Employment

Question 1

average worker

Answer 1

The usual or ordinary kind of worker.

Question 2

blue collar worker

Answer 2

A manual industrial worker.

Question 3

collective agreement

Answer 3

A negotiated agreement, which is not enforceable at law, between an employer and employees’ representatives, covering rates of pay or terms and conditions of employment, or both.

Question 4

collective bargaining

Answer 4

Negotiation between one or more trade unions and one or more employers or an employers’ organisation on the incomes and working conditions of the employees.

Question 5

contractor

Answer 5

A person or firm that contracts to supply materials or labour, esp for building.

Question 6

dead-end job

Answer 6

A job with no future perspectives.

Question 7

dole money

Answer 7

Money received from the state while out of work.

Question 8

early retirement

Answer 8

Retirement before the usual or expected age or date.

Question 9

(to) employ

Answer 9

To employ.

Question 10

employee

Answer 10

A person who is hired to work for another or for a business, firm, etc, in return for payment.

Question 11

employer

Answer 11

A person, business, firm, etc, that employs workers.

Question 12

employment

Answer 12

• The act of employing or state of being employed;
• The work or occupation in which a person is employed.

Question 13

fee

Answer 13

A payment asked by professional people or public servants for their services eg. a doctor’s fee.

Question 14

(to) fire

Answer 14

To dismiss from employment.

Question 15

flexible working hours/flexitime

Answer 15

A system permitting flexibility of working hours at the beginning or end of the day, provided an agreed period of each day (core time) is spent at work.

Question 16

golden handcuffs

Answer 16

A large amount of money and other financial benefits that are given to somebody to persuade them to continue working for a company rather than leaving to work for another company.

Question 17

golden handshake

Answer 17

Generous bonus offered to a director, employee, or partner as a severance payment, or an inducement to leave the firm without making a fuss or creating a controversy.

Question 18

golden hello

Answer 18

A large amount of money or other financial benefits given by a company to new employees in order to attract good people.

Question 19

health care

Answer 19

The provision of medical services.

Question 20

hot-desk

Answer 20

A system where employees do not have their own desk, but use any that is available.

Question 21

maternity leave

Answer 21

A period of paid absence from work, in Britain currently six months, to which a woman is legally entitled during the months immediately before and after childbirth.

Question 22

mediator

Answer 22

Somebody who intervenes (between parties or in a dispute) in order to bring about agreement.

Question 23

moonlighting

Answer 23

• To have an additional job, esp. unofficially or without the knowledge of the government tax department;
• To work although one is claiming money from the government for being unemployed.

Question 24

notice

Answer 24

Advance notification of intention to end an arrangement, contract, etc, as of renting or employment (esp in the phrase give notice).

Question 25

offshore outsourcing

Answer 25

Work done for a company by people in another country that it typically done at a much cheaper cost. Call centers are a popular service that is often outsourced to other countries. Offshore outsourcing is often blamed for increasing unemployment in a specific country due to the lack or elimination of jobs.

Question 26

outplacement service/agency

Answer 26

An agency that provides counselling and careers advice, esp to redundant executives, which is paid for by their previous employer.

Question 27

outsourcing

Answer 27

To send away (some of a company’s work) to be done by people outside the company.

Question 28

pay

Answer 28

Money given in return for work or services; a salary or wage.

Question 29

pension scheme/plan

Answer 29

An arrangement to receive a pension from an organisation such as an insurance company or a former employer in return for making regular payments to them over a number of years.

Question 30

profession

Answer 30

An occupation requiring special training in the liberal arts or sciences, esp one of the three learned professions, law, theology, or medicine.

Question 31

(to) recruit

Answer 31

To find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organisation, etc.

Question 32

redundancy pay

Answer 32

A sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee’s rate of pay and length of service.

Question 33

(to make) redundant/to lay off

Answer 33

Suspension or termination of employment (with or without notice) by the employer or management. Layoffs are not caused by any fault of the employees but by reasons such as lack of work, cash, or material. Permanent layoff is called redundancy.

Question 34

(to) retire/retirement

Answer 34

To stop working at one’s job, profession, usually because of age.

Question 35

sabbatical

Answer 35

A period of time when somebody is allowed to stop their normal work in order to study or travelecon.

Question 36

salary

Answer 36

A fixed regular payment made by an employer, often monthly, for professional or office work as opposed to manual work.

Question 37

self-employed

Answer 37

Earning one’s living in one’s own business or through freelance work, rather than as the employee of another.

Question 38

severance pay

Answer 38

Compensation paid by an organisation to an employee who leaves because, through no fault of his own, the job to which he was appointed ceases to exist, as during rationalization, and no comparable job is available to him.

Question 39

shop steward

Answer 39

A coworker elected by trade union members to represent them in discussions and negotiations with the management.

Question 40

shopfloor

Answer 40

The part of a factory housing the machines and men directly involved in production.

Question 41

sick leave

Answer 41

Leave of absence from work through illness.

Question 42

skilled labour/worker

Answer 42

Labour or work that demands skill and which you usually have to be trained for, or the workers that provide this labour.

Question 43

social security

Answer 43

• Public provision for the economic, and sometimes social, welfare of the aged, unemployed, etc, esp through pensions and other monetary assistance;
• A government programme designed to provide such assistance.

Question 44

(to) strike

Answer 44

To cease work collectively as a protest against working conditions, low pay, etc.

Question 45

subcontractor

Answer 45

A person, company, etc, that enters into a subcontract, esp a firm that undertakes to complete part of another’s contract.

Question 46

temp

Answer 46

A person, esp a typist or other office worker, employed on a temporary basis.

Question 47

trade union

Answer 47

An association of employees formed to improve their incomes and working conditions by collective bargaining with the employer or employer organisations.

Question 48

unemployment

Answer 48

The condition of being without work.

Question 49

unemployment benefit

Answer 49

A regular payment to a person who is out of work.

Question 50

unemployment rate

Answer 50

The number of unemployed workers, considered as a percentage of the total labour force.

Question 51

unskilled labour/worker

Answer 51

A worker who does not have any special skill or training.

Question 52

vacancy

Answer 52

A job or position that is available to be taken.

Question 53

wage

Answer 53

Payment in return for work or services, esp that made to workmen on a daily, hourly, weekly, or piece-work basis.

Question 54

white collar worker

Answer 54

A person whose job is professional or clerical and usually salaried.

Question 55

working conditions

Answer 55

The conditions in which an individual or staff works, including but not limited to such things as amenities, physical environment, stress and noise levels, degree of safety or danger, and the like.