Publications
Publications
- 2017
Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices
By: Matthew Taylor, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol and Paul Broadbent
Abstract
I was not the only person appointed to the Review. My fellow Review team members, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol and Paul Broadbent have not only been an important source of ideas and wisdom throughout the process but have led in engaging with key groups of stakeholders;
respectively, entrepreneurs and business, the legal profession and enforcement agencies. This project may sometimes have been referred to as the Taylor Review and I may have been the public face of our work, but we would not have been able to produce this report or to
have engaged nearly as many people without the time and energy invested by Greg, Diane and Paul.
The day to day work of the Review, researching and developing the detail of our recommendations, planning and delivering our ambitious engagement process, negotiating with officials in other departments, putting up with the often unreasonable expectations of the Review Chair; these are among the tasks that have been performed with diligence and skill by the team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. We received strong support from a wide variety of people in the department at many levels, including Secretary of State Greg Clark and his ministerial team. Officials tend to remain nameless and faceless to the public but I would like to pay particular tribute to the commitment and insight of the core team of Paula Lovitt, Jessica Skilbeck and Tony Thomas, I know that they have worked tirelessly to deliver this ambitious and wide ranging report on schedule.
From the outset I was determined that the Review process should be open and engaging. We held public hearings around the country, Review members and officials hosted innumerable round table and small group discussions, across just about every week of the Review’s ten month life I have made speeches to audiences small and large, specialist and general. At a time when we sometimes see scepticism towards policy making processes, I have been encouraged and inspired by the positive, constructive and thoughtful response our work has received from people ranging from employment lawyers to gig workers. Not everyone has agreed with our emerging ideas, but just about everyone has been supportive of our efforts and respectful of our aims. Furthermore, and, of course, this may now change, I am grateful to the journalists who have reported our work – ranging from national correspondents and broadcasters to the authors of specialist blogs – who have with very few exceptions reported and discussed the Review’s progress in a responsible and informed way.
I will continue to make the case for better work as an individual and through the RSA (I should also thank the Society’s Trustees and Fellows for allowing me effectively to be a part-time Chief Executive since last October), but with the publication of this Report the work of the Review is complete. It now falls to the Prime Minister, the Government and Parliament to decide how to respond to our recommendations.
The Report includes recommendations for specific measures we would like to see enacted as soon as possible, it makes the case for longer term strategic shifts and, overarching all of this, issues a call for us as a country to sign up to the ambition of all work being good work. From time to time people have asked me what as Chair of the Review I would see as success. While I would be proud to see our recommendations enacted and our strategic proposals fully debated, more than anything I hope this Review will come to be seen to have won the argument that good work for all should be a national priority.
If policy makers and the public come to recognise the vital importance of good work to social justice, economic dynamism and civic engagement then the efforts of the Review team and all who have supported us will have been richly rewarded.
The day to day work of the Review, researching and developing the detail of our recommendations, planning and delivering our ambitious engagement process, negotiating with officials in other departments, putting up with the often unreasonable expectations of the Review Chair; these are among the tasks that have been performed with diligence and skill by the team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. We received strong support from a wide variety of people in the department at many levels, including Secretary of State Greg Clark and his ministerial team. Officials tend to remain nameless and faceless to the public but I would like to pay particular tribute to the commitment and insight of the core team of Paula Lovitt, Jessica Skilbeck and Tony Thomas, I know that they have worked tirelessly to deliver this ambitious and wide ranging report on schedule.
From the outset I was determined that the Review process should be open and engaging. We held public hearings around the country, Review members and officials hosted innumerable round table and small group discussions, across just about every week of the Review’s ten month life I have made speeches to audiences small and large, specialist and general. At a time when we sometimes see scepticism towards policy making processes, I have been encouraged and inspired by the positive, constructive and thoughtful response our work has received from people ranging from employment lawyers to gig workers. Not everyone has agreed with our emerging ideas, but just about everyone has been supportive of our efforts and respectful of our aims. Furthermore, and, of course, this may now change, I am grateful to the journalists who have reported our work – ranging from national correspondents and broadcasters to the authors of specialist blogs – who have with very few exceptions reported and discussed the Review’s progress in a responsible and informed way.
I will continue to make the case for better work as an individual and through the RSA (I should also thank the Society’s Trustees and Fellows for allowing me effectively to be a part-time Chief Executive since last October), but with the publication of this Report the work of the Review is complete. It now falls to the Prime Minister, the Government and Parliament to decide how to respond to our recommendations.
The Report includes recommendations for specific measures we would like to see enacted as soon as possible, it makes the case for longer term strategic shifts and, overarching all of this, issues a call for us as a country to sign up to the ambition of all work being good work. From time to time people have asked me what as Chair of the Review I would see as success. While I would be proud to see our recommendations enacted and our strategic proposals fully debated, more than anything I hope this Review will come to be seen to have won the argument that good work for all should be a national priority.
If policy makers and the public come to recognise the vital importance of good work to social justice, economic dynamism and civic engagement then the efforts of the Review team and all who have supported us will have been richly rewarded.
Keywords
Future Of Work; Labor Relations; Marketplaces; Employment; Labor and Management Relations; Labor; Markets
Citation
Taylor, Matthew, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol, and Paul Broadbent. Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. London: Great Britain, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2017. Electronic.