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4.3. Complete The Text Using The Words in The Box

1) The document discusses working conditions at a company including paid vacation time, flexible work hours, maternity leave, job security, and good treatment of all employees. 2) It then contrasts these conditions with a previous job in seasonal, unskilled work with no benefits, low pay, and high turnover where workers were not motivated. 3) The role of unions is summarized as attempting to ensure fair wages and working conditions for members through collective bargaining and defending workers from unfair treatment if needed.

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Andrei Rusalim
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83 views

4.3. Complete The Text Using The Words in The Box

1) The document discusses working conditions at a company including paid vacation time, flexible work hours, maternity leave, job security, and good treatment of all employees. 2) It then contrasts these conditions with a previous job in seasonal, unskilled work with no benefits, low pay, and high turnover where workers were not motivated. 3) The role of unions is summarized as attempting to ensure fair wages and working conditions for members through collective bargaining and defending workers from unfair treatment if needed.

Uploaded by

Andrei Rusalim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4.3.

Complete the text using the words in the box:

absenteeism colleagues contracts duties flexi time


holiday leave manual maternity morale
satisfaction security sick pay workforce vacation

My working conditions? I’d say they’re really good. The working hours are
reasonable – 38 hours a week, Mondays to Fridays only, and I would get four
weeks paid (1) .....vacation........... I always go on a two-week (2) .......holiday........
in the summer and I like to take another week to go skiing in the winter. That still
leaves a few days if I want to take time off for something else. I think we’re even
allowed to take unpaid (3) ..absenteeism...............if it’s really necessary. They
introduced a (4) ......flexi time...........system last year, so I can start any time
between 7.30 and 9.30 in the morning, so I sometimes leave at 4 in the afternoon.
Of course this means we now have to clock in and clock out, so we have to do the
right number of hours.
Women get generous (5) ...maternity............leave, although that doesn’t
concern me yet, and there are a lot of women employed half-time or part-time here,
so they have time for their children.
Of course I’m a full-time white-collar worker, hoping to make a career here.
My (6) ...colleagues............. and I have permanent (7) ....contracts............ At least
we think so, it’s hard to be sure about job (8) ......security...........these days. We are
consulted if they want to change our (9) ....duties.............or anything.
The entire (10) ......workforce............. is well-treated, not just us. The
company’s blue-collar workers, doing (11) ........morale..........jobs, also have good
conditions of employment.
It all makes a change from when I was a student, when I did casual,
unskilled, seasonal work for a fruit company, paid by the hour, with no (12)
......sick pay..............or holiday pay or anything. They treated workers really badly,
so (13) .....satisfation.............. was low, nobody was motivated, productivity was
minimal, and there was a lot of (14) .......absenteeism............ and high turnover - I
used to see new people almost every day. There was no job (15)
.......manual..........., and nothing changed of our performance was good or bad, so
we all did the minimum.
4.4. Match up the following words with the underlined words in the
text:

complaints =grievances
dismissed =sacked
enemy=adversary
group negotiations =collective bargaining
ignored=disregarded
trade=area of work
pay= wage
role=function
staff=emplyees
stop working=go on strike
unfairly treated=victimized
unprofitable=uneconomic

Workers in many industries are organized into unions which attempt to


protect their members’ interests. These are known as labor unions in the US, and as
trade unions in Great Britain, because they are largely organized according to (1)
area of work or skill: there are unions for railway workers, electricians, bank (2)
employees, teachers, and so on. In other countries, such as France, unions are
largely political: workers in different industries join a union with a particular
political position.
The primary (3) function of unions is to attempt to ensure fair (4) wages,
reasonable working hours and safe working conditions for their members. Unions
take part in (5) collective bargaining with employers. They can also pursue with
management the (6) grievances of individual employees, and defend workers who
consider that they have been (7) victimized. For example, they might insist on the
reinstatement of a worker who was unfairly (8) sacked.
When unions are dissatisfied with the results of collective bargaining, their
most powerful weapon is to (9) go on strike. Workers on strike sometimes picket
their place of work i. e. they stand outside the entrance, trying to persuade other
workers and delivery drivers not to enter. Of course striking workers do not get
paid, so unions sometimes take other forms of industrial action such as a go-slow
(GB) or slowdown (US), or a work-to-rule, when they begin to obey every rule and
regulation, including those which are generally (10) disregarded, which severely
reduces the amount of work done.
Labor relations are usually better in companies, or industries, or whole
countries, where employers consider unions as necessary partners, to be regularly
consulted on matters which concern them. Where both sides treat the other as an
(11) adversary, there are likely to be a lot of strikes and disputes. But there will
always be problems when employers want to abolish (12) uneconomic jobs and
working practices, and workers want to preserve them.

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