The Working Lives Research Institute (WLRI) is a centre for research and teaching
We emphasize the way changes in work are experienced and shaped by workers and workers’ organisations, recognising the centrality of race, gender, sexuality and disability to their experiences. In acknowledging that work is contested and the subject of political choices, the Institute aims both to further academic understanding and to inform and support the policies of trade unions, social moveme
03/06/2015
The WLRI office is closed on 4th June due to strike action, see here: https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/content/london-met-staff-walkout-over-job-losses
London Met staff in walkout over job losses Staff at London Metropolitan University will hold a one-day strike this week in a row over job cuts
15/05/2015
Nina Sahraoui is one of our very own Marie Curie Early Stage Researchers and a PhD candidate at London Metropolitan University. Here she makes a bold and important contribution to the 'unskilled migrants' debate:
"The situation in social care hints that the economy needs those migrants who are labelled ‘unskilled’, secondly that migration policies actually create ‘unskilled’ migrants through the multiple barriers to the recognition of migrants’ qualifications and finally that the skills hierarchy itself is particularly misleading."
See Nina Sahraoui's staff webpage here: http://www.workinglives.org/staff/current-staff/nina-sahraoui.cfm
Why we shouldn’t speak of ‘unskilled’ migrants anymore | Migrants' Rights Network (MRN) Nina is a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher and PhD candidate at London Metropolitan University. Her doctoral research focuses on migrant workers’ experiences in elder care in London, Paris and Madrid. Nina had previously worked as Project Officer in the Rabat School of Governance and Economics in…
06/05/2015
Work placements don't always give students the best chance of a job University courses that include a year-long work placement don’t help all students. We need to focus on other, more practical ways, of developing skills
26/03/2015
Still relevant today as it was a year ago: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/soccit/How-you-can-end-unpaid-internships-in-Parliament/
How you can end unpaid internships in Parliament Welcome to our current NUS Connect website. We are in the process of moving content to our new BETA website. We will be using both websites until July 2015. For more information and to give us feedback as we develop the new site visit this page.
19/03/2015
Following International Women's Day and the start of the TUC Women's Conference today, the TUC publishes a new report on the effect of recession and austerity on women workers http://bit.ly/1D5TTQs
16/02/2015
Lovely to read an article which features an interview with WLRI External Associate, Dr Christine Wall, in The Observer yesterday about the campaign to recognise the women who built Waterloo Bridge: "Christine Wall is a construction historian who has researched the bridge(...): “The contribution of men in construction is often invisible,” says Wall. “Women, doubly so.” http://www.workinglives.org/staff/external-associates/dr--christine-wall.cfm http://www.wes.org.uk/content/ladies-bridge http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/15/forgotten-women-helped-build-waterloo-bridge
The forgotten women who helped build Waterloo Bridge Campaigners want blue plaque in honour of female labourers who helped construct Waterloo Bridge
12/02/2015
Thank you to local Labour MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn, for visiting the TUC Library last week. It was a pleasure to show you round the collections. If you are interested in visiting the TUC Library or arranging a tour group visit, get in touch with us at http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/tuc
Yesterday one of our students, Edem Barbara Ntumy from our Faculty at London Metropolitan University was on Sky News encouraging young people to register to vote. Watching this makes us very
05/02/2015
A crucial win for interns in journalism this week: "The [NUJ] chapel is proud to have helped win a proper wage for our interns. By ending the system of offering only a food allowance, FT managers have accepted NUJ arguments about diversity and will be able to recruit from a much broader cross section of society."
FT chapel wins proper wage for interns Interns who work for the Financial Times will soon be paid the national minimum wage, thanks to a deal negotiated by the NUJ.
30/01/2015
Our very own Dr Cilla Ross, a Reader at WLRI for many years who taught (and taken a strong lead) on the DProf in Researching Work, as well as joining many research and teaching projects http://www.workinglives.org/staff/current-staff/cilla-ross.cfm is about to join the Co-operative College in April as their Vice-Principal! Good for you Cilla.
Working Lives on Twitter “Congrats to Cilla Ross, WLRI Reader, soon to be Vice-Principal - Co-op Education and Research http://t.co/WKTTfU6kQQ”
23/01/2015
"InternAware says it's unsure why the education industry - including both private and public sector - is such a serious offender. It's possibly because classroom experience is such a key part of teacher training."
There are 21,000 unpaid workers in the UK - they're interns Getting work experience has become an expensive roadblock, pricing many young people out of jobs they'd be good at.
22/01/2015
The TUC Trades Union Congress Library Collections is a fantastic resource for trade unionists. Use it, or lose it...
Today is the 70th anniversary of a TUC delegation to Greece to advise on the rebuilding of trade unions following the withdrawal of the Axis Powers. See our new blog post to find out more http://bit.ly/1xDN8Ou