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industry in the north-west of England, the production of cloth has now ceased, and the workforce (which has been much reduced over the years and only totals 125) now produces clothes from imported cloth.  Despite problems in the industry QualTex is surviving.  It makes clothes for well-known supermarket chains, and given the explosion of this part of the market, is managing to turn a sustainable profit.

Most of Qualtex’s employees are female, low skilled and work for the legal minimum wage (https://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/pay/general/nmw.htm?IsSrchRes=1). Some of the employees belong to the Unite Union, but as Qualtex refuse to recognize a union most do not consider joining worthwhile. Qualtex has a high labour turnover (in excess of 55%), but there seems to be a steady stream of local women willing to replace those that leave. They are recruited by word of mouth (there’s always somebody who knows somebody who is looking for a job – no need for applications and references!). Induction and training are ‘on-the-job’ and minimal, because the work is straightforward and nobody is expected to stick around for long. There have long been some worrying health and safety issues and a couple of serious accidents at the factory in recent months, however, the most pressing problem is the high absenteeism rate (which averages at about 14%, but can be 30% on Mondays and Fridays) that leaves many machines idle each shift and has a direct impact on productivity.

Qualtex operate a two shift system. The ‘early’ shift runs from 6am to 2pm and the ‘late’ shift runs from 2pm to 10pm. Employees are either a ‘late’ or ‘early’ person – nobody is allowed to swap between shift patterns. Sometimes, if there is a danger of missing order deadlines, the factory willhttps://www.51lunwen.org/ open at the weekend and employees are expected to come in. Most are prepared to, because they are paid at time and a half, but some employees who have been unwilling to work at weekends have had to be ‘let go’.

Qualtex has a reputation as an ‘old-fashioned’ place to work.  All issues to do with personnel and industrial relations have been managed by the Managing Director and his personal assistant. The personal assistant keeps the personnel records of all employees and the MD has published a number of personnel policies to cover ‘absence’, ‘discipline’ and ‘regulations on wearing personal protective clothing at work’. The MD expects the section managers to ‘manage’ the people issues in the factory. Each section manager was trained in the same way – in effect, learning how to manage by trial and error. They do their best in difficult circumstances, but they have many responsibilities (including procurement and maintenance) and often find themselves having to operate machinery to cover for absent workers when an order deadline is looming. Unsurprisingly, their approach to people resourcing matters is patchy and inconsistent. For instance, some try to monitor individual performance and productivity whereas others concern themselves only with whether their section is meeting order deadlines.

The workforce of the factory has recently been stunned by the news which was announced by the Managing Director on 1 December last year.  The announcement was as follows:

‘In order to ensure the survival of QualTex in these difficult times for the textile industry, the company will merge with Mid Lancs Fabric Company with effect from 1 May 2010.  Thi本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。