ABSTRACT
Rethinking Construction (Construction Industry Task Force, 1998) has been a catalyst for renewed debate about what British construction must do to improve itself. The report has led to a number of initiatives, one of which is ‘respect for people’, intended to address the need to make people a key component (‘driver’) of improvement. This chapter explores the importance of people in construction. It argues that even though the recognition of the importance of people is welcome, it must be seen in the context of industrial relations in construction over the last two hundred years. An analysis is carried out which suggests that an initiative such as ‘respect for people’ can be viewed as an attempt by employers to deal with the threat of increased power by workers. The current lack of skilled workers may be viewed as a direct consequence of the preceding twenty-five years. Construction firms, in an attempt to reduce cost – still a major component of the ‘Egan agenda’ 1 – vigorously engaged in ‘contracting’ as a means to shift risk to individuals who were encouraged to become self-employed. As a result, long-term improvement through training, education and recruitment of apprentices was severely curtailed. Construction, especially when compared to other industries, was seen as ‘backward’ (Ball, 1988). However, some of the other industries most notably motor manufacturing and retailing have recently been criticised for their treatment of people. It is against such a background that ‘respect for people’ has emerged. The key question that this chapter seeks to answer is whether ‘respect for people’ is part of sustainable cultural change in construction or simply what will be a short-lived attempt to control wage levels.
