More than half of all UK workers (54%) have experienced a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or a loss of benefits since the recession began, according to a survey conducted by the Keep Britain Working Campaign.
The release of the survey of 1,600 staff followed the decision that Honda workers made recently to accept pay cuts of 3% to avoid redundancies. The campaign has argued that the findings demonstrate just how flexible the British workforce has been and how changing working terms has helped organisations avoid even greater job cuts.
Over the last nine months 27% of UK workers have had their pay cut, 24% have had their hours reduced and 24% have lost benefits. While 37% of UK workers have experienced just one of these changes, 12% have experienced two of them and 5% have experienced all three.
Furthermore, two in five workers (40%) have been given extra responsibilities, while one in five have had the nature of their role change within the same organisation. Meanwhile 2% have been offered a semi-paid sabbatical, while 6% have been offered an unpaid sabbatical since the recession began.
James Reed, founder of the independent Keep Britain Working Campaign, said: “The UK workforce has demonstrated unprecedented flexibility during this recession, allowing organisations to explore a whole range of cost-cutting responses other than relying solely on redundancies.”