U.K. Working Man ‘Lazy, Time-Waster’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 13

U.K. Working Man ‘Lazy, Time-Waster’

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, April 19 The British working man is “lazy, work-shy and a time-waster,” according to a Royal Commission report released today The charge comes mainly from factory employers, according to the “Daily Sketch," but is also backed by men on the shop floor. It is made in the first nation-wide survey of workshop relations in Britain, carried out by the Government social survey for the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations. The survey reveals that a large proportion of managements and workers agreed there was time-wasting at

work and inefficient labour practices in their plants. The report adds: “The practices most frequently specified included over-long breaks, smoking in the lavatory and bad timekeeping. “Also frequently mentioned were job demarcations, refusal to do alternative work and overmanning.” The report says a third of the workers interviewed said they were too lazy, uninterested, apathetic or had no financial incentives to work harder. “When asked what caused such things, most managers offered explanations which stressed the importance of attitudes to work—laziness, bloody-mindedness or fear of losing the job,” it concluded