UK Data Archive Study Number 7056 - RetirementESRC Through Research Redundancy, Project 1984-1985 G00232031

Retirement through redundancy A preliminary report

Bill Bytheway February 1984

SUMMARY OF SECTIONS

1 Introduction. This section explains that the objectives of this report are primarily orientated towards the fieldwork to be undertaken in mid-1984. It relates this study to the broader study of redundancy in the steel industry of Port Talbot currently being funded by the ESRC.

2 Sampling. This describes the identification of the sample of 92 workers who were aged over 55 years when made redundant in 1980 from Bse Port Talbot. 3 Background. Seventeen were born outside Wales. All 92 were born between 1916 and 1925. Twelve are now past statutory retirement age. Some indication is given of how their working lives have corresponded to the history of the Abbey works in Port Talbot. Seventy were works employees. Half rent, half own their homes. Most have not moved for over 20 years. Most received over £5,000 in redundancy payments, averaging £10,000. None felt that their standard of living had increased substantially. About half reported that it had fallen. There has been a decline since redundancy in family income.

4 Job histories: pre-1980. The majority had worked at BSC Port Talbot for 20 to 34 years. Ten had started before the War. Only one had experienced long-term unemployment. Several had worked in other local industries: e.g. mining and quarrying.

5 Job histories: post-1980. Since redundancy, 17 have obtained other jobs. Thirteen reported that they had retired when made redundant. The remainder were divided equally between sickness and unemployment. Only three acquired • permanent' employment. The other fourteen obtained jobs of a more marginal and temporary character. There is an inverse relation between length of service with Bse and subsequent employment.

6 Family composition and social networks. Eighty are married and 45 of these couples live on their-own. Half have living parents or parents-in-law and nearly half of all parents are seen daily. Most children have left home but a third of these are seen daily. There is a large number of siblings,

1

'------~ 10% of whom are seen daily. There are few apparent contacts with ex-workmates. Participation in social activities (primarily social clubs) has declined since redundancy.

7 Attitudes to age and the future. There are marked differences between opt1m1sts and pess1m1sts. The latter are associated with a feeling of degradation about unemployment. A number reported that they felt their age is 'against' them, and many felt that they are too old to search for jobs.

8 Health, retirement and generations. 67 reported a health complaint associated with redundancy and 41 said they were currently ill. There is evidence of an association between ill-health and reasons for redundancy. Ill-health is an important factor in the anticipation of residential mobility. There is a substantial degree of malaise, correlated with pessimism about the fut~re. About one third reported that they were retired, some because of ill-health, others because of the financial inducements. Most have learnt to accept their own retirement whilst believing that people generally should hang on to their jobs wherever possible. They are well aware of the implications of their redundancy for the continued employment and financial well­ being of the younger generation.

9 Cono1usion. This formulates certain priorities regarding present fieldwork. One important conclusion is that there is a certain pegre~ of homogenei~y w~thin the 92 and therein lies the potential strength of the current project.

Appendices. The three research instruments.

2 1 INTRODUCTION ------~------~~-~------This report has been prep'ared in January 1984. It presents the results of an analysis of data drawn from the survey quest­ ionnaires of the ESRC-funded research project: 'Redundancy in steel, local networks and domestic organisation' (G00230023) - referred to subsequently as the Steel Project. This analysis has been carried out and the report written erior to the fieldwork of the present project: 'Retirement through redundancy' (G00232031). It was decided to do this for four reasons:

(i) to identify the most appropriate sample of older workers for the present project;

I I ' (ii) to examine and summarise the data already acquired for this sample,

(iii) to identify particular topics, variables and associa­ tions that should be examined in more detail,

(iv) for individual respondents, to identify gaps or incon­ sistencies in the data already acquired and to earmark particular topics to be raised during the forthcoming interview.

It should be stressed that this report does not contain a conclusive analysis, nor does it attempt to relate data to a broader sociological framework or to existing literature. It is primarily intended to identify empirically priorities for the fieldwork of 'Retirement through redundancy'.

(la) In the rest of this report, comments or observa­ tions that are specifically about the future fieldwork of the present project are indented and numbered.

The following is an extract from Lee (1983a). It describes the sampling procedure of the Steel project and presents a summary profile of the redundant workers (of all ages) who were sampled:

"Data have been collected by means of a longitudinal survey of a sample of those made redundant from the Abbey works in Port Talbot in 1980, who have been interviewed in the summer of. . ..1981, . the spring of 1982 and again in the winter of 1982 • liThe Wave 1 interview sample was drawn from a list of workers made redundant at asc, Port Talbot, in 1980 and which was held by MSC Wales. As the population of redundant workers was skewed towards older age groups, younger respon-

3 dents were disproportionately sampled in order to give sufficient sample numbers of younger workers still likely to be in the labour market, Survey results from Wave 1 report­ ed here have been re-weighted to reflect the original age distribution. Some 30t of those originally sampled declined' a request from MSC for co-operation. Of the remainder (who totalled 1,020), 752 respondents (or-74%) were actually interviewed.

"Comparisons between some limited information made available by asc and the survey data suggest that in most respects the sample results adequately represent the population of redundant workers. A further exercise carried out by MSC suggests that little substantial difference exists between the post-redundancy employment registration behaviour of those interviewed as against those who declined to co­ operate after the initial approach from MSC.

"Those ma~e,r~dundant from BSC Port Talbot, were, according to the s~rvey figures, overwhelmingly male, Welsh-born and ' in the older age groups. In the present sample, after re- wel.ghtl.ng,• I !. '.. 42% .. of the1"" redundant were found to b,e over 55 at the time, I of interview,I, and two-thirds, were aged 45 or over. Only 61 of 'those in our sample were female, although there is some ev~d~nce. to suggest that women are a group somewhat under-represented in the sample. Of those interviewed 88% had been born in Wales, though only 14% claimed actually to be able to speak Welsh, Perhaps reflecting the age dist­ ribution in the sample and possibly the impact of redundancy payments, one-third of those interviewed owned their own home outright, while a further quarter were paying off a mortgage. At the same time a substantial proportion - some 40% in all - were council tenants.

"Classifying the occupations that wOJ;kers had at asc 'in terms of the collapsed 7-point scale -deri'ved from the Goldthorpe-Hope scale (Goldthorpe and Hope, 1974; Goldthorpe, 1980), the following profile of those made redundant from sse, port Talbot, emerges. "Just over a quarter of those sampled had' 'had a non-manual occupation - though included in this figure are the 10% of redundants who were routine service workers. Relatively few of those questioned (around 8% in fact) were completely unskilled, 20% were semi-skilled, while at 45% the largest category were skilled workers - though this includes skilled production workers as well as craftsmen.

"Given the average age, length of service and relatively high wage levels which workers in the steel industry in South Wales enjoyed, together with special financial prov­ isions available to redundant steel workers the level of redundancy payments obtained by those in the sample was relatively high. Around two-fifths had received more than £5,000. Just under 5% had pad less than £1,000, while in

4 18% of cases the payment had been b~tween £1,000 and £3,000. It should perhaps also be noted that redundant steelworkers who subsequently found employment were entitled to have the wage in their new job made up to 90% of their BSC wage under the provisions of the Iron and Steel Employees Readaption Benefits'Scheme under which the ~uropean Coal and Steel Community provides funds to aid the restructuring of the steel industry.

"There is a sense, therefore, in which one would have to say, without denyi'ng th~ impcic't' of redundancy oIl: these w~rker~, th~t ~h~y are in redundancy as in employment relatively advantaged.

I "At the time of interview, over a year after redundancy, one-fifth of the sample were back in full-time employment. Two-and-a-half per cent were working part-time, 6% were self-employed and just over 7% were on retraining courses. Some 31% were unemployed at the time of the interview, while close to one-third had retired, were ill or were not looking for ~ork for, some other reason. Some 60% of those currently in employment'were having the wages they received in their new job made up. II

This long extract from Lee's introductory paper summarises the sampling procedures of the Steel Project and the main charac­ teristics of the overall sample. One further objective of this report is to repeat this in rather more detail for the present project. Given the importance of the sequence and timing of events associated with redundancy, it is necessary to begin with the basic chronology of the study.

CHRONOLOGY

With a few exceptions, workers in'the sample were made redundant between April and November 1980, the large majority in the months of July, August and October. The first wave of interviewing for the Steel Project began in May 1981, approx­ imately ten months later. About two thirds of the interviews were completed in' that month. Of the remainder, hal'f were carried out in June and July and the other half in October and November of 1981. So this" first interview was carried out bet­ ween seven and sixteen months after the date of redundancy.

The second lnterviews were carried out between April and July 1982 on only 80% of the sample. This was to allow 20% to be the subject of more detailed research into the organisation of domestic life. Over 80% of the second wave interviews were dated May 1982, twelve months after the start of the first wave. The third wave, covering 100% of the sample again, was carried out between November 1'982 and January 1983, seven months after the second wave and approximately 28 months after redundancy.

5 The interview schedules of the first and the third waves are appended. Data analysed in this report are drawn exclusively from these interviews. There is little in the second interview schedule which is relevant to the objectives of the present project,that is not also co~ered by the other two schedules. Particular questions are referenced in the following way: 1.154 is question 154 in the first interview schedule, 3.22a is ques­ tion 22a in the' thirdJ Th'is,' in conjunction with the appendix, allows direct access to the wording of each item referred to in this report.

(lb) Under the schedule of the present project inter­ viewing - the fourth interview for most of the respondents - will commence in March 1984, fourteen months after the third interview and approximately 44 months after redundancy.

6 2 SAMPLING -~------~------~~-----~------~------As indicated above by Lee, the Steel project sample was stratified according to age: a one-in-three sample of those aged under 55 years, and a one-in-ten sample of'those aged 55 and over. 'This means that a1 though 42% of all those made redundant in the 1980 Slim1ine Plan were aged over 5S years (according to Leels estimate), only 18% of those who were interviewed were over this age.

Since age is an intrinsic element in the design of both the Steel Project and the present study, it seemed sensi~le to select the sample-of olde~ workers particularly carefully in order to ensure that it is based as far as possible upon the correct age of the sampled workers, that it produces a sufficient number - the objective is a sample of 109 redundant workers over the age of 55 years - and that there should be a reserve group should there be any unforeseen problems with those selected.

An inspection of the index cards derived from the,MSC Wales list produces a total of,~7,4 ~~n who do not have a recorded date of birth or ~h~ aF~ re~orded.' as ,being born in 1930 or ear 1 ier (i.e. 'were aged: 50 or more in 1980). Sorting ,them by date of birth and whether or not they were interviewed produces Table 1.

Table------~-----~--~-----~------~------1 Date of birth

1925 or 1926 to Not Total before 1930 inc. g~ve~ " ' ------~-~~------Interviewed in 1981 138 44 37 219 Not interviewed 30 10 14 S4 Pilot sample 1 o o 1

Total 169 S4 51 274 ------~----~------~------'The reasons fo'r'the 54 not being interviewed in 1981 are shown in Table, 2., ,It sqould be remembered that approximately 120 had earl:Ler refused the 'written request from MSC Wales to participate.

The names and addresses of the 219 who were interviewed (see Table 1) were matched with the index of the Steel,~~oje9t which records all interviews. Twenty-three were revealed'to have refused further interviews following the first, one to have died and another one 'not'to have been made redundant after all.

Following this, the remaining 194 were collated with the computer file on all those aged 50 years or more at the time of ----~~------

7 Table 2 Date of birth

1925 or 1926 to Not Total before 1930 inc. given '" ttl ------~------~~~--~- Moved 1 0 4 5 Moved - no trace 1 1 0 2 No reply after 4 calls 3 0 0 3 Not redundant 2 0 2 4 1 Emigrated 0 0 1 Dead 2 0 1 3 20 Refused 11 5 4 Refused - ill health 1 0 0 1 Non-steelworker 1 0 0 1 No trace 1 0 0 1 Non-English speaking 1 0 0 1 Not known 1 0 0 I' Not accounted for 5 4 2 11 ------Total 30 10 14 54 ---~------~------Table 3 Age in 1981

Date of birth 50 plus less than 50 ------~------~------Before 1926 120 1 1926 to 1930 inc. 42 1 1931 7 0 After 1931 8 0 Not given 14 0 No record 1 0 ------Total 192 2 ------~------~------

the first wave in~erv,ierw, ,i? 1~8li. t !rhis allows a comparison of the date of birth 'in the 'MSC Wales record and the age reported by the respondent at the first wave interview (1.154). There were a few inconsistencies as shown in Table 3. Assuming where neces­ sary that the age recorded at the interview was correct, the revised count shown in Table 4 was produced.

Al though there may be no record of refusal, · some 6f the subsequent interviews of the 192 may not have been carried out, as is indicated in Table 4.

(2a) The objective of the present study relates to the 181 who are known to have been over 55. However, the first priority regarding the fieldwork of the present project will be to carry out interviews witn the 92 for whom we have three completed interview ~chedules, plus as many as necessary

8 from the 30 who were not selected for the second interview. The 36 who were aged 50 to 54 will act as reserves.

------~---~---~~------~------Table 4 Age in 1981

55 plus 50 to 54 Total ------~------~------Refused first interview 29 10 39 Refusals or death after first interview 15 9 24

First inte~view carried out, subsequent ihtetviews': second third ------~Yes Yes 92 36 No Yes 30 8 Yes No 9 6 No No 6 5

------~------137 55 192 ------Total 181 74 255 ------~------

ANALYSIS

i I I I' ' Data were abstracted from the first and third questionnaires onto a separate record sheet for each of the 92 respondents identified in Table 4~ This permitted consideration of uncoded open-ended.! responses, (as r.ecC?x:t;ied verbatim by the survey inter­ viewers) as well as the numerical and coded data produced by these schedules. Such data are important. in representing or clarifying views about age and ill-health and the part that these factors have played in redundancy. All the an'alyses that follow are based upon these two interviews of these 92 respondents. The sections, ,that follow report the findings of analysis' under the following headirigs'~ Background Job histories: pre-19aO and post-1980 Family composition and social networks

Attitudes I, .' Health, retirement and generations. These headings represent, broadly speaking, the overlap between the content of the interview schedules and the objectives of the present project.' The fieldwork of the latter will cover the following topics within the context of data already obtained

9 from respondents at the earlier interviews:

1) Job history,

I ' 2) the'redundancy 'process, 3) past enquiries and ideas about alternative employment, 4) present position: job acquisition, readiness to take up offers, undertaking odd jobs, resignation to continuing unemployment, S) influence (past/present) of health on attitudes to employment, 6) marital status, family, kin network, 7) influence (past/present) of health and employmeqt:of members of family on attitudes to employment, 8) general attitudes to the redundancy experience, ,'t· 9) general attitudes to age and retirement.

, . / It is intended to pay particular attention to the contingen- cies and sequences of events, and to links w'ith others within and without the family... I:':' is.'primari'ly within the context of these fieldwork objectives that'the following analysis was carried out~

10 3 BACKGROUND

~------~-----~---~------~----~---I I I • As a direct consequence of the selection of the sample, the 92 respondents have three characteristics in common: 1) They are all male,

2) They were born between 1916 '~~d 1925"in:clu~ive,

• I ' 3) They were working for BSC at the Margam Abbey l'lorks in Port Talbot at the beginning of 1980 and were made redundant during the course of that year. It is important not to fO,rget, that many 1tI0men work and have worked at the Abbey, that many other men, born between 1916 and 1925, have worked there in the past but have moved on to other things prior to 1980, possibly following redundancy at 'an earlier date, (some indeed will have died), that many of those made redundant in 1980 were of a younger age,' and that not a 11 of those included in the sample will think of themselves as Port Talbot people or indeed as steelworkers.

HISTORY

It is also important that the historical and cultural con­ text of this study is not overlooked. Exactly half the sample were born in West Glamorgan. Another 29 were born elsewhere in Wales, primarily in Mid Glamorgan. Of the seventeen from' outside Wales, eleven were from'England, three from Scotland, two from Ireland and one from the Netherlands. Thus only 82% were born in Wales compared with 88% of the whole Steel sample. This suggests that immigration into the area was' more frequent among the older generations - a topic considered again below. Twenty of the 92 spoke Welsh - 22% compared with 14% in the whole sample. In the 1930s, when the 92 were young boys and teenagers, t.here were two steelworks in Port Talbot, both dating back to the First World War. There were,also half a dozen or so tinplate and other metal works. Other important sources of employment were the docks, the collieries up the Afan and Goytre vaI'leys, the local retail and service industries and the railways. All were struggling under the effects of the recession, but all were to benefit significantly in terms of employment by the rearmament programme. The following is a rough guide to some of the significant events that will have subsequently affected the working lives of these future steelworkers.

11 DATE AGES EVENTS

1939 13 - 22 Outbreak of War. Erection of Britain's first continuous strip mill at Ebbw Vale.

1941 15 - 24 The Carbide works at Margam opened.

1945 19 - 28 End of War. Election of Labour Government.

1946 20 - 29 Formation of Steel Company of Wales. Work started on Margam strip mill.

1951 25 - 34 The Abbey l~orks came into production. Trostre cold reduction mill at Llanelli opened to process steel from Margam.

1952 26 - 35 Port Talbot steelworks: bar mill closed.

1956 30 - 39 Velindre cold reduction mill opened.

1959 33 - 42 Last of five new furnaces at Margarn lit. 1961 35 - 44 opening of Morfa Bank slag processor. Demoli­ tion of old Margam steelworks. Closure of melting shop in Port Talbot steelworks.

1962 36 - 45 Reorganisation of port Talbot docks to concen­ trate on steel trade. Spencer works in Llanwern opened.

1966 40 - 49 Carbide works closed.

1967 41 - 50 BSC formed. Two basic oxygen furnaces installed.

\ 1969 43 - 52 Borg-Warner gearbox factory opened at Margam.

1971 45 - 54 Phasing out of Margam's open hearth furnaces.

1973 47 - 56 Publication of the White Paper 'Ten Year Strategy' •

1978 52 - 61 Closure of East Moors, Cardiff and Ebbw Vale.

1980 54 - 63 Thirteen week strike. Slimline redundancy programme. ------~------What this chronology shows is that the working lives of these 92 men date back to the origins of the Abbey works. Except for those who have arrived in the area more recently, most will have observed and possibly been engaged in the construction and expansion of the strip mill. They will have seen its development

12 ------.~------,

in the context of their personal lives, their local communities and, to some extent, in the part that it has played in British industry. More generally, all will have been young adults, some with young families (but some still too young to vote) when the Labour government came to power in 1945. ' In 1981, 51 of the 92 said they had voted Labour in 1979 and would vote Labour again 'tomorrow'. It is fair to suppose tha~ the large majority will have voted Labour at the 1945 election and that they will have had firm expectations of the future - expectations that will not have included redundancy in 1980. '

What this rudimentary history also shows, however, is that their approach to adulthood and the labour market will have been greatly affected by the War. Moreover this will vary greatly since their ages in 1939 ranged from 13 to 23. Some were still at school; others had had several years in employment. By the end of the War, however, all were old enough to have received their call-up papers. Similarly their earlier experience of (and personal memories of) the depression will vary with age. For these reasons, age is likely to be an important variable - quite apart from its relevance to the approach to statutory retirement age.

Table 5 presents the age distribution. This demonstrates a substantial tailing off over the age of 62 years. There are only eight who are over this age, rather than the 18 that would have been expected given an even distribution over the age range. This implies tha't most workers leave BSC a few years prior to state pensionable age.

(3a) More particularly, when account is taken of the date of birth, it-is apparent that 12 of the 92 will have passed the statutory pensionable age of 65 years at the time that fieldwork begins in March 1984.

------~--~------Table 5 Age Frequency ------~------55 3 56 11 57 6 58 21 59 11 60 14 61 11 62 7 63 4 64 3 65 1 ------~------~------Total 92 ------

13 Seventr, the large majority, described their status at asc as 'works' (1.4). Thirteen were staff and nine were management. A range of descriptions were offered in response to 1.1, the question about their actual jobs. Some terms were mOfe ,9ommon than others. There were, for example, fourteen fitters, seven operators and six janitors. Classification is difficult even with a knowledge of the different occupations in the steel indus­ try, since much depends upon the pattern of working and upon the idiosyncracy of some responses to question 1.1. Eleven at least were in skilled steel jobs (e.g. scarfer, lagger, winder), but the majority had transferable skills (e.g. driver, greaser, welder). A dozen or so were routine service men (e.g. janitors, attendants). All but two of the 92 were members of a trades union and etghteen had been officials.

Less than half lived in council housing (Table 6). The other large group owned their homes outright. Table 6 also describes the considerable variation in the length of time they have lived in their present homes. Three respondents have lived all their lives there without moving house. In contrast there are ten who have lived there for three to five years. Three had moved since redundancy and a fourth moved between the first and third interviews. There is a marked association in Table 6 between tenure and length of occupation. It is important to note the considerable length of residence of the average council tenant, confirming the historical relationship between the provi­ sion of council housing and industrial developments.

------­, Table 6 Length of residence by tenure

Tenure Length of residence Owned Council Mort­ Private Hostel N.S. Tot. (years) outright rented gage rented % % ------0- 9 6 16 3 7 3 1 3 16 10-19 10 27 9 23 1 1 21 20-29 11 30 19 47 4 1 35 30-39 5 14 9 23 1 15 40-49 2 5 2 50+ 3 8 3

Total 37 100 40 100 9 2 3 1 92 ------The only prominent difference between this and the Steel sample as a whole is the smal,l number of mortgagees - 10% com­ pared with 25%. The non-l'leisll were not all recent arrivals: two had lived in their current homes for over 30 years. There was a marked tendency for the non-Welsh to be in council housing: 11 of the 40 council tenants, compared with 5 out of the 46 owner­ occupiers. These figures' reflect the substantial movement of workers from all parts of the U.K. (and elsewhere in Europe) at

14 the time of expansion and full employment in the 1950s.

Table 7 summarises the geographical distribution of the present area of residence of the sample. This extends from Mumbles in the west to Pencoed in the east - a distance of about thirty miles. The main concentration is in Port Talbot of course, but there is a substantial number in the Pyle - North Cornelly area.

-~------~------~------Table 7 Place of residence

Place Frequency %

Port Talbot (inc. Baglan & Margam) 34 37 Afan Valley (Cwmavon, Croeserw, Blaengwnfi) 5 5

Neath 5 5 Briton Ferry 5 5 Skewen/Neath Abbey/Rhos 6 7

Swansea (inc. Llansamlet, Mumbles) 6 7

Pyle/North Cornelly/Maudlam/Kenfig Hill 17 18 Bridgend 8 9 Maesteg 3 3 Porthcawl (inc. Nottage) 3 3

Total 92 99 ------~------(3b) Other sections of this report provide details about the families and the job histories of the respondents. The above is primarily intended, in association with Lee's summary profile, to des­ cribe the broader context. It suggests a certain overall homogeneity, with a few distinctive groups - management, the non-Welsh, the more recent arrivals and in particular the hostel residents, being very much in the minority.

(3c) It could be that the differences between council tenants and owner-occupiers will prove substantial and important - certainly studies of owner­ occupiers in South Wales have shown this to be a grossly neglected and misunderstood group. The differences between these two tenure groups will have major implications for the possibility of mobility in the future, for household income and for family and domestic activities. It is signi­ ficant that question 3.106 led to answers which indicated that substantial investments have been made in home improvements. This is perhaps an area which deserves more detailed enquiry in the fieldwork of the present project.

15 • Regarding the respondents' financial situation, there are three areas of enquiry in the two interview schedules:

(i) Redundancy payment 1.144-145 (ii) Changes in' standard of living 1.140-142, 3.98-100 (iii) Family income 1.158-161, 3.114-116.

R'edu'ndancy payments varied enormously in their calculation. They depended not only upon years served and current wage rates but also upon applicability under a number of different redundancy schemes. Payments were typically £10,000 to £12,000 (received by 34 respondents) - 83% received more than £5,000 compared with only 40% of the whole Steel sample. Thus these older workers on the whole received substantial payments within the context of the total Slimline Plan. A total of 16, however, received less than £5,000. They included all but three of the thirteen most recent recruits (see Table 9). Although there is a clear association with length of service, it is notable that as many as six who had served for more than 20 years received less than £5,000, including one who received between £700 and £1,000 after 29 years service.

In contrast to these low payments there are fourteen respon­ dents who received over £15,000. All had been at Margam for more than 2Q years, bu't only three of the 10 longest serving respon­ dents (see Table 9) are in this category.

Table 8 Standard of living in 1981 and in 1982 relative to standard of living when at BSC (subjectively assessed)

Codes: 1 Fallen a great deal 2 Fallen somewhat 3 Much as it was before 4' Increased 5 Increased- a great deal

1981 1 2 3 4 5 Total ------~------1982 1 12 11 6 29 2 2 11 9 1° 0° 23 3 2 6 26 2 36 4 0 0 3 0 ° 3 5 0 0 1 ° 1 -----~-~-~------° ° Total 16 28 45 3 ° 92

'Table 8 describes changes in their standard of l~ying (1.140, 3.98). These two questions are identical and contrast their current standard of living with when they were working at BSC. A number of points can be made:

(i) the most common response was 'much as it was

16 before·. The number responding thus fell however from 45 respondents in 1981 to 36 in 1982.

(ii) There is a clear downward trend. In 1981, 16 respondents thought their standard had fallen a great deal. This number rose to 29 in 1982.

(iii) Only seven thought their standard had increased but none of these thought so at both interviews. It is not possible to explain this satisfactorily in terms of changes in family income, and it is probable that these seven responses are temporary rather than that they reflect significant increases in real living standards.

I , There ~as a degree of non-response to the question of family income which makes analysis a little difficult. The cut-off' points for the ten coded groups (1.161) are:

£27.75 £92.30 £36.80 £111.00 £46.20 £138.40 £55.40 £192.30 £73.50

The median family income dropped between the two interviews from £85.46 to £63.36, and the number obtaining less than £46.20 is 11 out of 79 (14%) in 1981, and 21 out of 88 in 1982 (24%). Only 15 out of 77 had a rise in family income, whereas 18 fell past three or more of the cut-off points: e.g. four fell from between ,£55.40 and £73.50 to under £27.75.

Thus it is clear that as a group there has been a sub- , stantial drop in both living standards and family income between 1981 and 1982. Despite the considerable size of most of the redundancy payments, this has not led to a rise in living stan­ dards or in family income.

(3d) It is clearly important to assess the extent to which perceived living standards and family· incomes have continued to decline.' This may include a detailed description of changes in sources of income (such as unemployment benefit) dating back to redundancy, along the lines of question 3.6.

The income of these respondents depends to a considerable extent upon their job histories and their current employment status. The next two sections analyse available data on these topics in more detail.

17 " ,

4 JOB HISTORIES: PRE-1980 ------.------The job histories of the large majority of the sample are dominated by their time with BSC. Their past working lives range_, from 24 years at a minimum to 51, years at a maximum (depending upon their present age and the age when they left full-time' education). It is important to determine whether it i~ employ­ ment at asc, recently terminated, which has occupied most of their working lives, or some alternative job.

Diagram 1 presents the distribution of length of service with BSC at Port Talbot (1.8). This shows that there are three distinct groups. The defining characteristics of these three groups are shown in Table 9.

"- The largest group are the 69 who worked there for 20 to 34 years. They joined BSC at Port Talbot between 1945 and 1960 I during its years of expans~on, when they were aged between 23 and 41. ------Diagram 1

0 Dr 0 0 Nlf~l o 0 5 10 15 20- 25 30 35 40 45 50

Length of service (years) ------Table 9 Date of Age at Number joining BSC joining asc

Long serving 10 1932-41 15-21 Intermediate 69 1945-60 23-41 New recruits 13 1963-79 44-57

All ten respondents in the. long-serving group were there for more ,than 34 years, having joined the Steel Company between 1932 and 1941. Their ages at that time.ranged from 15 to 21 years, contrasting markedly with the ages at joining asc of the inter­ mediate group. This undoubtedly reflects the fact that most workers who joined the steel industry between 1932 and 1941 were older than these few survivors and had left before 1980. It is also true that the-younger workers who started between 1945 and 1960 were either not made redundant in 1980 or did not enter the

18

\ ------,

55 to 65 age range of this study. Thus the longest serving members of the sample were not simply the oldest (within the 55 to 65 age range) at the time of redundancy - six of the ten were in fact under 60 years of age. Rather it is the experience of working at Port Talbot during the War that will distinguish the early employment histories of these two groups. In, fact 18 of the intermediate group also mentioned the armed forces as an occupa­ tion they had prior to joining BSC, but this is obviously a very different kind of wartime experience from that of working in the steel industry. As has already been mentioned in the previous section, the age range of the sample at the outbreak of War in 1939 was 13 to 23. Thus, despite 55 to 65 years being a rela­ tively narrow age range in the 1980s, this will include very different age-specific experiences of the War. What all the sample will have shared, however, is the possibility of being called up during the course of the \'lar (although some were already working in reserved occupations). The third group apparent in Diagram I, are more recent recruits, the thirteen who were at sse Port Talbot for less than twenty years - starting between 1963 and 1979 to be precise. It is notable that only three served for less than six years. It is important to appreciate that there is a substantial difference between joining in 1963 and working for 17 years, qnd joining in 1974, say, and working for just six years. Thus this is probably the least homogeneous of the three groups in regard to their time with BSC Port Talbot. It is useful to examine the thirteen in rather more detail, particularly since they have had long and varied job histories before becoming steelworkers. Because the first interview schedule records details about only the last three jobs prior to joining BSC Port Talbot (l.22), this analysis of the most recent recruits is rather limited. Table 10 lists numbers of years in these three previous jobs. Clearly all but the first two of these thirteen job histories are incomplete. There are five who had previously had a job lasting twenty years or more. Three of these had been miners and the other two HGV drivers. Thus it is fair to suppose that these five have already had the experience of redundancy from (or some altern­ ative reason for leaving) wha't would have seemed to be their main lifetime occupation. Although two of these have worked at BSC for over ten years, they and the other three will probably tend to see themselves still as ex-miners and ex-HGV drivers respectively. At the opposite extreme is the eleventh respondent listed in Table 10 who worked for less than five years in all four jobs - his job at BSC and his three previous jobs. This suggests a history of temporary and short-term employment, and it is signi­ ficant that these four jobs alternated between BSC and the North Cornelly quarries. He represents, perhaps, the older contract worker in these industries.

19 ------~---~------~------~ Table 10 Thirteen job histories - length of service (years) Case B.S.C. Previously: Total Age Port Most One One Talbot recent before before job that ------~------1 17 0 30 47 61 2 14 29 0 43 58 3 14 5 7 5 31 62 4 10 6 ? ? 16+ 57 5 9 8 10 4 31 62 6 8 20 5 0 33 65 7 7 6 3 3 19 59 8 6 28 ? ? 34+ 60 9 6 3 10 3 ~2 60 10 6 15 6 6 33 64 11 4 1 2 4 11 55 12 4 6 4 7 17 56 13 1 4 26 2 33 55 ------~------~------There are two further items in the first interview schedule which are conceivably relevant to past job histories. These record episodes of unemployment (1.23) and self-employment (1.26). Unfortunately these are not dated and consequently it is difficult to locate them within the course of the individual's job history. A total of 20 reported that they had had a period of being "out of work for more than about a month", but only five of these reported more than one such period (1.24). For ten individuals the length of their longest period of unemployment (1.25) is three months or under. Only one experienced a period of more than twe1 ve months. He had only been with BSC for eleven months and had had two periods out of work, one for 28 months.

Although there is no statistical difference in the length of time spent at BSC between those who had had a period of unemploy­ ment and those who had not, it is noteworthy that of the seven who had had more than one period out of work or- a period of more than twelve months, three were among the more recent recruits and none had served more than 34 years. In sununary, it is c1'ear that overall, these 92 redundant steelworkers had had very little personal experience of unemployment prior to redundancy and only one had known long-term unemployment.

There were nine who reported a period of self-employment. Unfortunately there is no data about length nor about the nature of the work. One had been a draper' prior to his ten years at Bse and another was a scrap merchant six yea~s ,p~eviously. A third was one of the three who reported that he had had another paid job whilst working for sse (1.11) - as a self-employed haulage contractor, and he has continued in this since redundancy. Of the other two who had had a second paid job, one was a profes­ sional musician and the other left his second job unstated.

20 This analysis suggests that it will be necessary: (4a) to enquire further into the job histories of the most recent recruits, and those who have had periods of unemployment and self-employment prior to redundancy, and (4b) to establish what has been the main occupation or pattern of occupations for each individual.

Regarding those who have been at Bse for over twenty years, jobs prior to work for BSe are of less immediate relevance to the study of redundancy and retirement. Nevertheless it is possible that for certain individuals there is some particular signifi­ cance. Possible areas for further enquiry are: (4c) the respondent's occupation during the War, (4d) the financial implications of previous employment for current income, (4e) mobility between the steel, quarrying, mining and other metal industries. (It is important not to forget that there are many ex-steelworkers who would have been in this sample had they not obtained jobs in other industries prior to 1980. It is important that the effects of past occup­ ational mob'ility within the Port Talbot area upon the sampling strategy of this study are not over­ looked) •

In addition, it is important to e~quire about:

(4£) job mobility within ~SC d':l,ring, ,th~ ten years prior to redundancy - 44 of the 92 said that they had worked in more than one section of the Port Talbot plant (1.26). There is no indication of how such movement might have been related to age, transfer­ ability of skills, union membership, ill-health or the threat of redundancy, but it is well-known that the steel industry has its own highly deve­ loped labour market which offers the steelworker a career of rising status and opportunit1es for changes in occupation.

,21 5 JOB HISTORIES: POST-1980 ------~-----~------~------The third wave of interviewing was carried out between November 1982 and January 1983, on average 28 months after the respondents were made redundant. The interviewer obtained detailed information about each employment status that the res­ pondent had held since redundancy (3.6). This distinguishes different jobs (3.6e) and the following kinds of employment status (3.6~):

full-time employment part-time employment self-employment retraining unemployed sick retired.

It should be noted that this data depends upon descriptions by the respondent which are an unknown mixture of the subjective and the administrative. For example, some respondents described themselves as sick because they were receiving sickness or in­ validity benefit, whereas others did so because they felt that it described their current status better than any of the available alternatives. This obviously poses certain problems of inter­ pretation, but nevertheless represents unambiguously how the respondent chose to describe himself at the time of the inter­ view, and this kind of response is highly relevant to the present study.

A quick inspection of the 92 post-redundancy job histories immediately suggests a simple initial division between the seven­ teen who found further employment and the 75 who did not.

Of the 75, 22 were sick when made redundant, and of these 20 remained sick and two were briefly unemployed before returning to the sick-roll. Thirteen were retired and remained so. The other 40 were all initially unemployed; eighteen remained so up to the third wave interview; seventeen became sick; two became sick and recovered, one then to retire; and three became retired after the initial period of unemployment. These figures are summarised in Table 11, which also identifies the eighteen who reported that following redundancy they had looked for work (3.8) •

Perhaps the most striking feature of this table is the _infrequency of status change. This is a characteristic of the state of non-employment as opposed to unemployment (Walker et al, 1983). Of particular significance is the fact that in the course of the thirty months or so, only four others joined the original thirteen in the status of 'retired'. Of these four, two passed the age of 65 years during this time. Since, as we shall see,

22 ------~-~------~------Table 11 Post-redundancy status changes (third interview: 3.6) Total who Total looked for work

Sick 20 5 Sick - unemployed - sick 2 o Retired 13 3 Unemployed 18 4 Unemployed - sick 17 5, Unemployed - sick - unemployed 1 o Unemployed - 'sick - unemployed - retired 1 o Unemployed - retired 3 1

Total 75 18

none of the seventeen who found work have subsequently retired, it follows that redundancy itself appears to be a significant event in prompting self-definition as 'retired'. Only two of the 77 redundant workers who did not initially describe themselves as 'retired' and who have not since reached retirement age, came to describe themselves in this way at the third interview. The . distinction between self-description and perceived status is furt~er ~~lus~~a~~d by the fact that there were fifteen respon­ dents who defined themselves as retired at the first interview -(1.29) who subsequently, at the third interview, described their post-redundancy statuses variously as unemployed and sick but not as retired.

(Sa) This is a matter of considerable importance in regard to the present project, and will be examined in more detai 1 in the course of the fieldwork. The point that should not be over­ looked is the emergence of this evidence from the data of the Steel Project - data not specifically designed to study the status of being I retired'. For further discussion, see section 8.

The right-hand column of Table 11 indicates that 18 of the 75 (24%) had looked for work but failed to obtain any. They are evenly distributed over 'the main categories, including three of the thirteen 'who described themselves as 'retired'.

Table 12 presents the post-redundancy status careers of the seventeen who at some point succeeded in finding jobs. Although highly varied, certain features are prominent. First, none of this group have come to describe themselves as retired. Only seven were in employment at the time of the third interview including three described as self-employed. Five had had more than one job.

Although there is substantially more variety in Table 12 than in Table 11, resulting from many more status transitions per

23 Table 12 Post-redundancy careers of 17 respondents who found employment Case

1 part-time job 2 part-time job - unemployed - retraining - unemployed 3 part-time job - sick 4 self-employed

5-8 unemployed - job 9 unemployed - job - job - job - sick - unemployed 10 unemployed - job - unemployed 11 unemployed - job - unemployed - job 12 unemployed - job - unemployed - job - unemployed 13 unemployed - part-time job - part-time job - job 14 unemployed - self-employed 15 unemployed - self-employed - sick 16 unemployed - retraining - unemployed - part-time job - unemployed - self-employed 17 unemployed - sick - job - job - job - unemployed

individual, the majority in both groups started off as unem­ ployed. For some of these it may have been simple luck on the job market Which determined whether or not they ended up in Table lIar 12. Having found their way into employment, however, it is clear from the contrast that they are then likely to experience many more status transitions than would otherwise have been the case.

Table 13 presents details about the lengths of time spent by these seventeen respondents in each of the six types of status (3.62). A distinction is made between those episodes that have terminated and those 17 episodes that were current at the time of the interview. Table 13 indicates that there was an overall

~------~-~------Table 13 Average lengths of time per episode (months)'

Terminated prior to Current at third third interview interview ----~------Status Number Average Number Average length length

Full-time job 10 5.7 6 13.8 Part-time job 5 6.6 1 30.0 Self-employed 1 7.0 3 15.3

Retraining 2 6.0 0 Unemployed 18 8.7 5 3.0 Sick 2 2.5 2 19.0 ------~~-~------

24 average of 6 to 9 months between status changes. None of the seventeen appear to have become long-~erm unemployed in contrast to the two who have become long-term sick. Six of the ten presently e~ployed have been so for over a year, three for vir­ tually the entire post-redundancy period. This'contrasts with the averages of 5.7 to 7.0 months for jobs that have finished prior to the third interview. Although obviously constrained by the interval between redundancy and interview, it is noteworthy that only one of these 'terminated jobs lasted for more than nine months, suggesting a norm of 3 to 9 months for such post­ redundancy employment.' Having said this, apart from three who had long periods of sickness, all but two of the seventeen had a total of at least twelve months.~or~,within the average 28 months. These statistics suggest that there exists a labour market for older workers characterised primarily by intermittent, 'temporary and part-time employment.

Overall, this analysis indicates that there are two primary patterns following redundancy: that of withdrawal from the labour market, described as either retirement, sickness or un­ employment, and that of regular movement between marginal work and unemployment. Only three of the ninety-two moved quickly from redundancy into a state of long-term employment.

These patterns contrast markedly with the relationship of the respondents to the labour market prior to 1980. As Table 10 shows, only two had had any recent experience of ,short-term employment (i.e. jobs of less than two years duration).

For purposes of further analysis, six categories of post­ redundancy job histories have been constructed. Table 14 shows

------~------~------~------~------Table 14

Ever worked Status at Long- Inter­ Recent Total after redun­ third inter- serving mediate recruits dancy (3.6) view (3.7) ------~------Yes Employed in current job for 1 year or more 0 5 1 6

Sick 0 2 0 2

Others 0 7 2 9

No Retired 2 12 3 17

Unemployed 4 13 2 19

Sick 4 30 5 39 ------~--- Total 10 69 13 92

25 how this categorisation correlates with length of service. This indicates that none of the long-serving redundant workers have obtained subsequent employment compared with 20% of the intermediate group and 33% of the new recruits. This is a finding of some importance and indicates that it would be a mistake to assume that pre- and post-redundancy job histories are independent - even when employment prior to reaundancy was overall so stable. Obviously one objective of the 1984 interview will be: (Sb) to update these post-redundancy job histories. In addition, particular attention will be paid to: (5c) the strength of the relationship between admin­ istrative status (based primarily upon sources of income, employment status and age) and self­ description, particularly when the latter implies the idea of a shared social status that is com­ monly recognised. This analysis also suggests that further enquiries are warranted into: (Sd) attempts by individuals to change the course of events typified, for example, by those who report that they have looked for work, (se) the perceived effect upon post-redundancy careers of redundancy and other ascribed social statuses,

(5f) the existence, recognition and perceived charac­ teristics of a distinctive labour market for older men,

Illness, the· statu~ of being sick and retirement are discus­ sed in more detail in section 8 of this report.

26 6 FAMILY COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL NET\'lORKS ------~------~------A second area which is covered by the interview schedules------of the Steel Project' and which relates to the objectives of the present study, is that of the family and more generally the ac­ quaintances mentioned by the respondent. This is rather more complex than job histories, particularly since it is a major focus for the attention of the Steel Project. Thus it is not easy to identify simple categories. The analysis begins by summarising responses to the main items on the first and third interviews.

MARITAL STATUS Eighty of the 92 were married (1.117) and living with their wives (1.123). For seven of these there was a reference to 'living as ~arried' at either or both interviews, but in a number of instances this was not consistent with other answers. Of rather more relevance perhaps to the social circumstances of the respondents' lives is the fact that, whilst 72 of these marriages had lasted for more than 22 years (1.120), there were 'eight that were relatively brief including five that ranged from one to seven years in length. The youngest wife among the 80 was 37 years old (1.125) and had been married for just seven years, but the other five wives under the age of fifty had all been married for over twenty years. So this suggests that about half a dozen and no more of the respondents will be in their second marriages. (Ga) Unfortunately respondents were not asked about previous marriages. This may be an appropriate topic for further enquiry since there could be serious financial implications. Two of the unmarried twelve were single, five widowed and five divorced or separated (including one who reported that he was widowed at the third interview - 3.87). There were no changes in marital status between the two interviews of a pre­ dictable kind (i.e. single to married, or married to separated, divorced or widowed, or any of the latter back to married).

HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION There is rather more variation regarding household compos­ ition. Table 15 presents the number in the six main categories (1.123, 1.128). No further evidence was obtained· from any of the seven who live alone about their housing or household. Two referred to the recent deaths of their wives, and two others were widowers. One saw his parents almost daily, whereas another would like to move to live nearer his son. There is no evidence that any of the

27 ------~------Table 15 Marital status Household composition ------~------Not married Alone 7 Living with others 5 Married Living with wife alone 45 With wife and child(ren) 26 Uith wife and parent(s) 4 Others 5

seven were in lodgings.

The five who were not married but who did not live alone are a mixed group. One reported that he lived in lodgings but did not mention anyone else as living in his household. Perhaps he should be classed as living alone. Another included his ,landlady in his household. Two lived with relatives and a fifth lived with an unrelated woman (aged 53 years and widowed).

(6b) Although this is a potentially delicate area of enquiry, it would be useful to obtain some indica­ tions of which respondents are not living in a stable and/or secure domestic environment. Although we know how long the respondent has lived in his present home (Table 6), we do not know about previous homes, nor much about other people who have been members of his household. Should these kinds of questions be asked, it would be important to relate them to the inter-relationship between employment, redundancy and retirement, and domestic 1 ife.

Almost half of the sample, 45 in total, lived with their wives and no one else - as reported at both interviews. The second largest category are the 26 who were living in 1981 with wife and child or children. In addition to these 26 there are three families - included in the sixth category in Table 15 - with children as well as others. Ignoring these 'others' for the moment, the 29 respondents with children had numbers as' shown in Table 16.

These figures represent in general the passing of the nuclear family out of the child-launching phase of the typical family career and into the 'empty-nest' phase. The ten with just one child are primarily those with one remaining unmarried adult child - all but two of these children are in their twenties.

Only four children from three families were aged under eleven and all four were aged four or less. All four had sib­ lings who were considerably older - at least eighteen. Thus these three families represent a new start in family life (in one case a new marriage) rather than a late start.

28 Table 16 Numbers of children and the age of the youngest

Number at Number at Total Youngest first third under 16 interview interview in 1981

1 1 10 1 2 2 9 6 3 3 5 2 4 4 1 1

0 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 1* 2* 1 0

* the child at the first interview was 18 and left home before the third; the two at the third were infants. ------~------The composition of the nine households in the fifth and sixth categories of Table 15 are listed in Table 17. There are seven respondents who have lived with elderly relatives. These include one aunt as well as six instances of parents. In only two cases is there an adolescent child in the household. It is

------~------Table 17 Household composition of married respondents with more than just wife and children (with ages where available)

Case First interview (1981) Third interview (1982) ------~------1 Wife Wife, wife's parents child 16-19

2 Mother 91 Mother, wife

3 Wife \'life, mother

4 \'life, married child Wife, married child non-relative

5 Wife, wife's brother 53 Same 6 Wife, child 11-15, Same father 75

7 Wife, wife's mother 81 Same

8 Wife, father 85 Same

9 Wife, aunt 81 Same ------

29 noteworthy that there were changes between the first and third interviews in the composition of four of these nine households (3.97) •

FAMILY Tables 16 and 17 have already illustrated the extent of the family within the respondents' households. The first interview provides considerable detail about members of the family outside the immediate household. This ·comes under four headings: parents (1.129), wife's parents (1.130), siblings excluding in-laws, (1.131) and children (1.132, 1.133).

Table 18 enumerates (living) parents and wife's parents, including the few mentioned above who live in the respondent's own household. This indicates that 50, or just over half the sample, have no living parents or parents-in-law, 29 have one, eight have two, four have t:hree and just one has all four. A total of 34 have parents on just one side and eight have at least one on both.

------~~------Table 18 Parents and wife's parents codes: * living deceased o respondent not married ------Mother Father Wife's Wife's Total mother father ------~------46 * 13 * 1 * 11 * 3 * * 3 * ,* 1 * * 0 * * 1 * * 1 * * 1 * * * 1 * * * 0 * * * 3 * * * 0 * * * * 1 0 0 4 * 0 0 1 * 0 0 0 * * 0 0 1 ------~------~------Total 92

30 ------Table 19 Frequency of All Own \-life's Contact parents parents parents

More or less daily 26 13 5 Weekly 17 8 8 Less than weekly but at least monthly 2 1 1 Less than monthly . 1 1 o Occasionally or never 14 4 9

Total 60 27 23 ------~------~------~------Table 19 describes the frequency of contact. This shows that of those with living parents, a majority see them at least once a week. In respect to their own parents, nearly half (13 out of 27) see them at least 'more or less daily' (including three whose parents were living with them).

Table 20 enumerates jointly the, numbers of children inside and outside the respondent's household. This confirms the sug­ gestion from Table 16 that a significant percentage of these families are in,the 'child-launching' phase of the family career: nineteen have some children in and some out. Having said this it is also important to note that 48 - over half - have launched all their children and this contrasts with the small number - 9 - of families who still have all their children at home. Finally the 16 who have no children at all are not an insignificant minority.

------~-~---~------~-- Table 20 Numbers of children in relation to the respondent's household.

Outside the household 01234 5 6 Total ------~------~------Inside 0 16 17 18 7 4 1 1 64 the 1 3 3 3 2 1 1 0 13 household 2 3 2 1 2 0 1 0 9 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 5 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 ------~------~------~- -- Total 25 24 22 12 5 3 1 92··· ------~------~------~------~--- Table 21 is comparable with Table 19, describing the freq­ uency of contact of respondents with those children who have left home. Even allowing for possible discrepancies between estimates and realities, this provides clear evidence of a substantial level of contact. Of all the 145 children, 76% are seen at least weekly (compared with the 71% of the 60 parents of respondents - Table 19). Only fourteen are seen 'occasionally or never'. Of the 67 respondents with children outside the home, 31 see at

31 Table 21 Frequency of contact with children

All children Child with Child with most least contact contact

More or less daily 46 31 12 l'leekly 64 27 26 Less than weekly, but at least monthly 9 1 8 Less than monthly 12 4 8 Occasionally or never 14 4 13

Total· ... 145 67 67

, ·t·, "t ••••• • ••• least one child, 'more or less daily' (compared with twelve who see a parent with a similar frequency)" ,of whom twelve see all their children more or less daily (including one with four chil­ dren). Only eight fail to see any child at least monthly.

Thus overall it can be concluded that the respondents and their wives have much more contact with children than with parents. This is of course a temporal phenomenon reflecting support for children during the early years of married lives, as well as the considerable number of parents who are now deceased. Nevertheless this is the inter-generational context within which these redundant workers may look to the family for support or alternative roles in life.

Table 22 describes contact with siblings. Perhaps the most striking feature of this is the large number of siblings: an average of 2.8 per respondent. This does not directly imply larger families in their parents' generation since there are sampling factors involved (Bytheway, 1974), but it does imply that siblings are an important group within the family in terms of simple numbers. The second point to be made is the high

------~------Table 22 Frequency of contact with siblings

All siblings Sibling with Sibling with most least contact contact

More----~------or less daily 26 13 5 ------l'leekly 37 18 11 Less than weekly, but at least monthly 30 12 4 Less than monthly 42 8 17 Occasional1y,or never 121 28 42

Total 256 79 79

32 number of siblings with occasional or no contact with the respondent - 121 or nearly half all siblings. Despite this the number of respondents with at least-weekly contact with at least one sibling is greater than the number who at most have occasio­ nal contact with any sibling. It is important not to assume that 'occasional or never' means 'insignificant'. Table 23 summarises the position regarding contact with the family outside the household. This confirms the importance of children relative to parents and siblings. The thirty who have weekly contacts with children but not with parents or siblings form a substantial group within the sample. It would be inter­ esting to know to what extent the respondent sees this contact as affecting or affected by his redundancy. It is particularly striking that as many as 23 have more or less daily contact with their children.

Table 23 Sources of contact More or At least less daily weekly Parents Children Siblings

47 lS * 5 4 * 23 30 * 6 5 * * 4 9 * * 3 7 * * 4 13 * * * 0 6 ------~------Total 92 92 ------Of the whole sample, 39 have regular contact with at least three other members of their family outside their own household. Taking into' account family members not recorded - siblings of their wives, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. - then it is possible to conclude that about half of the sample wi!'l have a regularly interacting and locally-based extended family. (6c) This is one topic about which it would be useful to have further data. In particular it is impor­ tant to know with which other family members the respondent has regular contact, and which other family members are currently faced with the possi­ bility of, or the consequences of, redundancy (or indeed other changes in employment status). In regard to siblings, although for many there is no regular contact, it is interesting to note from Table 23 that contact with siblings is on a par with that with parents. It must be remembered that siblings are of the same generation, and there­ fore that contacts with them and those of the respondents' wives

33 may be an important means of resolving some of the uncertainties of redundancy.

This analysis has neglected rather the question of supply. Many respondents and their wives have no parents, many have no children, and many have no siblings. There are indeed three who have none in any of these three groups. Of these three" one lives with an (unspecified) relative and family, another with his wife and 28-year-old son, and the third has recently been bereaved. When asked about what circumstances might force him to move, he remarked: "I' ve no one to turn to, to look after me".

FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES

One of the main areas of interest of the Steel Project concerns the' 'role of friends and acquaintances in the search for alternative employment. Consequently there are a number of ques­ tions concerning these topics. There are two that 'name names': 1.134 and 3.77. Both invite the respondent to name up to three individuals (or couples) but in response to rather different instructions. The first rela1::es to people "you most often spend your time witr." - apart from family and other members of the household. The second relates to people "you spend most of your spare time with" - excluding members of the household, but not other relatives. Information is obtained about each of these­ persons regarding frequency of contact (1.134a, 3.80), location of first acquaintanceship (1.134b, 3.78 - the questions are worded rather differently), length of acquaintanceship (3.78, not asked in 1981 but sometimes recorded under 1.134b) and location of current contact (3.81). Further information was obtained in 1982 about contacts between these acquaintances (3.82) and is primarily intended to be the basis·of some network analysis. Finally at both interviews, reasons were sought from those who were unable' to name such individuals (1.135, 3.83).

It is not proposed to analyse this data here since it will

------~------Table 24

No. of named Number of Number of named individuals in: individuals respondents 1981 1982 1982 per respondent non-family family

0 13 0 0 0 1 9 4 3 2 2 17 11 15 8 3 28 25 31 28 4 10 15 11 14 5 10 21 22 7 6 5 15 9 6 ------~------Total 92 91 91 65

34 be supplemented in due course by data from further fieldwork. Nevertheless in Table 24 the distribution of numbers of named individuals' is presented. There was some overlap between the responses to 1.134 and 3.77, but on occasions it was not possible to determine whether responses referred to the same'individual since some respondents used first names in one interview and surnames in the other. Table 24 indicates that there is a total of 247 individuals whose names are recorded in the six spaces provided on the two interview schedules - an average of 2.7 per individual respondent. Methodologically it is disappointing to find so many gaps but this is perhaps an indication of the fact that some of the respondents spend little of their spare time outside their homes. In this respect it is significant that so many respondents named relatives when given the opportunity in response to 3.77. A quick scan of the origin of the non-family acquaintances suggest that very few specifically mention work. Rather it is a matter of old school friends, clubs, chapel, and a few neigh­ bours. It may be that these persons also worked at BSC, but BSC itself does not appear in the brief answers to 1.l3b and 3.78. Regarding the latter, only 11 out of 91 non-family acquaintances were known through work (i.e. code 3). An important objective of the fieldwork will be to clarify this data. This will centre upon the following issues:

(6d) Who from BSC does the respondent maintain contact with:

(6e) Who does he meet fairly regularly who is of a similar age to himself;

(6f) \'1ho is he acquainted with who has also been made redundant in the recent past: (6g) \'iho among the above are members of his family, and who were mentioned in the earlier interviews (in response 'to 1.34 and 3.77). (6h) Questions will then be asked (where necessary) about the length of time they have known these persons, where they tend to meet and what effect redundancy has had upon the relationship.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Questions 1.138 and 3.85 relate to certain social centres and meetings - opportunities to regularly meet other people. Question 1.138 presents the respondent with a card with ten alternative answers (incl'uding 'other'), and question 3.85 is identical except that 'Pub' is added as an eleventh option. Collectively the ten alterna~ives provide an indication of social

35 participation. Scoring the responses as: very often - 3, fairly often - 2, occasionally - 1, the averages are 3.1 in 1981 and 2.8 in 1982. T'he numbers wit'h no involvement in any of the ten activities rose from 16 to 22. This suggests overall·a sl·ight reduction in participation. Having said this it is important to recognise that for some respondents there was a sUbstantial increase. A total of 19 had scores that were two or more points higher in 1982 than in 1981. This contrast with 25 who were two or more points lower.

There were-substantial variations in response between the different items. Table 25 summarises these. It is clear from this that the various social clubs predominate with the response 'working man's or social club' being the most common. There is little variation in the general decline between 1981 and 1982; with one prominent exception: the 'other' category. This could conceivably be an artefact of the differential readiness of respondents to volunteer original answers. To be precise it may be that in 1981 respondents were more impatient with the ques­ tions when 1.138 was reached than was the case in 1982 when they came to 3.85. The various activities listed under this heading in 1982, however, are interesting and include dancing, union meetings, hospital league of friends, car auctions, band rehear­ sals, gardening clubs and the Welsh Society. These, in part, suggest that they may be 'real' responses to redundancy and to the unavailability of alternative employment.

Table 25 Total scores by social activity

3: very often, 2: fairly often, 1: occasionally

Scores 1981 1982 ------~------Choral Society 13 9 BSC Social Club 17 11 Sports Club 54 43 Supporters' Club 30 21 Working men's or social club 112 105 Church group 10 8 Tenants'/RatepayeJ;s-' association 1 1 Civic groupsi Parents' association 8 5 Political party meeting 15 14 Pub 69 Any other 9 41 ------(6i) Although it is important to avoid detailed enqui­ ries about the social activities themselves, it is necessary to establish to what extent participa­ tion has changed as a result of and following redundancy.

(6j) It is also important to establish to what extent

36 certain social activities are thought to be the appropriate response to redundancy by the older worker. It may be that some have actively sought to encourage other redundant workers to join them in some joint activity, or that they themselves were encouraged to take part by others who thought that this would be good given the respondent's redundancy.

37 7 ATTITUDES TO AGE AND THE FUTURE In------~------~------the first interview schedule there is a set of eight------attitude questions. Respondents were asked to answer: agree strongly agree neither agree nor disagree disagree disagree strongly or don't know

to each of the following statements:

1 Whatever happens to the economy I reckon I'll get by.

2 The state of the country makes me anxious and pessimistic.

3 Sometimes I feel that whatever I do things will never get better for me.

4 I personally have felt degraded by unemployment.

5 Moving away from my family and friends would be a very great hardship for me.

6 I'm optimistic about my own future.

7 All things being equal I would prefer a job which gave me a high level of pay over one which gave me security.

8 It is important to me to be able to maintain a high standard of living.

These eight statements reappear in the third schedule in a slightly different order, and with the following additional statement:

9 A woman should only go out to work if it is absolutely necessary in order to support the family.

Responses over the whole Steel sample have been analysed systematically in respect to the first and the second wave inter­ views (Lee, 1983b). This analysis is concerned with just five of these items: I, 3, 4, 6 and 8. I terns 1, 3 and 6 specifically refer to the individual's future and therefore are obviously relevant to a study of retirement through redundancy. Arguably items 2, 5 and 7 do too. However, not only are these less specific (i.e. they do not inc 1 ude the words 'wi 11' or 'future'), but they are also less directly related to the respondent's general circumstances. To a certain extent they could be con­ strued to assume a continuing engagement in the job market. Moreover items 2 and 5 are two items that the large majority of

38 respondents agree with (78 out of the 92 for each). Conversely more respondents (64) disagree with item 7 than with any other. Thus there is greater discrimination on the other five items. Item 9 is not only missing from the first questionnaire, but like item 7 is rather more relevant to the analysis of the attitudes of younger workers.

Items 1, 3 and 6, relating to the future, can be used to distinguish between 'optimists' and 'pessimists': agreement with statements land 6 and disagreement with 3 indicating optimism. Table 25 presents the joint distributions for these three items for data from the first schedule. All three are correlated in accordance with the interpretation of responses as optimism and

Table 25 Joint distribution of attitude responses

3 'never get better'

1 'get by' agree disagree total gamma ------agree 1 1 0 2 4 8 2 11 6 22 1 42 1 1 3 4 0 9 3 6 2 7 1 19 disagree 2 2 2 3 2 11

total 9 21 13 38 8 89 -0.212 ------~~~~------6 'optimistic'

1 'get by' agree disagree total gamma ------agree 1 4 1 1 0 7 3 27 2 9 0 41 2 3 2 2 0 9 0 9 2 7 1 19 disagree 2 4 1 2 2 11

total 8 47 8 21 3 87 0.240 ------~------~------6 'optimistic' 3 'never get better' agree disagree total gamma ------agree 0 0 0 6 2 8 0 11 0 9 1 21 1 8 2· 2 0 13 5 24 4 4 0 37 disagree 2 5 1 0 0 8

total 8 48 7 21 3 87 -0.544 ------~------~------~~------

39 pessimism. This is particularly true of items 3 and 6. (It may be that the reference to 'the economy' in the first item created doubts in the minds of optimists and hope in the minds of the pessimists). Given the correlation between these three items, it was decided to define optimists and pessimists as follow:

-----~~~--~~~------~------optimist responses: agree or agree strongly on items land 6, disagree or disagree strongly on item 3.

pessimist responses: disagree or disagree strongly on items 1 and 6, agree or agree strongly on item 3. neutral responses: neither agree nor disagree, don't know, or no response. optimists: at least two optimist responses and no pessimist response, pessimists: at least two pessimist responses and no optimist response. ------~------Table 26 Responses by optimists and pessimists code...... 1 :::: agree strong 1y code 5 = disagree strongly Optimists Pessimists Item 1 3 6 Freq. Item 1 3 6 Freq. ------2 4 2 15 424 2 1 4 2 2 524 2 2 5 2 1 4 1 4 3 2 4 1 2 425 1 1 5 2 2 5 1 4 1 4 1 525 ~ 2 5 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 1 SIS 2 3 4 2 1 324 1 2 3 2 4 434 1 2 4 3 2 423 3 5 2 314 1 3 4 1 2 325 3 5 1 3 1 5 1 3 2 534 2 3 1 1 435 1 3 1 535 1 4 3 523 2 5 3 4 1 3 1 5 3 1 513 ------Total 34 13

40 Table 26 presents the detailed responses for these two groups on the three items at the first interview. All possible combinations of responses in accordance with the above procedure are included. This table has two prominent features: a marked tendency to simply agree or disagree (codes 2 and 4), and a preponderance of optimists over pessimists. A similar pattern is observed for responses to the third questionnaire, leading coincidentally to identical numbers of optimists and pessimists.

Table 27 shows that there is considerable agreement; twenty­ one were optimists on both occasions, and five were pessimists on both. Only three have moved from one extreme group to the other.

------~------~------Table 27 Optimists and pessimists in 1981 and 1982

Second First interview (1981) interview (1982) Optimists Neither Pessimists Total ------~ Optimists 21 11 2 34 Neither 12 27 6 45 Pessimists 1 7 5 13 ---~------~------~ Total 34 45 13 92

Table 28 presents responses to the fourth item. This state­ ment refers to past feelings about being unemployed. Therefore it is not logically interrelated with future expectations. It is not inconsistent to have felt degraded and now to be pessimistic about the future. On the other hand, there is a popular notion that being optimistic is characteristic of those who have suf­ fered most humiliation ~n .the past. Despite this Table 28 shows that there is a marked contrast between the optimists and the pessimists. Without exception, all thirteen pessimists agreed at the first interview (and eight agreed strongly) that they had felt degraded by unemployment. In contrast, only eight of the

------~------~--~ Table 28 Responses to item 4 by optimists and pessimists

4 I felt degraded'

agree disagree total

------~--~------first interview optimists 2 6 3 18 2 31 neither 10 6 2 17 4 39 \ pessimists 8 5 0 0 0 13 third interview optimists 0 9 1 16 2 28 neither 3 17 1 19 1 41 pessimists 5 5 1 2 0 13 ------

41 thirty-one optimists responded similarly. Twenty optimists disagreed that they had felt degraded. Looking at the responses to the third interview, the rela­ tionship between pessimism and degradation is very similar. Unexpectedly, perhaps, there is little discernable pattern regarding changes over time. For example, neither of the two individuals who were optimists and became pessimists agreed more strongly with item 4 at the third interview than at the first. What the analysis of data from the two interviews does do, how­ ever, is strengthen our discrimination between the optimists and the pessimists.

Table 29 illustrates further the strength of the association between degradation and pessimism. In this table 'doubts' refers to a neutral response at either of the two interviews. The middle category on both constructed variables includes those who were neutral on both occasions and those who were one thing on one occasion (e.g. optimists or 'agreed') and the opposite on the other (e.g. referring to cells of Table 27, the third column of Table 29 includes the diagonal with frequencies 1, 27 and 2).

------~------~------~------Table 29 Degradation and optimism/pessimism

Optimists Neither Pessimists No No Degradation doubts Doubts Doubts doubts ------Agreed, no doubts 1 7 5 9 5 doubts 1 0 4 4 0 Agreed and disagreed 6 4 9 0 0 Disagreed, doubts 3 3 4 0 0 no doubts 10 9 8 0 0

Table 29 shows a marked contrast between the • confirmed' optimists and the 'doubting' optimists. A significant minority of the latter (seven in total) had felt degraded by unemployment. A similar contrast is apparen~ the pessimists although this is less clear given the near unanimous agreement with the degradation statement. It is worth noting, however; that of the six indivi­ duals who agreed strongly with this statement on both occasions, three are among the £~ve confirmed pessimists.

At a rather trite level, one can conclude that feelings of degradation in the past contribute causal~ to pessimism about the future. Viewed as a process, however, what these findings indi­ cate is that interpretations of the past and expectations about the future are interrelated, so that those who feel down are more likely to 'fall' further, and those who do not feel degraded will continue to live on in hope.

42 Item 8 was included in this analysis since i·t is -a-relevant statement about the current priorities of the individual. The word 'maintain' implies a concern for the future. The aim 'a high standard of' living' is rather more general (and therefore con­ ceivably more relevant to the older redundant ,worker) than the secure job, for example, of item 7. It is possible that pessimists will agree with statement 8 more readily than optimists: a high standard of living is important to pessimists, and feeling degraded by the state of unemployment, they become doubtful about their ability to regain or to maintain a high standard. Given this possibility, it is worth examining the data to see whether there are similar associations to those concerning degradation.

Tables 30 and 31 correspond to Tables 28 and 29. They demon­ strate that there is nothing like the clear relationship that exists between degradation and pessimism. Perhaps the only point worthy of note is the tendency for confirmed optimists to agree with the statement. This suggests that there may be a core of individuals who over both interviews have been consistently opti­ mistic, have denied a feeling of degradation and have placed importance upon a high standard of living. This would be

Table 30 Responses to item 8 by optimists' and pessimists

8 'a high standard of living' agree disagree total

first int~rview optimists 4 19 4 6 1 34 neither 2 21 4 15 3 45 pessimists 1 8 0 2 2 13 third interview optimists 1 15 6 12 0 34 neither 1 26 7 11 0 45 pessimists 0 5 1 7 0 13 ------Table 31 High standard of living and optimism/pessimism Optimists Neither Pessimists No No High standard doubts Doubts Doubts doubts Agreed, no doubts 9 8 13 4 2 doubts 4 2 3 2 0 Agreed and disagreed 6 7 4 5 1 Disgreed, doubts 1 0 4 0 0 no doubts 1 6 6 2 2

43 ~------~

consistent with what would popularly be called a 'positive' approach to life. In fact, although there are five who are characterisied in this way, there is no significant association within the confirmed optimists betwEen responses to statements 4 and 8.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

Several questions in the first and third schedules are open~ ended, and the interviewers were directed to record answers verbatim within the limits of the space available. Generally about six linear inches of handwriting space are provided. Thus the typical response is of hal f a dozen words or so, a few extending to four or five times this length. There are eleven questions which enquire about the reasons for the respondent not seeking further employment or retraining:

1.29 1.88 3.9 3.63 1.37 1.90 3.11 3.65 1.40 1.95 3.51b

'Age' is frequently cited in response to several of these questions and reflects fairly directly certain attitudes held by the respondents. This is perhaps most apparent in the comment: liMy age is against me". This was used by twelve respondents in answer to various questions. In eight instances these concerned applications for retraining, and in six the questions were about decisions not to look for paid work.

There were a few distinctive patterns of response. One followed up' the statement with the comment: "I was 64 when I left work. 1I Another bracketed health with age as factors against him. A third elaborated: "pointless to apply", and a fourth was "not interested". Three revised the statement in subtle ways: "Age is against me." liMy age may be against me." liMy age was against me." The most noteworthy feature, however, is the consistency of the statement. Except for the three revised versions, exactly the same five words are recorded by all twelve respondents. It is not, of course, an unexpected response - particularly from those who are only a few months off statutory retirement age. But it is surely significant that the phrase itself is repeated by so many. There are alternatives, to be examined below, but there were no other statements of fi ve words or more that were offered so frequently. This implies two things. Firstly that 'my age is against me' is not just a statement that respondents happen to put together in response to various questions asked by the interviewer on the Steel Project, but that it is institut­ ionalised as a statement that will have been offered to many others who have enquired why the respondent is not applying for

44 retraining or for work and, more generally, that will have been expressed in many informal discussions about the problems faced by older redundant workers. Secondly, and following on from this, age is popularlx seen to be a handicap, an adversary, in one's endeavours to regain employment: age is not with me; it is not even just 'a problem that I have'; it is explicitly against me. This word 'against' says much about popular attitudes to age in the context of redundancy. A shorter response, which is used rather more frequently is 'too old'. A total of 28 respondents used this to answer the same kinds of questions. Generally this was a self-judgement: "I'm too old now", frequently coupled with a specific age: "I'm too old at 60." A subtle variation is: "1 1m getting a bit too old", (the word 'bit' was used in this ironical sense by three others, e.g.: "Getting a bit old", "I'm a bit old for that now"). But three conveyed something of the judgement of those who organise retraining: "I'm too old - I found that after training you've got to give them 10 years work. II

III was told I was too old. II "I applied for two jobs. As soon as I said 55, I was told too old. Even for a labourer." It is reasonable to suppose that some of the responses that seemed to be self-judgements reflected the same kind of experi­ ence of being judged by others.

The view 'I'm too old now' implies that there exists an age (unspecified) when the respondent became too old - a point is reached when retraining or job-searching is no longer approp­ riate. This is a quite different idea to that of age being against you. It suggests a more compliant attitude - it's not 'age' that is held responsible, rather it is 'me and my being too old' • There are two other common responses. The first centres upon the words 'my age'. Rather than being an active agent within the statement as in 'my age is against me', it is rather more passive as in: "Don't want to retrain at my age", and: IINot at my age anyway." Nine respondents used 'at my age' in this way. tw10st were formulated in the negati ve as in these examples and appeared to reflect choices that the respondents had made. An exception was: "No jobs at my age." All these implied a judgement that the respondent was, too old. There were a further fourteen respondents who simply replied limy age" to these questions, possibly in t'he form: "because of my agell or "owing to my age". In other words 'my age' was con-. sidered by these respondents to be sufficient to explain a decision not to retrain or not to look for work. This con­ ceivably is intended to imply that 'my age is against me'. There

45 was a suggestion in two responses that they also spoke for others: "Have gone up the Job Centre - they say there is nothing for my age." "No jobs available for my age - 11m the wrong side of 30. II This view was also implied in the curt:

UNo jobs available. Age group."

The fourth common response came from 22 respondents who cited their chronological age. Typical is the brief statement: "I'm 62 now." Quite frequently this is used to confirm one of the other statements# e.g.: nAt S9 I'm too old to retrain".

A tota~ of 58 respondents gave at least one of the above responses. The overall frequencies of different responses are shown in Table 32. This demonstrates that there is a high level of consciou~ness of the significance of age for job prospects, best represented by-the views that 'age is against' these 55 to 64 year olds and that they are 'too old'. ------Table 32 Responses to questions about jobs and retraining that refer to age

Response Frequency ------~------My age is against me 12 Too old 28 At my age 9 My age 14 (Chronological age) 22 other 8 ------~------

46 8 HEALTH, RETIREMENT AND GENERATIONS --~------~------The Steel project was not designed to research any aspect of heal th other than as one of many factors that might be associated with redundancy. As a result health specifically appears in only five places in the two schedules.

1981 1) Question 1.29 offers sickness/ill-health as one reason for not seeking work. It is the only option at this point in the first schedule which does not then prompt further ques­ tions. As a result most of the first interviews with those who described themselves as sick are relatively brief.

2) Question 1.94 was only asked of those who described themselves as retired (1.38). It offers ill-health as an answer to a question about the decision to retire early.

1982 3) Like 1.29, question 3.6 offers ·sickness or ill-health' as a status that respondents might have occupied for a period of time between r~dundancy and the third interview.

4) If they describe themselves as currentlx sick or ill in response to 3.7, then they are asked five supplementary questions: 3.54 - 3.58.

5) The third schedule also includes a set of twelve items assessing current changes in well-being (3.105). Some of these (e.g. items b, e and h) could be construed to measure certain aspects of self-perceived ill-health.

To this can be added all the open-ended questions in response to which the respondent may mention sickness or some aspect of ill-health.

Table 33 enumerates combinations of responses to these various items. This demonstrates the fact that there is a marked distinction between those who are unaffected by ill-health and those for whom ill-health is a dominant fact of life. An extreme example of the latter is one respondent who mentioned ill-health in response to eight open-ended questions. Regarding employment he had been sick ever since redundancy. He reported that he was worse than usual in response to seven of the twelve items in question 3.105.

The only question that provides any details about the nature of the ill-health is 3.54. This of course only produces infor­ mation from the respondent and it may be that his doctor (or his wife) would describe the condition very differently. Table 34 nevertheless enumerates the more common conditions that were reported. The terms used range from the 'purely' medical,

47 Table------~------~------33 Combinations of references to ill-health * a reference to ill-health no reference Question Open- Freq. 1.29 3.6 3.54 3.105 ended ------25 * 1 * 12 * 3 * * 3 * * 1 * * 2 * * 1 * * 4 * tt * 5 .* .* * 8 * * * 6 * * * * 3 * * * * 3 * * * * 8 * * * * * 7 ----~------~------~------Total 92 ------~---~------e.g. "diverticulitis", IIAddison's Disease", to the popular and essentially symptomatic, e.g. "breathlessness", livery high blood pressure". A few refer to current medical treatment, e.g. "just had an operation for hernia. Have stomach hernia (as well) which hasn't been done", "open heart surgery", "under investigation for months". Most of the responses imply a serious condition of which the respondent is reasonably familiar. The non-specific response "I've been on the sick" and the vague "water trouble" are very much the exception, as are references to minor conditions.

------~- Table 34 Classification of medical conditions mentioned

Circulatory (e.g. "high blood, pressure") 18 Musculoskeletal ("arthritis") 15 Digestive ("hernia") 12 Respiratory ("pneumoconiosis") 7 Nervous system ("cataracts") 5 Genito-urinary ("Prostate Ope ") 3 Skin ("Psoriasis") 2 Diabetes 1 Others 7 ------~------

48 (8a) This response indicates that most respondents were well able to describe their illnesses and disabilities. Given the potential importance of illness in the transition from work to retire­ ment, it is clearly important to enquire rather more closely into the nature of those conditions which influenced decisions at the time of redundancy. Having said this it is of course important to recognise the possibiliity that some respondents may exaggerate or misrepresent their disabilities or illnesses.

A total of 41 respondents described themselves as currently sick and consequently proceded to questions 3.54 to 3.58 (Table 33). Table 35 presents the distribution of responses to question 3.56. This shows that two have been seeing the doctor weekly for the last three months and eight at least fortnightly. In contrast there is only one who has not seen the doctor (the exception, perhaps, that proves the 'rule' that visiting the doctor means you're sick), and seven who have only seen the doctor the once. In response to question 3.57, two of these 41 respondents described their health as better than when they had been working at BSC, and ten described it as worse. Ten went on to indicate that they are registered as disabled.

------~------Table 35 Number of times seen doctor in last three months

Number of Frequency times ------o 1 1 7 2 7 3 10 4 7 5 1 6 4 10 2 12 2 ----~------It is unfortunate that these questions were only asked of those who are currently sick in respect to employment status since, as Table 33 indicates, there were 26 other respondents who referred to ill-health at other points in their interviews.

(8b) In the coming fieldwork, all respondents will be asked about their health. Regarding the use of health services, they will also be asked about episodes of hospitalisation.

Table 36 includes a classification of open-ended questions that prompted some reference to ill-health by at least one res­ pondent. Many of these responses were simply recorded as

49 Table 36 References to ill-health in answers to open-ended questions TQpic Questions Frequency Selection for redundancy 3.5 8

l'lork 1.29, 1.35, 1.37, 1.40, 1.54 7

Retraining 1.88, 1.90, 3.63, 3.65 23 Retirement 1.93, 1.94, 3.50, ...... , 3.53 7 Residential moves 1.101, ...... , 1.112 10 Friends and social activities 1.135, 1.138 2 Money 1 ... 141, ...... , 1.144 2 ------~------"ill-health", but some were rather more informative.

Of the eight who cited ill-health as a factor in being selected for redundancy (3.5), one commented: "I volunteered. I was glad of it because of ill-health." He was currently seeing the doctor weekly, having just been discharged from hospital after heart surgery. Another stated: "'fhe jobs I was offered I was unable to do. Not fit enough", and he rejected the chance of retraining because he was "too disabled to do carpentry". Similarly a third volunteered for redundancy because "I'd injured my back" - the reason he gave for rejecting retraining and for seeing the doctor regularly in 1982.

(8c) Thus there are respondents who claim that ill­ health caused redundancy and conversely others who claim that employment caused ill-health. It is obviously important to know to what extent respondents believed there was in general a causal relationship between work and ill-health.

Tables 11 and 12 have already described the occurrence of sickness in post-redundancy employment careers. Most of the replies to the work and retraining questions reflect this with relatively little amplification: "My health, you see, ••• 11

It is interesting to note that despite the fact that there is so little residential mobility, much of what there is relates to ill-health. All four respondents who had moved since redun­ dancy had suffered poor health, although one explained the move in terms of his mother's inability to look after herself. Seve­ ral of those who foresaw the possible need to move implied that

50 ill-health might force a move to be nearer the family:

lillI-health - I would move nearer my son." (1.101)

"Family. To be near them. My motrler-in-Iaw is very sick." (1.103)

There are several who are from outside West and Mid Glamorgan who have families elsewhere. Although some of those who are presen­ tly untroubled by ill-health indicate that they have no intention to move, it would seem that ill-health coupled with the freedom to move that comes with unemployment can be quite a spur. Even within the immediate area there are respondents who are prepared to move to escape an unhealthy environment or to be nearer their family in Skewen, Ammanford, or wherever.

(8d) This is one aspect of family life that should be examined: to what extent have there been any residen­ tial moves within the respondents' families (following redundancy, retirement, or otherwise), and how many of these relate to ill-health or disability?

Question 3.105 provides twelve indications of well-being rather than of health. The key words and the frequencies of responses are indicated in Table 37.

Table 37 Responses to 3.105

Better than Same as Worse than Much worse Key word usual usual usual than usual ------~------~------Concentrate 0 66 25 1 Activities 3 65 22 2 Depressed 5 63 20 4 Useful 5 68 18 1 Strain 3 71 16 2 Confidence 2 75 12 3 Sleep 1 78 13 0 Happy 5 74 12 1 \qorthless 2 81 7 2 Overcome problems 0 84 7 1 Decisions 2 82 7 1 Face problems 3 82 7 0

These figures indicate the absence of a certain sense of general well-being. On no item are there more respondents who said that they felt better than usual over the past few weeks than respondents who said that they felt worse than usual. On three items more than a quarter of all 92 respondents indicated that they felt worse than usual.

The response 'much worse than usual' was used by relatively few respondents - only five. They are interesting since all five

51 chose to distinguish between some items about which they felt 'just' worse than usual and others about which they felt much worse than usual. One, for example, who felt much worse than usual in respect to seven items (including the first six in Table 37) is married but has no children. He had been at Margam for 41 years. He occasionally frequents his social club, is very active with a number of domestic activites. He reported no ill-health and had not been off sick. He fel t that his standard of 1 i v ing had fallen a great deal and in 1981 had applied without success for four jobs. In 1982 he had given up applying for jobs because he felt t'hat limy age is against me". A second, much worse than usual on four items, similarly reported no ill-health, but had not. sought work because limy age is against me" and because he is "paid to stay at home". Both his wife and his unmarried daughter had jobs. In contrast a third, much worse than usual on five items, reported at his third interview that he was just over bronchitis and pleurisy. He was "too disabled" to retrain in carpentry and described in his first interview how he had finished a course after seven weeks because he "never had a chance. I was given useless jobs. I asked to finish." In response to 1.103 he said he would go anywhere to take on a caretaker's job with his wife. 'Better than usual' is similarly an exceptional response. Only fifteen used it (see Table 38), and of these nine replied 'same as usual' t~ other items. One respondent who was better than usual on six items reported in the course of the same inter­ view that he was sick because of arthritis. This suggests that well-being ~oes not necessarily imply a lack of ill-health.

------~------~--~- Table 38 Number of items 'better than usual' and number of items 'worse than usual' . , . Number of items per respondent o 1 234 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Tot.

Better 77 9 2 2 2 92 \'lorse 48 12 7 3 5 4 2 4 3 1 o o 3 92 ------The importance of question 3.105 lies in its use as a gene­ ral indicator of well-being and this can be summarised as the number of items in respect to which the respondent feels worse than usual, including those much worse than usual. Table 38 shows that there is a substantial tail to this distribution - qui te apart that is from t,he three who were worse than usual on all twelve items. Taking all those with scores of six or more as being ·overall worse than usual', Table 39 shows that there is a clear association with the optimist/pessimist dimension used in Table 29:· the pessimists abou~ the' future' show a marked tendency to feel worse than usual on these items. (8e) This analysis indicates that question· 3.105 is a useful indicator of well-being. Having said this

52 Table 39

Optimists Neither Pessimists No No doubts Doubts Doubts doubts

Overall worse than usual 1 o 5 5 2 Others 20 23 25 8 3

Total 21 23 30 13 5

it is a fairly lengthy question. Some further analysis will be undertaken to assess the useful­ ness of each of the twelve items.

RETIREMENT

Retirement is a subject that the interview schedules cover only insofar as it is an alternative status to employment. There are just four scheduled sources of data:

1981 1) Question 1.29 offers retirement as an alternative to seeking work. However, unlike sickness, there is a double gate here, because having answered 'retirement', the respon­ dent passes on to question 1.38 regarding his present status. Only if he answers 'retirement' again does he pass on to questions 1.91 - 1.98.

2) Questions 1.91 - 1.98 are eight questions concerning the anticipation of retirement whilst at work, the decision to retire early, possible regrets and expected reactions to a hypothetical offer of employment.

1982 3) Question 3.7 is a single gate. If the respondent is not looking for work because he is retired, he is referred to:

4) QUestions 3.50 - 3.53. These enquire about attitudes to retirement and the possibility of returning to BSC.

Again a further important source of data comes from open­ ended questions.

Starting with question 1.29 and respondents not looking for work in 1981, 22 said this was because they were retired. Of these, three described their status at 1.38 as unemployed and a fourth as employed part-time. (Consequently they should not have gone to 1.91. In fact one did). It is reasonable to suppose that these four had 'retired' from seeking work but in drawing their unemployment benefit were officially unemployed. The other

53 18 were joined by six others as 'retired' in response to the question about employment status (1.38). Three of these six had looked for work and therefore had not been asked 1.29. The other three had given 'other' in response to 1.29 (code 6). Thus 25 came to answer questions 1.91 to 1.98.

Of these 25, only nine were 'retired' in 1982 and therefore answered questions 3.50 - 3.53. Of the 16 others who had been 'retired' 1n 1981, ten were sick in 1982 and six were unemployed. The nine were joined in 1982 as retired by two who had been sick in 1981, by fi ve who had been unemployed and by the respondent who had worked part-time. Thus only 17 answered questions 3.50 - 3.53.

The considerable transfers in status between 1981 and 1982 whereby only nine remained retired may be explained in part by the fact that question 3.7 follows the attempt to qetermine the post-redundancy sequence of status changes (3.6). Consequently what they reported to be their present status may have been largely determined by the ways in which they constructed within the interview a sequence of statuses following redundancy. Certainly this,degree of status mobility is not reflected in the response to question 3.6 (see Table 11), and therefore must be to some extent an artefact of the interview situation. The flows that have been described in these three paragraphs are summarised in Diagram 2.

Turning to the 25 responses to 1.91 - 1.98, eleven said that they had thought about retirement prior to redundancy. All eleven had looked forward to it. Their reasons varied consider­ ably. Two had failing health, a third had an ill wife and a fourth "had had enough". Four referred to their working life:

"Worked all my life",

"Done enough work for Bse to deserve a rest".

Four mentioned the_opportunities of retirement:

"Can now do things when I want to enjoy life",

"Gives me greater opportunities to participate in the things I wanted to do".

Two looked forward to it because of the money:

.. Seemed money for nought II ,

and finally one respondent expressed the belief that "everyone should retire at 60".

These responses were reflected in the reasons given for choosing· to retire early (1.94). Eleven of the 25 said this was because of the money, six because of ill-health and two because they had other interests to pursue. Two concluded that they had

54 Diagram------~----~------2 ------Question 1.28 Not looking

1.29

2

1.38

1.91 - 1.98

3.7 n = •

3.50 - 3.53 Answered n = 17

no chance of another job because of their age.

A total of thirteen would not take another job if offered, six were not sure and six said they would accept it - paradoxic­ ally perhaps, three of the latter had said that they had looked forward to their retirement. Only four regretted their decision to retire early: one feels "out of place", a second enjoyed his job and a third "would rather have worked to 65". Turning to the 1982 interviews and the seventeen-responses to 3.50 - 3.53, 3.50b asks \ about t'he decision to retire early. Where there was an overlap with 1.94, there was general confirma- -tion of the reasons. Seven others who were ·not asked 1.94, included three who mentioned the financial inducements, one whose wife had died and three who "had had enough - no future in asc". Four respondents additionally referred to their age as a factor in the decision.

55 Only three would go back to their old job if offered the chance (3.5la), one because of the money, the other two because they missed the company. Most of those who would not go back, cited age as the reason, a couple were glad to be retired, and four others referred to their inability to do the work - the unsocial hours, tiredness, and being physically unable. This data does not convey the conventional image of retire­ ment: a permanent and unambiguous state of economic inactivity and social activity divorced from the labour market. Rather it indicates that there is also a type of early retirement which is brought on by ill-health and which, given a chronic condition, becomes permanent, and another type which is explained primarily by financial inducements and which, should they be given the opportunity'of further suitable employment, would be essentially temporary.

(8f) This analysis is very limited because the interviews were not designed to investigate retirement. This reflects the fact that one of the main objectives of the Steel Project is to research the effects of the relationship between redundancy and the local labour market upon (potentially) economically active people. The evidence that is available confirms the need, central to the present project, to enquire into the effects of redundancy upon (potentially) economically inactive people. In particular the research will focus upon expectations and beliefs about the process of becoming retired, and the significance of chronological age.

Perhaps the most interesting data about retirement comes from question 3.53. This is a list of nine attitude statements and although there were only seventeen respondents who were asked this question, there was agreement or disagreement by at least twelve on each of the nine statements. Thus this gives a reason­ able idea about the attitudes to retirement of those who describe themselves as .retired. The nine statements that the majority agreed with (reversing the three where the majority disagreed - indicated by upper case typescript) are as follows:

It was NOT easier for people in my father's generation to give up work when they reached retirement age than it is for people today.

Now that I· no longer have to work, I feel more able to enjoy myself.

All things being equal, early retirement is preferable to having to work right up to the age of 65.

Without a job people often feel lost for something to do.

56 Someone who is over 50 and who is offered redundancy WOULD be foolish to take it.

Redundancy payments are no compensation for the loss of a job.

With things the way they are at present, older workers have a responsibility to make way for the younger generation.

In the present economic climate, if you're over 50 and you've been made redundant you might as well regard yourself as retired.

A person in my position DOES have a useful role in life.

These views paint a complex picture. On the one hand these respondents appear to have accepted the fact of their own retire­ ment: they are more able to enjoy themselves, they feel useful, find early retirement preferable, and feel that older workers should make way. On the other hand, they believe that people wi th jobs should hang on to them - money is no compensation and people without can feel lost for something to do.

(8g) It would be foolish to attempt to place undue signifi­ cance upon this data since it is based upon very small numbers, but as a pilot exercise this does suggest that the fourth interview should attempt to extend this attitudinal data across the whole sample, and where appropriate challenge some of the possible contradictions.

GENERATIONS

There are no questions in the Steel Project interview schedules about the relationships between the generations. Con­ sequently it had been expected that data would only have become available as a result of fieldwork for the present project. Data however, has been generated by the open-ended questions of the Steel schedules. A total of 2S respondents volunteered comment about younger people.

wrien asked about selection for redundancy, five mentioned younger people. One respondent said simply that a younger man had taken his place. Two indicated that they were asked to make way for younger men - one described it as the "union's sugges­ tion". Two implied that it was a personal decision:

"Younger men were going to have to go out. Decided I' d be doing a favour."

"Younger men were having to be put out with less money so I made way for others."

The second is particularly interesting since it implies directly

57 a recognition of the relative financial benefits. As we saw in the previous section, three other respondents commented similarly in response to questions about the decision to retire early. It could well be the case that these respondents did not take their redundancy entirely voluntarily, as implied by these responses, since they are largely the same arguments that were widely used to encourage older workers to 'make way' for the younger generation. Four respondents explained the fact that they were not seeking work, by referring to the competition from younger unem­ ployed men. For example: "It seemed men even in their late forties weren't sure of obtaining employment. It "Nothing I can do. If younger people can't get work, there's no chance for me." "The amount of young people out of work in Port Talbot. What chance of work at 60?1I Rather less competitively, two others 'said that there was no need to look for work: they were happy to leave it to younger people. In contrast one respondent who was looking for work said that he wanted a job with youth because he liked working with younger people. In regard to retraining, seven mentioned younger people. Six had not considered applying for retraining because of the needs of the younger generation. Their comments varied between resentment and acceptance: "To give younger people a chance. 1I

"I don't think I'd have a chance. My boy can't get one. 1I

This second example is particularly significant since he refers to his own son. Another similarly comments: "My boy's been out for as long as me - he's appl ied for a hundred jobs and failed." The seventh applied for retraining but was told they wanted youngsters and did not get a place. In question 3.16, respondents were asked about the advice they would offer to a redundant acquaintance who was looking for work. Twelve made some reference to age and seven of these specifically offered advice for younger men. Most of this was pessimistic: one suggested emigration, another said it was no good going to the job centre. (Bh) Although one might have expected rather more advice to the young in response to question 3.16, the overall

SB impression from this data is that these older workers are well aware of the contrasting interests of the different generations. This confirms the significance placed upon this aspect of redundancy and age written into the proposal of the present project. Thus this will indeed be an area for further enquiry, with special attention paid to references to particular individuals and their generational membership.

59 9 CONCLUSION

Inevitably, perhaps, this analysis had taken longer and has generated more findings and questions than had originally been anticipated. A number of rather general points should be made in order to conclude this essentially preliminary report.

l) The detai led analysis of the 92 was started before firm decisions were taken about sampling. At the time it had seemed that the second questionnaire might be important: hence the decision to' isolate the 92 from the 30 who \'lere excluded from Wave 2. In fact, although it does not include any relevant questions not asked at either of the other interviews, the second questionnaire could indeed be important since the repetition of questions about retirement, health, acquaintances and family could prove valuable longitudinal or confirmatory data (as, for example, proved to be the case in the analysis of attitudes: section 7). Nevertheless the analysis in this report has been strictly limited to data available on the first and third inter­ view schedules. Attention will be paid to the second interview as well as the coming fieldwork when the final report is written.

2) As indicated in paragraph 2a, interviewing will start with the 92 respondents whose earlier interviews have been the subject of tl-"is report, and will tt.en continue into the 30 who were not included in the second wave of interviews (see Table 4). It is hoped that at least 100 interviews will be completed over the next few months. Inevitably there wil be some non-response. The data already collected will provide material for a detailed assessment of the characteristics of the non-respondents.

3) The indented paragraphs in this report provide a guide to most of the topics to be covered by the fieldwork. Also appended to this report is a copy of the aide-rnemoire which will be used during piloting. These piloted interviews will be taped. It is hoped that it will be possible to directly transfer data from the tapes into some suitable analytical form which does not necessitate excessive audio-transcribing.

4) After the piloted interviews, the resulting data will be carefully scrutinised to check that all aspects of the research objectives are being covered, either by the current or by earlier interviews.

5) This preliminary analysis has shown that on most vari­ ables there are a number of exceptional respondents who, in a sense, stand apart from the majority - the confirmed optimists, the lodging house residents, the workers who have been in the steel industry since before the War, and so on. On only a few dimensions is there no obvious majority or modal characteristic - a notable exception is house tenure. However, it is also true that most respondents are exceptional in one way or another over the wide range of characteristics considered. There is a certain

60 danger, given the wealth of information already collected, in attending unduly to these exceptional characteristics at the expense of the cornmon features of the experience of redundancy. It would be interesting, for example, to learn from the divorced how marriage break-up is affected by - or affects - work and the possibility of redundancy or early retirement. Moreover a di­ vorced respondent may be only too happy to attempt to explain this relationship in considerable detail. However, this is not the subject of the research and I will endeavour to limit the interview to the primary objectives within which divorce is just one of a considerable number of family circumstances that may be taken into account in decisions and reactions to redundancy. Similarly, upon reflection, the analysis in this report of opti­ misim/pessimism does not seem wholly satisfactory since it creates a classification of different types of respondents (con­ firmed optimists, etc.) in describing the associations between different responses sets. Consequently the main thrust of the present project will be to identify similarities rather than differences 'within the sample.

6) The prospect of fieldwork with this orientation is not the most exciting since it implies repeated enquiry into the same topics and documenting in some detail responses of little vari­ ety. There will, however, be some relief from two sources. First there are some differences that cannot be ignored: long­ serving / recent recruits, large 'normal' families / small or Inon-I families, work since redundancy / continuous un- or non­ employment, health / ill-health, etc. The implications of these circumstances upon the effect of and the response to redundancy and retirement must be fully examined. Secondly this, to a considerable extent, is a longitudinal study. Given (a) the importance of the historical links between the respondents' working lives and the industrial development of Port Talbot, and (b) the potentially complex problem of how an older worker orders his few remaining years prior to state retirement age, it is essential that the sample is reasonably homogeneous, and that variations that do become the focus of attention are studied because they relate to this historical/ developmental perspective.

61 REFERENCES

Bytheway, W.R., 1975. 'A Statistical Trap Associated with Family Size' , J. Biosoc. Sci., 6. Lee, R.M., 1983a. 'Redundancy, Labour Markets and Informal Relations', Paper given at the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association. Cardiff, April 1983.

Lee, R.M., 1983b. survey of redundant stree1workers: Selected results from Waves 1 and 2. Internal working paper: LS, July 1983.

'~alker, A., Noble, I. and Westergaard, J., 1983. From secure employment to labour market insecurity: the impact of redundancy on older workers in the steel industry. Conference paper, Sheffield, November 1983.

62 APPENDICES

1 The schedule of the first wave of interviews, 1981.

2 The schedule of the third wave of interviews, 1982.

3 The aide-memoire of the pilot fieldwork for the present project, 1984.

63 '