David G. Blanchflower

There is no clear evidence that part-time workers are being unjustly
treated. Many of them enjoy a satisfactory degree of protection under
our legislation, and in many cases there are sound economic or
commercial reasons for applying different terms of employment to
part-time workers as compared to full-time workers. This is a fact
which part-time workers are ready to accept as a consequence of the
nature of their work. In our view, arrangements between part-time
workers and their employers are best left for voluntary agreements
either individually or through collective bargaining where that is
available ( Letter from the Secretary of State for Employment). ¹

One of the major features of the British labor market in recent years has
been both an absolute and a relative increase in the number of part-time
workers. Between June 1971 and March 1988, the number of part-time
employees grew by 55 percent, whereas the number of full-time em-
ployees fell by 18 percent. Recent forecasts suggest that the prime source
of employment growth in the next few years will come from part-time
jobs. It is particularly appropriate, therefore, to examine the character-
istics of Britain's part-time labor market. A substantial body of literature
already exists on why individuals choose to work part-time, and on the
type of work they do ( Elias and Main, 1982; Ballard, 1984; Martin and
Roberts, 1984a; 1984b; Robinson and Wallace, 1984). However, relatively
little is known either about the type of work places in which part-timers
are employed or the industrial relations characteristics of such work
places. To examine these issues, we make use of data from two large-
scale representative surveys of establishments ² undertaken in Great

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