An exploration of voice and power in contemporary online retail UK warehouse work

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Recent years have seen a decline in 'bricks and mortar' retail on the high street and a turn to online shopping. Accompanying that development is a growth in retail warehousing and an associated expansion in employment opportunities in such settings. While the media spotlight has turned our attention to examples of poor employment practices in the sector, there is little systematic academic research to account for the quality of working experiences in the online retail warehouse setting. Given recent government commitments to develop a Good Work agenda in the UK, this research will assess how well major UK online retail warehouses deliver on 'good work' objectives - job satisfaction, fair pay, participation and progression, well-being, safety and security, voice and autonomy. In particular, by targeting the largest employers in the sector, we will ask to what extent workers can voice their views on the various terms and conditions of employment that make up the Good Work plan and to what extent that they have the power to influence such items? The project aims to assess to what extent workers' interests are being heard and addressed in the industry and what types of supports are needed to counter any evident deficits in the capacity to effectively voice.The project will undertake an interview programme spread across eight of the largest online retail warehouses throughout the UK with workers and managers in the sector. Interviews will also be conducted with other key relevant actors and groups including national/international networks and alliances; civil society agencies/formal institutional bodies related to work; trade union representatives of warehouse workers and employer associations, groups or bodies. The semi-structured interviews will be supplemented with audio/video worker diaries to enable methodological innovation. A basic project specific app will be developed to collect the audio/visual diary data. To advise on the research design and aid with participant recruitment, research dissemination and impact we have secured support from key stakeholders, including nine advisory board members. CIPD and the IPA will also contribute to the research team as knowledge exchange partners and will help maximize the impact of the project across a wide range of policy making and stakeholder audiences. The outputs from the project will include at least two events that participants, academics and other stakeholders can attend; blogs; newsletters; articles on the project's own website hub and disseminated through wider media; journal articles, conference presentations in employment relations conferences; a monograph book, individual and comparative case study reports and a worker voice tool kit. The widely accessible worker voice tool kit will be created with the support of advisory board members, including the CIPD and IPA as knowledge exchange partners. The tool kit will enable policy makers and online retail warehouse employers to examine existing practices within online retail warehouses and identify ways of enhancing employee voice and influence. The outputs from the project could potentially involve inter-project collaboration. We would develop a network of ESRC project investigators through organizing a yearly workshop and facilitating online discussion sessions and communications.