Assessing Spoken English on the Shop Floor

During the 1950s and 1960s the excessive demand for labour in industrialised Western Europe produced an acceptance of any available manpower in industry. As a consequence, in areas that experienced immigration, a large proportion of the indigenous workforce was either dispersed or had job aspirations raised and now evidences a relutance to undertake low level work. Consequently the migrants were and still are recruited for repetitive and menial work, as well as work involving anti‐social hours. As a consequence of the job level restrictions there was cultural clustering in particular areas of the shop floor which led to communication problems. The following example is typical of those problems management was having to meet.