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This study is based on the psychological contract theoretical model. It provides an empirical test of the antecedents and consequences of psychological contract violation (PCV) that was caused by the wage reduction of Portuguese civil servants. Data were collected from a sample of 212 employees who worked in public organizations across different sectors. These positions entailed different functions and were subject to different levels of wage reduction. A Structural Equation Model was used to analyze the data. The results show that employees' attributions of this psychological contract breach are related to their perception of PCV. Furthermore, our findings also suggest that civil servants have two distinct psychological contracts and that the PCV of the employing organization also depends on the PCV of the public institution. Moreover, the PCV of the public institution was found to be the mechanism that explains the relationship between the meaning attached to wage reduction and the PCV of the employing organization. Finally, our findings confirm that the PCV of the employing organization mediates the relationships between the PCV of the public institution and the commitment and turnover intentions of civil servants. Therefore, such results highlight the usefulness of the psychological contract framework in explaining civil servants' reactions to wage reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a broad practitioner’s overview of recent trade union history in the UK, and to investigate organised labour’s prospects in the decades ahead. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a review of relevant literature and trade union documentation from the period 1964 to 2014. Findings – This paper concludes that the past 50 years has been a period of change and turbulence for the movement, and suggests that this is likely to remain the case in the decades to come. Although external political and economic factors will have a significant bearing on unions’ prospects, the paper argues that unions remain powerful agents of change in their own right and that a revival of organised labour is not beyond question. Originality/value – The paper is written with unique practitioner insight from the UK’s trade union centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the complex interaction between contracting arrangements and quality of human resources (HR) practices. It draws on quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence for the adult social care sector in England where most services are purchased by local authorities and delivered by private for-profit and voluntary sector organisations. The study finds sufficient evidence among surveyed care providers that higher fees and partnership-oriented contracting have positive influences on pay levels and quality of HR practices to suggest that better local authority contracting may be an enabling condition for the improvement of employment standards. However, the relatively weak statistical associations suggest other factors mediate, or distort, the anticipated relationship between quality of contracting and quality of HR practices. The type of provider is identified as a key mediator: private, for-profit providers and those managed by a national chain are least likely to distribute the benefits of better quality contracting fairly through improved employment standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study is to provide experimental support for the argument that pay satisfaction has a decisive effect on life satisfaction. There are no studies that explores the relationship between pay satisfaction and life satisfaction. It is hoped this study, which aims to demonstrate the effect of pay satisfaction on life satisfaction, will bring a new perspective to future studies and contribute to the accumulation of knowledge. To accomplish the aim of this study, data from the employees of banks in the city of Elazig were collected. This is a descriptive study supported by a theoretical framework. A survey was used as a data collection tool. The survey includes demographic questions, Diener's "Life Satisfaction Scale" and the researchers' "Pay Satisfaction Scale." The raw data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program, and their frequency distribution, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, factor analysis, reliability analysis, regression analysis, and f and t analyses were done. This study found that participants' levels of pay satisfaction and life satisfaction were generally very low. The mean scores on the scales used were significantly different for certain demographic variables. The effect of pay satisfaction on life satisfaction was found to be statistically significant, positive and at an intermediate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human resources for health represent an essential component of health systems and play a key role to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa face challenges regarding the availability, distribution and performance of health workers, which could be in part addressed by providing effective financial incentives. Methods: Based on an overview of the existing literature, the paper highlights the gaps in the existing research in low-income countries exploring the different components of health workers' incomes. It then proposes a novel approach to the analysis of financial incentives and delineates a research agenda, which could contribute to shed light on this topic. Findings: The article finds that, while there is ample research that investigates separately each of the incomes health workers may earn (for example, salary, fee-for-service payments, informal incomes, "top-ups" and per diems, dual practice and non-health activities), there is a dearth of studies which look at the health workers' "complex remuneration", that is, the whole of the financial incentives available. Little research exists which analyses simultaneously all revenues of health workers, quantifies the overall remuneration and explores its complexity, its multiple components and their features, as well as the possible interaction between income components. However, such a comprehensive approach is essential to fully comprehend health workers' incentives, by investigating the causes (at individual and system level) of the fragmentation in the income structure and the variability in income levels, as well as the consequences of the "complex remuneration" on motivation and performance. This proposition has important policy implications in terms of devising effective incentive packages as it calls for an active consideration of the role that "complex remuneration" plays in determining recruitment, retention and motivation patterns, as well as, more broadly, the performance of health systems. Conclusions: This paper argues that research focusing on the health workers' "complex remuneration" is critical to address some of the most challenging issues affecting human resources for health. An empirical research agenda is proposed to fill the gap in our understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers have investigated the appropriateness of pay for outperformance, (also called 'merit-based pay' and 'performance-based pay') for academics, but a review of this body of work shows that the voice of academics themselves is largely absent. This article is a contribution to addressing this gap, summarising the views of a sample of academics at one Australian university about the promises and problems of outperformance pay. The resultant close-up perspective reveals several important contrasts, most notably (a) the very different responses of business academics and academics in non-business disciplines to the concept of pay for outperformance (with business academics tending to be strongly in favour and non-business academics tending to be strongly opposed) and (b) where a pay for outperformance scheme exists, as it does in the faculty of business discussed here, the contrast between views about pay for outperformance in principle (strongly supported) and as actually implemented (widely criticised). In addition to these contrasts, the material presented raises many issues for universities considering pay for outperformance and for academics interested in the realities of such schemes, including the many (perhaps insurmountable) challenges surrounding implementation and the real possibility that, for academics achieving at or above base-level expectations, outperformance pay may actually de-motivate in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian labour market remained in a subdued state during 2014. Participation and employment rates fell, while unemployment and underemployment rates rose. Of the limited employment growth that did occur, most was in the part-time workforce and concentrated on prime-aged and older workers. After exhibiting serious weakness in 2013, the youth labour market deteriorated further in 2014. A rise in job vacancies was a sign of possible improvement, but employers’ confidence has not yet recovered to nearly the extent necessary to end the labour market slowdown of recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers the evolution of UK labour market policy during the last 30 years. It does this through the lens of the 'social model'. The social model encompasses the employment relations system, the social welfare system, and the education and training system. It was changed dramatically by the Thatcher and Major governments. The succeeding Labour and Coalition governments largely embraced this new model and, in some ways, increased the pace of change. The consequences for labour market performance—employment, unemployment, productivity, and inequality—are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employee share ownership (ESO) and employer-provided training. To be more specific, as both ESO and involvement practices can contribute to developing human capital, the paper addresses the question of whether they are substitutes or complements in the relationship with training. Design/methodology/approach -- The theoretical hypotheses are tested using the French nationally representative establishment-level survey, REPONSE, which is similar to the British WERS. The sample consists of 1,523 establishments. Findings -- The results are consistent with studies conducted elsewhere (e.g. in the UK) and provide novel findings, thereby suggesting a complementarity between ESO and involvement practices with bundles of practices becoming increasingly more complex as training expenditures increase. Research limitations/implications -- To provide further insights, future research that uses more precise information regarding ESO plans is needed. Practical implications -- Results can provide HR managers with valuable information regarding the organisational characteristics necessary to ensure a fertile ground for their training expenses. Originality/value -- The paper reflects a growing awareness that human capital development and share ownership plans may be related and that this relationship might be a more compelling explanation for share ownership plans than the standard agency theory. The contribution of ESO plans to the development of employee competencies may be at least as important as their possible effects on employee motivation and effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modem awards directly determine the pay and employment conditions of around one in five Australian workers and indirectly influence many more by setting the standard for enterprise agreements. This paper examines the relationship between formal qualifications within the Australian Qualifications Framework, job roles and pay rates in Australia's 122 modem awards. These institutional linkages are key mechanisms connecting skills acquisition through education and training with production processes and pay outcomes. More than a quarter of awards make no connections at all between classifications and qualifications while only a quarter feature strong linkages. In most awards, the connections are relatively loose and there is also strong variation by industry. Notably many modem awards in the fast-growing service industries contain few or no connections. Despite the growing importance of non-technical skills and university-level education, references to qualifications across the modem award system overall are predominantly to trade-level Certificate III qualifications. The results suggest that the current structure of awards will do little to promote further skills acquisition among most of the award-reliant workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to estimate whether sexual activity is associated with wages, and also to estimate potential interactions between individuals' characteristics, wages and sexual activity. Design/methodology/approach - The central hypothesis behind this research is that sexual activity, alike health indicators and mental well-being, may be thought of as part of an individual's set of productive traits that affect wages. Using two-stage estimations the author examines the relationship between adult sexual activity and wages. Findings - The author estimates that there is a monotonic relationship between the frequency of sexual activity and wage returns, whilst the returns to sexual activity are higher for those between 26 and 50 years of age. In addition, heterosexuals' sexual activity does not seem to provide higher or lower wage returns than that of homosexuals, but wages are higher for those health-impaired employees who are sexually active. Over-identification tests, robustness checks, falsification tests, as well as, decomposition analysis and sample selection modelling enhance study's strength. Social implications - Contemporary social analysis suggests that health, cognitive and non-cognitive skills and personality are important factors that affect wage level. Sexual activity may also be of interest to social scientists, since sexual activity is considered to be a barometer for health, quality of life, well-being and happiness. Originality/value - The paper adds to the literature on the importance of unobserved characteristics in determining labour market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ibero-Americana de Estratégia (RIAE) is the property of Revista Ibero-Americana de Estrategia/UNINOVE and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During 2013-2014, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria and the Cyprus Workers' Confederation (SEK) started to implement a joint project: Information Bridge: Bulgaria-Cyprus. This is a follow-up to a Co-operation Framework Agreement concluded between the two trade union confederations in February 2012. This aims at improving the extent of co-operation between the two trade unions in the defence of the labour rights of Bulgarians working in Cyprus through: establishing an Information Bridge between the unions to encourage the sharing of best practice; increasing the awareness of Bulgarian workers about Cypriot labour legislation; training employment advisers; and establishing an information bureau to operate in both countries better to promote the labour rights of Bulgarian migrants in Cyprus. The improvement of the conditions of Bulgarian workers has had direct and indirect effects, including on the effectiveness of their participation in the labour process as well as regarding an improvement in the working environment micro-climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim and objectives of our research was to analyse the relationship between demographic variables (Age, Educational qualification, Salary, Working Experience) and job satisfaction. The data and information were gathered using the quantitative research method, by means of a standard questionnaire, which was distributed among 50 teachers from higher secondary schools in Puducherry, had taken through convenience sampling techniques out of which 25 were male and 25 were female teachers. The participants completed the questionnaires including pay, promotion, supervision and colleague in order to measure the job satisfaction of government higher secondary school teachers. Chi-square was applied to find out the underlying variance among the variables. T test result shows that there is a significant difference between male and female respondents. Results of the correlation analysis indicate that the following characteristics are more significant for job satisfaction among the higher secondary school teachers expect the age factor and also the regression result indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between demographic variables(age, educational qualification, work experience) and job satisfaction except salary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress towards equal pay is elusive. This article reviews debates on and prescribed remedies for gender pay equality over the past 40 years of equal pay policy. It looks at pay from four perspectives—the economic, the sociological, the institutional and the organisational—and explores how and why once an apparent remedy for unequal pay is pursued, the goalposts tend to shift. The argument is made that the difficulties in securing long-term progress may be attributed to a number of factors, including the multifaceted nature of pay as a social phenomenon, the challenge of pursuing social objectives in a rapidly changing and fragmenting environment, the need for political will not technical solutions to achieve redistribution and the potential for gender inequalities to re-emerge in new forms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The components of chief executive officer (CEO) pay are numerous and complex. Top managers are hired to work in the shareholders’ interests, which are to maximize the wealth of the owners. But CEOs are human and are concerned in maximizing their own utility of wealth. This desire may run counter to the shareholders’ interests, resulting in agency costs. It appears that the complex manner in which a CEO is paid is designed to provide an incentive to the top manager to carry out the goals of stockholders and reduce agency problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio F: Historia is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)