ABSTRACT
From the record of stoppages in the English passenger tire plant, it is apparent that pay and pay-related questions were the principal focus of fractional bargaining. And although managers in factories at Britain and Germany voiced the fear that money was losing its power to motivate workers, little evidence bears this out. In fact, in both places pay remained a consuming, often obsessive, preoccupation; whether workers were working, arguing, or striking, the objective was generally the same: to protect or improve earnings. This chapter explores the implications of the two pay systems for the conduct of labor relations. It was found that there was considerable disenchantment among workers with the constant time-consuming process of shop-floor haggling, inequity, falsification of work records, inversion of customary differentials and lack of security, which are so often associated with conventional PBR systems. Investigations have shown that workers are as concerned with the equity and stability of earnings as they are with their absolute amount.
