The paper sets out to pinpoint and explain the position of building labour in Britain today through a historical and comparative approach. Wage relations and the division of labour in the building industry are traced through different stages of development, from the crafts and statutory trades of feudalism to the collectively bargained skills and the social-partner-negotiated qualifications of capitalism. It is shown how, since the 1970s, the progressive development of building labour has been stalled with the continued adherence to traditional trade divisions, the reassertion of managerial prerogative and the decline in direct employment, collective bargaining and training. This stagnation in development is especially apparent from comparison with the situation in Germany and The Netherlands, where qualification-based rather than output-based wage relations and industry-wide rather than trade-based skill structures are prevalent. The construction labour process today in Britain remains strongly craft based with little possibility of progressing to higher technical and professional levels, unlike the permeability of continental systems. This craft form of production is shown to be associated with a relatively narrowly skilled and casually employed workforce and with relatively low levels of productivity and industrial democracy. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.
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