Activities

Institute members are involved in a variety of other activities and events.

2022-23

In August Anthony Rafferty spoke on a panel at a Royal Society of Arts (RSA) event on Basic Income in the North where Mayor Andy Burnham gave his commitment to pursuing a micro-pilot trial in Greater Manchester.

2021-22

Miguel Martinez Lucio became one of the first Fellows appointed to the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA). The Fellowship was announced at this year’s conference and recognises Miguel’s outstanding contribution to industrial relations research and scholarship.

Debra Howcroft became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Debra's research examines technology and workplace change and she will be contributing to the Future of Work programme at the RSA.

Jill Rubery was appointed to a new advisory panel on the future of work and employment. ReWAGE (Renewing Work Advisory Group of Experts) is a SAGE-style expert advisory group on work, and consists of a select group of senior UK academics and researchers from universities and research institutes across the UK. The group has funding from the ESRC and forms part of a major review into the future of work in the wake of the pandemic which has adversely affected the labour market in many ways.

June 2022: Jill Rubery took part in a Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter podcast, Chatter about working parents: Creating family friendly workplaces.

March 2022: As part of International Women's Day Jill Rubery and Caitlin Schmid took part in an AMBS online event 'Is pay transparency the answer to closing the gender pay gap?'. Jill and Caitlin also led a workshop for the CIPD HR Fellows’ Forum ‘Is pay transparency the answer to gender pay equality?’

March 2022: Anthony Rafferty was the invited speaker at a Thought Leaders round table dinner hosted by BASF at Stockport Town Hall on the topic of ‘hybrid and the future of work,’ discussing the people management, equality and sustainability issues surrounding remote and hybrid working. The event was attended by CEOs and directors of high profile employers in the GM region including BASF, Siemens, and Arup.

February 2022: Miguel Martinez Lucio took part in a conference presenting the key findings of the SODITREC research project and their implications for European Social Dialogue.

February 2022: Jill Rubery joined the Global Development Institute for lecture of 2022, Putting People First. She, Khalid Malik, Robert Skidelsky and John-Paul Fitoussi discussed how policies about social and economic recovery post pandemic must aim to 'put people first'.

February 2022: Jill Rubery, Caitlin Schmid, Abbie Winton and Eva Herman took part in the GM4Women2028 annual event, revealing its latest scorecard data to see how Greater Manchester is faring for gender equality in the last 12 months.

February 2022: Caitlin Schmid spoke at the Women and Work All-Party Parliamentary Group on pay transparency and gender pay reporting.

January 2022: Emma Banister and Joanna Wilson presented a research paper on 'SMEs and the opportunities and challenges of 'life-friendly' employment practices' at the CIPD Applied Research Conference. Kashfia Ameen presented her work 'Do codes of conduct improve the health and safety of workers in the Bangladeshi garment industry?'.

December 2021: Sheena Johnson and Kara Ng spoke at the CIPD Wellbeing at Work conference, on the psychological effects of conflicts, bullying and exposure to violence and aggression at work. Building psychological safety and reducing harassment at work

December 2021: Jill Rubery presented a webinar on 'The complexities of fair wages' for the Industrial Relations Unit (IRRU), Warwick Business School.

December 2021: JIll Rubery, Damian Grimshaw, Tony Dundon and Gail Hebson took part in took part in a Manchester Industrial Relations Society meeting organised in conjunction with the Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester and the CIPD, remembering and reflecting on the work and contribution of Professor Mick Marchington to the academic study of human resource management.

November 2021: Jill Rubery and Jenny Rodriguez took part in a panel discussion at the Equality Pay Trust Equal Pay Conference, 'The future of equal pay'. The conference was an opportunity to contribute to the 'Bargaining for equal pay' toolkit. The 'Achieving equal pay in your workplace' toolkit was launched in Spring 2022.

November 2021: Jill Rubery was interviewed for the World of Work show for the International Labour Organisation conference.

November 2021: Jill Rubery contributed to a policy briefing Putting employment on the levelling up agenda for the ReWAGE expert advisory group.

Fernanda Teixeira was one of a team of students who took part in a University Collaboration Labs project with the NGO ‘She leads for Legacy’ to learn more about barriers to senior leadership and career progression of Black Professional Women in the North West of England. Their findings were published in a research report The Safe Place: Building a safe space for active and effective listening in November.

Caitlin Schmid, together with colleagues at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London (and in partnership with the Fawcett Society), ran a UN Foundation funded project investigating the effectiveness of the gender pay gap reporting regimes in six countries (including the UK). The report, Bridging the Gap, was published in October.

Sheena Johnson and colleagues from the Thomas Ashton Institute wrote a report, Keeping the UK Building Safely: a scoping study for the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on transmission and environment. The report described a scoping study aimed at improving understanding of the construction sector's efforts to build a 'COVID-secure workplace.

2020-2021

July 2021: Emma Banister commented in an article for BBC News about the uptake of paternity leave amongst men and the resultant persistence of gender inequality in early years childcare.

May 2021: Tony Dundon was cited in the Financial Times, commenting on improving employment in the care sector given advances in technology. See: ‘Booming social care sector offers the chance to create better jobs’, Financial Times, 19 May

March 2021: Jill Rubery, Eva Herman, Caitlin Schmid and Abbie Winton produced a briefing note for the GM (Greater Manchester) 4Women's Employment Action Group, looking at the challenges for working women in the wake of the pandemic.

February 2021: Jill Rubery and Eva Herman took part in a fringe event at the TUC Women's Conference, discussing GM4Women2028 and the employment elements of the recently published scorecard.

February 2021: Karen Niven shared her insights on empathy in the workplace in a blog for Diversity and Inclusion Leaders.

February 2021: Jill Rubery and Isabel Tavora took part in a webinar for the European Social Observatory (OSE) on ‘Gender equality and in-work poverty: which role for the EU’.

February 2021: Jill Rubery was cited in a major parliamentary report Unequal Impact? Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact, highlighting how existing gendered inequalities in the economy have been ignored and sometimes exacerbated by the pandemic policy response.

January 2021: Anne McBride joined a panel of experts from industry and academia at the Aster Group World of Work roundtable sharing their insights and experiences on diversity in the workplace.

Debra Howcroft co-authored a report on working from home (WFH) for the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC). The Covid-19 and Working from Home Survey was based on responses from more than 3,000 UK workers, the majority of whom were normally based in offices prior to the pandemic. It was carried out by Professors Phil Taylor and Dora Scholarios (University of Strathclyde) and Professor Howcroft (University of Manchester) and revealed some of the challenges associated with working from home.
While a majority of workers of wanted to spend two days or less in the workplace there was also compelling evidence that WFH is not desirable for a significant minority.

2019-2020

May 2020: Tony Dundon presented seven recommendations calling on shares from automation to sustain better equalities for the Future of Work to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee and the House of Commons Select Committee. You can read the report or watch the meeting.

April 2020: Jill Rubery spoke at a panel discussion at the ILO on Closing the Gender Pay Gap.

Sheena Johnson's research on the health and wellbeing of professional drivers has led to the development of the Age, Health and Professional Drivers' Network. Most recently the research team has produced a set of ten best practice guidelines.

Information about the work of our institute members based in the School of Social Sciences can be found on the Gender, Work and care website.