs in the year 2009. Employment rate will also reach 9 – 10% (Yahoonews, 2009, Jan). This economic slum has given shocks to nearly every management. Their worse nightmare has come true. In this situation work of five employees are being done by two employees.

Companies have become under resourced and employees have become under paid and over worked. In these circumstances it is extremely important for a management to have support of their employee to help them get through this lull. It can not be passed unless management and workers work together to achieve a combine goal. Employees have lost their interest in work. Their motivation level has gone down. They have nothing to look forward to. Workers have started looking for jobs already in this situation. Their insecurity has led every employee to keep looking for other options with at least some job security..

Employees have lost all trust from the management. Employees that are retained also fear the vicious job slash everyday. They are mentally prepared to be asked to leave. This situation has actually made working conditions worse of a business. It is highly important for management to earn trust of the remaining employees so that they do not lose concentration from their work. Employees should know that they will not be affected from this recession. This will help them keep paying attention to their work. They will remain focused to their current jobs. The company should treat their employees as families.

If by freezing bonus, cutting down reimbursement, holding appraisals and promotions jobs can be saved, this strategy should be adopted without a second thought. This will improve a public image of a company and brand. In case of lay off being very important, management should do an internal appraisal with the help of Human Resource department and get rid off unproductive employee. This will keep a check on approved head counts and a company will have strongest team. While you are cutting your head counts and laying people off it would be nice to give a little raise to remaining employees.

This strategy will gain employees motivation level and their dedication towards work. It is very essential for a management to keep a check on their competitors. If they end up laying off some talented and useful employee, he can be negotiated to join your organization. A good resource can always replace other employees and do work more competently (Practicalsmallbusiness, n. d. ). An intelligent management should predict the coming crisis and have ready policies to fight them. Human Resource Department should be trained to tackle this situation. Nothing can be more difficult then losing employees who make and break an organization.

This is probably the worse patch for any management where they are forced to be ruthless in order to keep the business running in the industry. Cost cutting methods can be both very selfish and effective at the same time. A balance plan can guide a management to walk through this tremendously tricky period. Employees should be motivated towards their work in all time and all situations regardless of economic conditions. Conclusion Every dark night has a bright morning. This recession will not last for too long. Once the economy stabilizes globally all the unemployment will vanish slowly.

People will come out of their fear shell and start spending and demanding. This era might have prolonged a little too long but is defiantly not permanent. A wise management will always have it loyal employees by them through thick and thin. A well planned management will right strategies will not be effected too much by this economic recession.

References Commercialappeal. (Internet). Wade, Don, (2008, October 04) Unemployment. Accessed on February 5, 2009 http://www. commercialappeal. com/news/2008/oct/04/the-economic-crunchunemployment-crisis-at-work/ Pantagraph.

(Internet). Tuna, Cari. In recession, companies kiss their no-layoff policies goodbye. Accessed on February 5, 2009 http://www. pantagraph. com/articles/2009/01/04/money/doc495f914ec9873714643524. txt Practicalsmallbusiness. (Internet). Best Recession Employment Practices. Accessed on February 5, 2009 http://practicalsmallbusiness. info/recession/best-recession-employment-practices/ Yahoo news. (Internet) Aversa, Jeannine. 2009, January 9. Job losses hit 2. 6 million as layoff pain deepens http://news. yahoo. com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/financial_meltdown

In New Zealand by Altering Working Weeks If I could change one thing about the world of business and organizations, it would be to alter the generic 40 hour working week for New Islanders. I would define this key strategic issue in two particular contexts; the first of which being how the generic working week is structured, and the second being the average amount of normal weekly hours a full time worker must work to maintain a livelihood. It is imperative that both areas of this Issue are addressed in order to benefit employees, societies and corporations.

This can be done by combating society Issue of growing unemployment to generate a sustainable employment future for all kiwis, while still benefiting employers by Increase efficiency and effectiveness within our economy. This particular Issue Is Important to me because I have now been unemployed for seven months and have found it extraordinarily difficult. I often worry about how my children will handle employment in the future along with the inevitability that it is to only bound to be worse for them. Increasing population vs.. Creasing amount of jobs is to blame for this rising trend towards future unemployment. Population is increasing at an exponential rate which is driving unemployment up, but is not as easily addressed as the issue of decreasing Jobs. It is widely known that globalization has been a number one driver in unemployment. Fifty percent of Jobs that were available thirty years ago no longer exist due to technological advancement or ‘machines taking over’ (Rotten, 2013). Jobs are increasingly being replaced by robots to improve efficiency, and as technology advances; so too will this issue.

I worked as a checkout operator at New World Metro for five years and during this time we Introduced self-service lanes, which dramatically decreased New Worlds need for checkout staff. I was trained as a self- service supervisor and my Job was to look over eight of these machines and help if any issues arose. Technically, my job replaced that of eight checkout operators. It is not to say that people were fired during this time of transition, but when people left; many were not replaced due to lack of demand.

This example from my prior work experience can be applied to majority of firms these days. It is an issue to be addressed in all industries, at both ends of the spectrum, from supermarkets to law firms. Many have predicted computers to take the place of lawyers in the next 10 – 20 year because of their capacity to hold information from millions books (Lick, 2013). However, Increasing technology Is not something that can be, nor should be stopped, as It helps economies grow and become more efficient and effective. It Is Improvements In the way we work, that may be able to address this Issue.

There are various ways we can look at combating unemployment and increase efficiency and effectiveness within the New Zealand structured. New Zealand currently adapts an eight hour a day, five day week. This leaves workers with only two free days a week implying 30% free time, which Just does not feel like enough. It is depressing to think that as a human we spend 70% of every week of our entire life working. Changing too 10 hour: 4 day ratio means free time is increased to 42. 8% of every week; which is a whole lot closer to half way.

Using this structure, workers can still work the same amount of hours while earning the same income but gaining an extra day of free time to spend doing the things they enjoy. This will improve each individual’s general mood, thus creating happier irking environments, which could generate more efficient and effective workplaces. It is also inevitable that work places would become more efficient under this system, as projects would get completed at a faster rate. Companies would gain two extra hours a day of an individual’s time to complete each project, thus completing Jobs at a higher frequency in the same amount of working hours.

The 10 hour: 4 day week could also impact positively on unemployment, as companies gain an entire day of working hours where cover must be found a week. Fortunately this extra day does not mom at the expense of decreasing anyone else’s hours, thus an entire new Job is formed. This idea comes under the assumption that majority of companies are open seven days a week. Consequently, each organization would need to increase their Weekend staff to cater for this extra day. Additionally, this structure could also help job-share equality in the workplace; implying two days each for each worker.

Therefore this 10 hour four day week would not only be beneficial for full time employees by increasing their free time, and Job share employees by creating an equal split, it would also benefit corporations by increasing productivity and efficiency, and society by decreasing unemployment. The next area to look at when addressing issues surrounding unemployment and effective workplaces, would be the average amount of normal weekly hours full time workers work. New Islanders currently adapt a 40 hour average working week, with many (particularly in trade areas) working 48 hour weeks.

There seems to be a trend towards employees working larger amounts of hours as there is a higher demand for these kinds of workers. Unfortunately, this system favors corporations at the expense to employees and societies. This is an area which must be addressed in order to maintain equality teen the three. If we continue with our current system, issues surrounding this inequality will only get worse. Results could possibly lead to a future where our children would be considered (in today’s society) as slaves.

The number one way to address this would be to somehow prove to organizations that decreasing employee’s average hours, would benefit their company in the long run. We can look to countries like Germany and France for particular examples of decreased hours benefiting economies. France currently adapts a 35 hour working week with longer holiday periods. They work the least in the world but have one of the highest productivity rates, working less but working better valuing quality over quantity (Businesswoman’s, 2013). Germany on the other hand, also adapt a 35 hour working week and maintain a low unemployment rate of 5. % (Rheostat, 2014) compared with New Sealant’s 5. 9% (Businesses, 2014). The British Economics Foundation makes fair point in their book time on our side’ that the optimum working resources, reducing greenhouse gas, benefiting employee’s general health and fix unemployment by creating new Jobs. I particularly agree with the issue of benefiting employee general health. I have previously argued that increasing employees free time days will improve their mood, but will also improves their general health, whether it mental or physical.

It is evident that SSH accidents increase as an individual’s amount of hours worked increases, stress and fatigue being general causes (OCHS, 2012). This is neither an efficient or effective way of working and is a particular issue in trade industries, as many opt for increased hour working weeks to keep up with demand. Companies should decreasing employee’s hours in order to decrease work place accidents in order to promote efficient and effective workplaces. A final point to note is that, decreasing the average working week will generate new jobs which is the number one issue at hand in my argument.

Altering the generic 40 hour working week is key to combating unemployment and increase efficiency and effectiveness within the New Zealand economy. We can do one of two ways; how the working weeks are structured and by looking at how many hours people work. I argued that in re-structuring to four ten hour days provides far more benefits for employees, societies and companies than five eight hour days in a working week. My final argument proved that the inequalities between these three parties must be dressed now in order for future generations not to be taken advantage of and this can be addressed by decreasing working weeks.

I feel that there is a high likelihood that measures to alter working weeks will be addressed in the future, as issues surrounding increasing population vs.. Unemployment due to globalization grow. However, barriers to addressing this would surround individual’s right to choose how much they want to work. As the working economy gets more competitive people will want to do more to get on top. If that means working more, than this issue has the potential to get a lot worse. References Businesswoman’s. 2013, 12 13). Is the 40-hour Workweek Too Long?

Preparation for Assignment 3HRC

A new manager is starting in the organization shortly. You have been asked to provide a ten-minute presentation that will give the manager some understanding of the organization in preparation for their start. The presentation may be made one-to-one or to a larger group.

The information you provide should include:

• the purpose and goals of the organization a list of the main products and services of the organization
• an identification of the main customers
• an analysis of a minimum of 4 external factors and their impact on the business activities of an organization
• the structure and at least 4 functions of the organization
• an explanation of how these different functions work together within the organization to optimize performance
• an identification of the culture of the organization and at least 2 ways this affects operations

Purpose and goals

The purpose of our organization is to give support and advice to the public who are in need of welfare. Our goals are to get people into work and to help claim the right benefits; giving the best possible service provided by our knowledgeable in house advisers. We provide an integrated service through a single point of contact and focus on work as the best way to lift families out of poverty, to raise incomes, and to combat social exclusion.

Main products and services

The products we offer are JSA, ESA, Pensions, and Income Support but the list doesn’t end there. We help with Carers Allowance and other means-tested benefits. We offer services and advice to all our customers which include internal customers in other departments within our organization.

Main customers

We have an extensive customer base our direct customers are the Public. We also have Employers(providing jobs and training), Agencies, Providers who help our long term unemployed to work, Local Councils, Schools and Colleges, Training establishments, The Army, Navy the list goes on and all of whom have a role to play in the welfare to work agenda.

There are many external factors that have an impact on us its quite vast so I’ll stick to the main causes:

1. The Recession… re-educating the public on how to find work and applying a different outlook on what jobs are available in our immediate industrial area.
2. Redundancies… mean more claimants; increase in workload which in turn will mean learning new roles within the departments and consolidating our procedures to cope with the rising of unemployment.
3. New employers create work for our customers so we have to be on the pulse of what’s happening in our local industries. This also has an impact on on-off flow and workload again creating more work within our establishment to maintain records of our customers.
4. Any government legislation change has a big impact on us with new learning skills being implemented within our departments and getting the right information fed down to us from management so we can deliver the changes to the public as accurately and as quickly as possible. Structure of the organization + 4 functions.

Our Structure is of a Hierarchical type. We have many departments of which are led by a site. Manager and departmental managers who hand off to line managers to our individual teams. We are monitored by performance and performance issues to get the right balance. We make sure we are up to date with all new changes in procedures and policies and deliver them to the public. We need to maintain the delivery of our business to succeed in helping to get the economy back on track. We have a responsibility to progress and achieve and highlight any areas where good practice has not been met. The DWP and Jobcentre Plus have to promote disability and equality, race and gender, and good customer service. How the functions work together. These functions promote a good working practice to deliver a strong and diverse workforce.

This maintains the delivery of our business as a whole and monitors the performance of the organization. Culture of the organization and 2 ways this affects operations. The Jobcentre is a key part of the Government’s strategy for welfare reform. It brings together the services of the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency to provide a single point of delivery for jobs, benefits advice and support for people of working age. We have everything under one roof giving benefits and employment advice, a personal adviser service to help people back into work, and work-focused interviews for all new benefit claimants of working age. All Claimants have the support and encouragement to move towards independence and work. We are flexible, innovative, and always have ongoing learning to deliver excellence in customer service.

Apart from legal immigrants holding jobs in almost all industries of the United States, there are ten to twenty million illegal immigrants holding approximately twelve to fifteen million jobs in the country. In other words, illegal immigrants represent around eight percent of the U. S. work force today. Between four to six million jobs held by illegal immigrants are serving the underground economy. The United States is foregoing around thirty five billion dollars each year in income tax collections because of such jobs.

What is more, the government of the United States does not seem to be taking very strict action against illegal immigrants and their means of livelihood as it is understood to be hooked on inexpensive, illegal labor, while deferring costs of the provision of public services to them (Justich and Ng 2005, p. 2). Of course, domestic workers of the United States do not agree with this stance of the government.

After all, increasing supplies of immigrant workers lower the real wages of native-born workers if immigrant workers are not highly skilled enough to inspire domestic workers to attain necessary skills to compete so as to increase their wages. Undoubtedly, illegal immigrants are contributing tremendously to the economy of the United States. These people often take up less-skilled jobs, and their wages are lower than those of the U. S-born laborers.

Furthermore, studies have shown that when the United States tightens border control thereby making it more difficult than before for illegal immigrants to enter the country, the economic growth of the nation turns into economic sluggishness. As an example, a drop in the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico in early 2001 coincided with the onset of a recession in March 2001 (Orrenius 2004). Research has also revealed that between the year 2000 and 2005, employment of U. S workers between the ages, 16-34, was drastically reduced, even as the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the nation dramatically increased.

The total number of native-born males and females between the ages, 16-34, also rose during this period. However, these native-born individuals could not find jobs, seeing that the immigrants had taken up jobs in the United States by the millions (Howell 2007). Thus, immigration seems to have a negative impact on the U. S. worker when he or she cannot find employment. Immigrants are known to settle for lower wages, so therefore companies across the United States cut costs and raise revenues by hiring foreign-born workers. Immigrant workers from developing countries continue to be attracted to the United States.

Settling for low wages in the U. S. is completely acceptable to them, seeing that wage levels in their own countries are typically lower than the lowest wage rate in the country still referred to as the superpower in the twenty first century. By coming to the United States in great numbers, thereby increasing the supply of labor, undocumented immigrants reduce the real wage rate in the U. S. in any case. This reduces opportunities for native-born workers to find jobs that would satisfy them in terms of earnings. The legal immigrant worker, on the other hand, is welcomed by the U. S. economy on the basis of his or her superior skills.

The U. S. continues to naturalize skilled foreign-born individuals who are expected to contribute to economic growth (Messerli 2008). Domestic workers that do not learn the skills that the legal immigrant worker possesses are at a loss in the face of this immigration flow. After all, native-born workers would have to settle for low paying jobs if they do not possess the skills that the immigrant worker had learned before entering the United States. Studies have further shown a drastic reduction in recent years in the number of African Americans who were previously performing low skilled jobs.

Because undocumented immigrants demand lower wages than the native-born population of the United States – both white as well as African – all native-born workers of the U. S. seem to be equally affected by immigration (Belsie). Furthermore, the native-born U. S. worker must now face two different types of competition. As mentioned previously, the U. S. worker must learn the skills that the foreign-born workers have learned in their home countries in order to hold higher paying jobs. Secondly, the U. S. worker is presently compelled to demand a wage rate that is lower than the wage rate demanded by immigrants.

All those who are willing to be paid as little as possible are bound to get jobs. The U. S. worker is therefore forced to choose between a life of unemployment and employment that pays little. Of course, the foreign-born worker is at least partly responsible for controlling inflation by demanding low wages. The U. S. worker may benefit from low inflation induced by the demand for lower wages made by the illegal immigrant. All the same, by making a large number of U. S. workers lose their jobs, immigration is expected to raise the poverty level in the United States.

The most significantly affected persons in this scenario would be the U. S. workers, of course. Nevertheless, the government of the United States continues to believe that since native-born workers are not available in sufficient numbers in a variety of industries, e. g. farming, immigrants are a blessing for the economy. Moreover, the government claims that domestic workers and foreign workers do not truly compete. This is because the native-born worker is generally unwilling to perform many kinds of work, e. g. farm work, even if he or she is offered higher wages (Johnson 2006).

Domestic workers have greater opportunities to find satisfying work, so therefore they tend to apply for prestigious as well as stable and less strenuous jobs as opposed to farming (Kind of Work 2004). Thus, many have claimed that foreign workers, especially from low wage countries, are indispensable to the farming community of the United States (Johnson). Without these workers, consumer prices in the United States would rise, forcing the nation to increase its exports of agricultural products and close down the domestic farming industry in the end.

Despite the claim of the government that the foreign-born worker does not threaten the employment of the native-born worker, statistics reveal that 1. 7 million young native-born workers lost their jobs at a time when the country allowed in 4. 1 million new immigrants – both legal as well as illegal (Entrants Hurt 2006). Thus, the impact of immigration on the native-born worker seems to be substantial enough to call for policy change. Hipic immigrants – both legal and illegal – are known to be taking up jobs previously held by African Americans (Belsie).

All native-born workers of the United States seem to be equally affected by the onrush of immigrants in recent years. Perhaps, therefore, it is time for the government to consider the negative aspects of immigration on the U. S. economy to boot. At present, the immigrants are known to be aiding the U. S. economy. However, the economy is bound to reach a point where it will not be possible for the U. S. industry to continue lowering wages. Besides, poverty faced by the U. S. worker as he loses his or her job to a foreign worker is an issue that would have to be addressed. The government would have to increase its spending on the U.

S. workers in that case. As it is, spending in the United States has been high enough to create a huge budget deficit. By allowing more foreigners to live and work in the nation, the U. S. is not expected to reduce its spending. Rather, the government needs to apply stringent rules to reduce the number of illegal immigrants at present and in future. If the U. S. government decides to tackle the problem of illegal immigration in the present, the U. S. worker who has lost his or her job to a foreign worker would regain employment. The standards of living of U. S. workers can be maintained at decent levels thus.

Furthermore, although the U. S. economy is said to be hooked on inexpensive labor at present, it is bound to achieve a balance in wages as a result of a new policy on immigration that reduces the number of illegal immigrants in particular. As far as legal immigrants are concerned, their presence in the nation is bound to increase the skills of the U. S. workers, as the latter are presented with competing workers from foreign nations who were admitted into the U. S. on the basis of their superior skills. These workers are irreplaceable as they increase efficiency of U. S. workers.

Once the United States has managed to raise the level of skills as well as efficiency of the native-born workers, the government may decide to reduce the number of legal immigrants too. This would provide further assistance to the U. S. worker, while helping to reduce spending and the budget deficit of the United States. Most importantly, the native-born worker of the United States would be able to earn higher wages if this happens, not only because he or she would have acquired more skills and increased in efficiency through competition with immigrants, but also because there would be fewer immigrants to compete with.

Thus, immigration both lowers and increases wages, depending on whether immigrants are legal or undocumented. REFERENCES Belsie, L, ‘Effects of Immigration on African-American Employment and Incarceration’ article in National Bureau of Economic Research available at http://www. nber. org/cgi- bin/printit? uri=/digest/may07/w12518. html. Entrants Hurt 2006: ‘Entrants Hurt Low-Skill Men, Study Shows’ article in The Arizona Daily Star (28 Nov 2006) available at http://www. jobbankusa. com/News/Employment/entrants_hurt_low-skill_men. html. Howell, DR 2007, ‘Do Surges in Less-Skilled Immigration Have Important Wage Effects?

’ article in Border Battles (8 Mar 2007) available at http://borderbattles. ssrc. org/Howell/. Johnson, B 2006, ‘The Need for a Fundamental Rethinking of Immigration Policy’ article in Immigration Policy Center (12 Jul 2006) available at http://immigration. server263. com/index. php? content=t20060712. Justich, R, and Ng, B 2005, ‘The Underground Labor Force is Rising to the Surface’ article in Bear Stearns Asset Management (3 Jan 2005) available at http://www. bearstearns. com/bscportal/pdfs/underground. pdf. Kind of Work 2004: ‘What Kind of Work Do Immigrants Do?

’ article in Migration Policy Institute (21 Jan 2004) available at http://www. migrationpolicy. org/pubs/Foreign%20Born%20Occup%20and%20Industry%20in%20the%20US. pdf. Orrenius, PM 2004, ‘U. S. Immigration and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold’ article in Southwest Economy (Nov-Dec 2004), Issue 6, available at http://www. dallasfed. org/research/swe/2003/swe0306a. html. Messerli, J 2008, ‘Should America Maintain/Increase the Level of Legal Immigration’ article in Balanced Politics (8 Nov 2008) available at http://www. balancedpolitics. org/immigration. htm.

The Liberal government implemented a number of reforms some of which were helpful to the public and some of which were not. The Liberal welfare reform legislation was grouped into five main categories. The first of these was the Young people, this included the Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, and the Children Act 1908. The second group was the Old people there was only one reform in this group, however it was a very significant one, the Old Age Pensions Act 1908.

The third group was the countries Sick people, again this only included one reform, the National Insurance Act Part 1 1911. The fourth category was the nations’ workers, this included the Workmen”s Compensation Act 1906, the Coal Mines Act 1908, the Trade Boards Act 1909, and the Shops Act 1911. The fifth and final category was the counties vast Unemployed faction, this included the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 and the National Insurance Act Part 11 1911.

The reforms were not accomplished over night, they introduced the reforms over a relatively long period of time. The Liberals introduced several reforms for children”s health, they initiated school meals (one per day), medical inspections, and the children”s charter. Since education became compulsory the teachers began to notice that lots of children were coming to school hungry, dirty or ill. Therefore in 1906 the government introduced legislation that compelled local government to provide free or subsidised school meals for all “poor” children.

Most of the credit for this new law is accredited to two reports which were published in the wake of the Boer War: The Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland (1903) and the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. The introduction of these meals was not the be-all and end-all, by 1912 over half the local authorities had still not set up a school meals service. This reform was important for two main reasons.

Firstly because it was the first step away from schooling and into the concept that welfare benefits could be granted to the poor without them having the debt or disabilities associated with the poor law. Secondly it was a step towards recognition that parents were not wholly responsible for their children”s undernourishment. Also that, with public support, needy children could be well cared for at home and did not need to be put into public or voluntary care. The second Liberal reform for Young people was the introduction of school medical inspections under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907.

The Government did not want this Act to be implemented because they felt they could not afford to treat the chronic health problems which would inevitably be discovered. However, administrative pressure from Robert L. Morant, the permanent secretary of the Education Board, who was in turn influenced by Margaret Macmillan forced the government to take action. This reform was particularly helpful because the Board of Education set up a medical department, and the gloomy reports from doctors led to the introduction of school clinics from 1912. These clinics were very good at identifying defects and illnesses.

On the other hand the cost of treatment was often too great for some families and their children rarely received treatment. The final reform introduced by the Liberal Party for Young people was the Children”s Act of 1908, which later became known as the ‘children”s charter. ” This legislation made it illegal for parents to neglect their children. There were several extensions of this which dealt with specific circumstances such as-Children under 16 were forbidden to smoke or drink and stiff penalties were brought in for shops which supplied them with alcohol of tobacco.

This Act had no real significance as most of its finer points were contained in the parents morality or the two previous Acts, it only really served as a follow up to the main Acts. The next main reform introduced by the Liberal party moved away from Young people and to the opposite end of the scale with the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. Basically the Liberals introduced a state pension for all people over seventy who had worked all their lives and could no longer work and they complied with the conditions- which were not too strict.

This Act was the culmination of over 20 years of discussion of the topic of poverty among the elderly and it came about for two main of reasons. The first and in many peoples opinion the most important was the example of the monumental German state insurance and pension scheme. The second was that leading figures such as Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Booth had taken up the cause. The government miscalculated how many people would claim the pension. They had estimated 500,000 when actually 650,000 people applied and by 1914 this had increased to nearly a million.

This fact show that the pensions were badly needed and wanted by Britain”s elderly community. Just how grateful people were for this pension is displayed by this quote “When the Old Age Pensions began, life was transformed for such aged cottagers. They were relieved of anxiety, and when they first went to the post office to draw it tears of gratitude would flow down their faces. Therefore we can see that people really did want state help but were “too proud to wear the badge of Pauperism. “

The next reform dealt with the countries sick people, this was the National Insurance Act Part 1. After Lloyd George had completed his inspection of the German social insurance scheme, he was left in no doubt that Britain needed a much more comprehensive system. He was presented with immense pressure from the opposition such as friendly societies and doctors, however he was determined to build the scheme and not be bullied into submission. As a result of the opposition he had to modify his original scheme accordingly.

It was basically an extension of the pension scheme and the concept was that the richer elements for the country should pay more so the poorer elements could contend with difficulties when old or sick. This budget was passed in 1910. This had the same effect as the pension scheme though on a smaller and less consistent scale. The next category for the Liberal reforms was the Countries workers, the Liberal government passed four Laws which are stated in introduction, they sought to improve working conditions, these included minimum wage, fewer hours, etc.

These measures constituted a significant improvement for millions of workers, many of whom had no one to speak up for them. The fifth and final category was the unemployed. Up until the turn of the century unemployment was still seen partly as a moral problem of individual idleness and partly as a seasonal problem for certain industries such as shipbuilding and construction. Few people were willing to accept that it may be out of the individual workers control as a result of the lack of wide ranged evidence.

The Labour Exchanges Bill was passed in September 1909 as a result of two reports and a book advocating their establishment. The basic idea was that a Labour exchange would allow employer and employee to register their requirements at one central location and could therefore have them met. They also had detailed information of job vacancies. By 1914 there were 430 exchanges throughout Britain and 3000 people were provide work through them every day so they were pretty important in relieving Britain”s unemployment problem. The second of the reforms for the unemployed was Unemployment Insurance.

This scheme was worked out be Llewellyn Smith, the permanent secretary for the Board of Trade, and it was essentially Part 11 of the National Insurance Act 1911. By 1915 2. 3 million workers were insured. Admittedly this was a small proportion of the total working population, however it was accepted as the beginning of a much more comprehensive system. Between 1906 and 1911 the Liberal Government introduced all of the above reforms, this impressive list of social reform measures adds up to a significant shift away from minimum government and Laissez Faire.

Many Historians argue that the current welfare state finds its origins in the Liberal reforms. This view is justified when one considers that old age pensions, safeguards against unemployment and illness are the basis of the modern welfare state. Consequently many historians believe that the Liberal reforms were extremely limited in scope and failed to deal adequately with the considerable welfare problems of housing and they did not attempt to set up a national health service.

Moreover the reforms which were introduced were very limited: Pensions too low; health insurance did not cover employee”s family; and unemployment insurance only applied to seven trades. Obviously the effectiveness of the Liberal welfare reforms is debatable. By the standards of the time they were accepted as fundamental actions for social reform-some more so than others. On the other hand, looking back with our frame of reference (modern welfare Britain), the Liberal reforms appear to be severely inadequate. However, it is important to remember that both Lloyd George and Winston Churchill saw their reforms as only the first step.

AI and the Future of the Workplace talks about the possibilities of replacing human workers with robots in the near future. Robotisation has the capability to affect employment, reallocate human workers and change business operations as it will play an increasing role in the workplace, making unemployment a big concern in the industry.

Businesses need to introduce smaller AI components on their system to be able to get used to the technology and be able to adapt to newer AIs easily. Stokes said that AI is an opportunity to explore new things and it should not be feared. He also said that it will generate more opportunities for employment as workers are needed to coach, assist and enhance the thriving AI and machine learning industries. On the other hand, businesses may experience cultural change after the implantation of robots in the workplace and it requires strong leadership to make AI an opportunity and not a threat.

Reskilling of employees is also needed for businesses to be able to keep up with technology’s demands and focus their employees on skills that cannot be done by computers. AI’s effect and role on the business industry depends on how people perceive, welcome and approach its idea.

Based on what I’ve read I was thinking that AI is not designed with the idea of replacing human workers. Stokes said that robotisation will play a major role in the workplace and we all know that the workplace is composed of human workers. If robotisation is to be embedded in the industry, there is a high possibility of rise in unemployment. Having robots in the system is an edge for businesses since AI has these capabilities that are beyond the human capacity.

With the existence of robots, human workers will be of little to no use for businesses and it can result to unemployment. Stokes also said that AI is not something to automatically fear and I am quite disturbed with this remark because it has this tone of finality and I believe that you cannot simply say that AI should not be feared. AI may be an opportunity for businesses to thrive but for employees, AI means being replaced by technology and eventually, unemployment.

Did the liberal Welfare Reforms lay the foundations of the Welfare State? This essay will assess how far reaching the liberal Welfare Reforms were and how far they can be said to represent the foundations of the Welfare State. The Welfare State is when the Government takes care of the health and well-being of all its citizens from “cradle to grave”. The liberal Welfare Reforms did represent a move away from “laissez-faire” towards a programme of social reform. The liberal reforms concentrated on five main groups.

These were the young, introducing school meals and medical inspections with the Education Act 1906 and 1907, the old with the Old Age Pensions Act 1908, and the sick who were helped with the first part of the National Health Act 1911. The employed were given compensation for injuries sustained at work with the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906 and other things such as an eight hour day for miners due to the Coal Mines Act 1908. A half day off was also given to shop assistants following the Shops Act 1911 and there was a minimum wage for “sweated industry” workers with the Trade Boards Act of 1909.

The unemployed were given help to find work with the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 and unemployment insurance which was brought in with the second part of the National Insurance Act 1911. The first social reforms to be carried out by the Liberals were concerned with children and dealt with the provision of school meals and the medical inspection of all pupils. Now that education was compulsory it was made clear that many children were often coming to school hungry, dirty or suffering from ill health.

A study carried out in a poor area of Dundee in 1905 showed that children were significantly underweight and under height when compared with the national average. The report said “… a large number of children who should be under medical supervision” and “… they cannot apply their minds to lessons while their stomachs are empty”. The Boer War in 1899 had highlighted the problem that Britain had with the physical condition of its citizens. When recruiting soldiers to fight in the war, the height requirement had to be dropped from 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 2 inches so that Britain would have enough soldiers.

The leader of the Social Democratic Foundation (SDF) claimed at the time that 50% of the working-class recruits from towns and cities had been unfit to fight due to their poor physical condition. To bring Britain back to a good physical state, the Government decided it was best to start with children and did this with the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906. Much of the credit for this Bill lies outside the Liberal Party. There was a lot of public concern created by reports carried out in the wake of the Boer War.

One of these was a report carried out by The Royal Commission of Physical Condition in Scotland and the other was carried out by The Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. A labour backbencher called William Wilson introduced the school meals proposal which was so popular that the Liberals decided to give it a chance; this was then called the Education (Provision of Meals) Act. The act allowed local authorities to take steps as they saw fit to provide school meals for children either through voluntary work or using the local authority money.

Parents were to pay for school meals if they could afford it, however, if they could not the local authority could pay a halfpenny. The number of school meals provided by the Government started at 3 million in 1906 and eventually rose to 14 million in 1914. Within a short period of time a Government funded Welfare system was beginning to replace many of the efforts made by charities. There was still a long way to go though as in 1912, over half of the local authorities had not set up a school meals service. In 1907 there was another Bill passed in order to take care of the health of school pupils.

This was the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act which was not popular with the Liberal Government at first as they knew that health inspection in schools would lead to public demand for government funded medical treatment for everyone and the Liberals did not think that they could afford to do this. However, Robert L Morant, the Permanent Secretary of the Education Board during 1906 had been convinced about the need for school medical inspections through contact with a woman called Margaret Macmillan.

She said “for the good of the children and the public, what subjects are taught and how much they are taught do not matter anything like so much nowadays as attention to the physical condition of the scholars”. In 1912 the Board of Education started to give grants to local authorities to set up school clinics to provide all pupils with healthcare. Although this was a huge step towards a Welfare State it was not a foundation as these acts would not have been passed had Elementary education not been made compulsory in previous years.

The Old Age Pensions Act in 1908 was the conclusion of over 20 years of debate surrounding the subject of poverty amongst the elderly. Lloyd George the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 1908 made it his job to get the Old Age Pensions Bill through the House of Commons and although it passed through the House of Commons with very little opposition. However, the House of Lords was slightly more difficult to tackle as the majority of Lords still believed in “laissez-faire”. When eventually the Bill passed through all of its stages, it became law in 1908 and came into effect in January 1909.

The Act entitled people over the age of 70 to between 1 shilling (5p) a week and 5 shillings (25p) a week of pension. However, this amount of money still fell below what Rowntree considered to be the poverty line by 2 shillings (10p) a week. There were also a few exceptions. Any 70-year-old was entitled to the pension as long as they were British and had been a resident in the UK for over 20 years, they had avoided imprisonment in the past previous 10 years to receiving their pension and they had not regularly avoided work.

The Government had miscalculated how many of the public would need a pension as they estimated that there would only be around 500,000 but by 1914 there were 1 million pensioners in Britain. This made the Government very quickly aware of the poverty that the elderly people in the country were facing. Although the Old Age Pensions Act 1908 was a significant step towards the Welfare State, this was not part of the foundations as things such as Friendly Societies had been there before to help the Elderly. The sick created another task for the Liberal Government.

On returning from Germany, Lloyd George immediately started work in setting up a way to help people who couldn’t earn money on their own as they suffered from illness. However, he again came up against opposition from friendly societies but also came up against Trade Unions and Doctors. As Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer he was also very aware of the cost of bringing in National insurance. In order to pay for the National insurance scheme, income tax was made more progressive in that the more money you earned, the more money you paid in tax.

Lloyd George had to account for all of this in the 1909 budget, however, this was rejected by the House of Lords and the Parliament Act 1911 had to be passed to limit the power of the Lords. The Peoples Budget was passed in 1910 which meant that the Government now had the money to start its social welfare programme. The health insurance scheme was contained in part 1 of the National Insurance Act 1911, this was a compromised Act and there was a lot of work still to be done to help those at a disadvantage in society.

To stop the opposition to the Act from Trade Unions, Lloyd George decided to include them in the system along with Friendly Societies who would help him with his new system. When Lloyd George came out with his proposals, the British Medical Group had very strong objections to them. They did not want what existed between the Doctors and the Friendly Societies on a national scale where the Doctors felt they were being paid too little money to treat working-class patients.

When Lloyd George went to meet with the Doctors he had to tell them that Friendly Societies were too powerful for him but offered the Doctors a higher contract fee of 4 shillings (20p) per patient and 2 shillings (10p) to cover any drugs costs, this was much more than the Friendly Societies had been willing to give and therefore, when the Act was passed, many of the poorer Doctors joined and were able to double their income quickly. Although this was a better way of helping the sick, it was not one of the founding principles of the Welfare State as there were Friendly Societies there before who did almost the same thing.

Unemployment was still believed to be the fault of the individual who was unemployed up until the 1900s as many people wouldn’t accept that if a worker was unemployed it may be due to circumstances out with their control. The causes of unemployment were hidden by the belief in Samuel Smiles book on ‘Self-help’ which basically said that if a person was unemployed it was there own fault and they had to get themselves out of unemployment by hard work and belief that they could get a job. This was believed for a long time as nobody had accurate information on how bad the problem actually was.

Part 2 of the National Insurance Act covered the unemployed. This was a contributory insurance scheme where workers paid 2? d, the employer paid 2? d and the Government paid 3d per week. Insurance was compulsory for trades such as Shipbuilding, building construction and sawmilling as these were seasonal trades which had a repeated pattern of unemployment. Labour Exchanges had two roles, the first was to allow the unemployed to find work and the second was to pay out unemployment benefit to those who were insured.

In order to receive unemployment insurance the worker had to go to the Labour Exchanges and register as unemployed, he would then go back there to collect his money. On a weekly basis he would receive 7 shillings (35p) a week for up to 15 weeks of the year. However, if the worker had been dismissed from work following unsatisfactory work or bad conduct then he would not be entitled to any benefit as it was his fault that he was unemployed. Within 2 years of unemployment insurance starting 2. 3 million workers were insured, however, this was still only a small number of the working-class population.

Although this was not part of the foundations of the Welfare State as the Conservative Government had passed the Unemployed Workmen’s Act before it left office in 1905, this was seen as a much better way of dealing with the problem of unemployment in Britain. The Liberal Government passed four laws which wanted to improve the conditions of workers. These provided compensation for injuries that happened at work. Shorter hours were given to people who worked in dangerous and difficult jobs such as coal mining. This was a good turning point as miners had been campaigning for this for over 40 years.

Minimum wages were given to female workers who were exploited and worked in ‘sweated trades’ such as tailoring, a total of 200,000 workers were affected by The Trade Boards Act of 1909. There was also a half day off and a decent amount of time for meals given to shop assistants who mostly did not have trade unions behind them. The Workmen’s Compensation Act was built on previous Acts of 1897 and 1900, showing that helping the people who were employed had started before the Liberal Government came to power showing that they did not set the foundations of the Welfare State.

In conclusion, the Liberal Government did take a lot of steps towards making Britain a Welfare State such as setting up a national insurance system, a pension system for the elderly when they couldn’t work anymore and tried to tackle social issues with Government intervention. However, they did not stop poverty, medical inspections and school meals were not compulsory for local authorities so education was not up to the standard that it should have been, the workhouses were still there although not as widely used and there was no system of family allowance in place.

Although some historians think that you can see the origins of the Welfare State in the Liberal Reforms, others believe that the Liberal Reforms failed to deal adequately with the welfare of Britain and were not the origins of the Welfare State. The Liberal Welfare reforms did not lay the foundations of the Welfare State but did improve on measures that were already in place.