ReWAGE News Archive

ReWAGE is fortunate in having some of the UK’s foremost thinkers on its Expert Group, drawn from leading universities and research organisations across the UK. Between them they have a huge breadth of knowledge, covering such subjects as the labour market, job quality, employment relations and the changing nature of work.

This week we are turning the spotlight onto Chris Forde, Professor of Employment at the University of Leeds and ReWAGE’s expert on the changing nature of work.

Background:

Chris is Professor of Employment Studies in the Work and Employment Relations Department, Co-Director of the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds. He is also Deputy Director of the ESRC Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, where he co-leads the Digit Data Observatory. Since 2014, he has been Co-ordinator of the Q-Step Programme (helping to develop quantitative and data skills amongst social science undergraduate students) at the University of Leeds.

Area of expertise:

Chris’s expertise encompasses: the future of work; migration; temporary work; gig and platform work; job quality; restructuring; labour market regulation; job quality; well-being; and business lobbying.

Why Chris became a ReWAGE expert:

As someone who is interested in shining a light on the experiences of work for workers, particularly the experiences of those in insecure, precarious, and low paid work, ReWAGE offers me a great opportunity to engage with and influence policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders on these issues. Through my involvement in ReWAGE, I hope to help provide evidence on the experience of work in the UK labour market, to help evaluate labour market policies and to propose ways in which working conditions can be improved.

What achievement makes Chris most proud:

I am proud on any occasion where I see my research making a difference to working lives and conditions of paid work. For example, my research with Dr Gary Slater on the implementation of the EU Agency Working Directive in the UK has been used to evaluate and shape policy and regulation of agency working in the UK.

Recent achievements:

This years marks 25 years of me working in the Work and Employment Division and at the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change at Leeds University Business School. This might not seem like an achievement in itself, but I am very pleased to be part of such a strong and vibrant group of researchers, lecturers and professional staff, one of the strongest groups of work and employment relations scholars in the UK and beyond.

Current projects

I am currently working on a report for ReWAGE on Pay and Conditions in Gig Work, and have recently co-authored a report for ReWAGE (with the Migration Observatory) on migration and labour shortages.

I am co-investigator on an ESRC project looking at migration, labour shortages and dialogue – the Labour Mobility in Transition project. I am also working on a report for the TUC on pay and conditions of work in West Yorkshire.

Other interests:

Outside of work, I am a keen (but slow!) runner and completed the Leeds Marathon in May 2023. I am also a keen fan of musical theatre, and am a Committee member of a community run theatre group - Yeadon Theatre Company.

Recent publications

• How is the end of free movement affecting the low-wage labour force in the UK?
• The potential of archival methods in industrial relations, sociology of work, management and HRM research: a case study of the relationship between temporary employment...
• The UK National Health Service's migration infrastructure in times of Brexit and COVID‐19: Disjunctures, continuities and innovations
• Theorising labour unrest and trade unionism in the platform economy
• Are bargaining concessions inevitable in recessions? An empirical investigation into union bargaining priorities and trade-offs of pay rises for job security
• Furloughing and COVID-19: assessing regulatory reform of the state