ABSTRACT
Flexibility is promoted as a means to an end, that end often being the reduction of unemployment. Flexibility has come to mean deregulation of the labour market. The 1985 White Paper on Employment ditched the post-war consensus that Governments had a 'moral' responsibility to promote low unemployment, by claiming that the role of government was to create an environment in which enterprise could flourish. This was shorthand for weakening worker security. Low wages are often accompanied by the worst working conditions and the least job security. Their place in the wage hierarchy will also affect their view of the way others see them, and hence their self respect. It is not difficult to imagine a set of policies that might serve to increase security. The Government could make it unlawful for profitable companies to dismiss any worker in order to increase the profits of the company, or to increase bonus payments to senior staff or to pay dividend to shareholders.
