We have been working with the Work and Equalities Institute at Alliance Manchester Business School to help them communicate the work being done by their academics on a series of issues around work and workers’ rights.

The project, which was a collaboration between Story Publishing and academics at the University of Manchester, was developed using interviews, journal material and up-to-date references on each topic. Our aim was to capture the essence of the research and develop shorter form briefing papers, for a wider audience.

There are six papers, on a series of issues, including: the growing challenge of precarious work and zero hours contracts; the challenge of implementing the living wage; what it’s really like to be a professional female footballer; the experience of women expatriates working in Middle Eastern economies; and the psychology of older workers. We also looked at the rights of South African fruit workers and the realities they face as part of international supply chains dominated by European supermarkets.

• Emotion, stress and burnout – ‘Don’t write off older workers’ 
• The living wage: putting a social aspiration into practice
• One step forward: how South African farm workers won their pay battle, but supermarkets are winning the war