Remuneration

APPENDIX n

Working Conditions

EXERCISE 1

Match up the following words with the underlined words in'the text.

EXERCiSE 1

Complete the text using the words in the box:

cash

deducted

incentive

commission

evaluate

increments

salary

executive directors earning potential

cost-of-living allowance fringe benefit salespeople

Most of che fulhtime employees at our headquarters in Manchester eam an annual salary, divided into twelve monthly payments. Income tax is automatically (1) subtracted from the salary each month, along with National Insurance contributions. The staff in our London office also receive a London (2) weighnng, because living and working in the Capital is morę expensive. Unlike many public sector jobs (civil servants, teachers, nurses, and so on) our staff do not receive (3) automatic increases to their salary every year. Pay rises are given according to merit, and there is no fixed pay-scale. We have an appraisal system in which che managers (4) assess the performance of their subordinates every Uecemher. The (5) senior managers are also paid a bonus ac the end of the year if the financial results are good, on top of their basie (6) remuneration. which is already rather high.

The sal es fotce eam a basie fixed salary, plus (7) a nercentage of the value of their snles. which is otwiously an (8) encouragement to higher productivity. On the other hand, the (9) ręps do not receive overtime pay if they work long hours. The (10) potential income of che most successful ones is higher than that ot some of the managers.

The hourly paid staff - cleaners, canteen workers, and so on - receive their wages in (11) notes and

mm m a pay packet every Friday. Of course this is after all deducrions such as tax and insurance contributions.

Because we are in the insurance business we all get at least one (12) pęrk - cheap insurance policies.

EXERCISE 2

these common expressions refer to earning a high or a Iow salary?

Do

Believe me, they pay peanuts.

He really is one of the fat cats.

He’s rolling in it.

I don t know where he finds the time to spend it.

I eam an absolute pittance.

Its hardly worth getting out of bed for.

Its nothing to write home about.

She earns a fortunę.

She musr be absolutely loaded.

We’re talking serious money here, about 120K.

- If you pay peanuts. you get monkeys!

1-. Are we talking telephone numbers?

translate the highlighted expre$sions in the text into your own Ianguage.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7. S.

9.

10.

My working conditions? Pd say they’re really good. The working hours are very reasonable - 38 hours a week, Mondays to Fridays only, and I get four weeks paid (1).......... I always go on a two-week

(2) .........in the summer and 1 like to take another week to go skiing in the winter. That still leaves

a few days if I want to take time off for something else. I think we’re even allowed to take unpaid

(3) .........if it’s really necessary. They introduced a (4).........system last year, so 1 can start

any time between 7.30 and 9.30 in the moming, so I sometimes leave at 4 in the aftemoon. Of course this means we now have to clock in and clock out, so we have to do the right number of hours.

Women get generous (5).........leave, although that doesn’t concem me yet, and there are a lot of

women employed half-time or part-time here, so they have time for their children.

Of course Pm a full-time white-collar worker, hoping to make a career here. My (6).........and I

have permanent (7)..........At least we think so, its hard to be surę about job (8).........these

days. We are consulted if they want to change our (9).........or anything.

The entire (10).........is well-treated, not just us. The company’s blue-collar workers, doing

(11).........jobs, also have good conditions of employment.

It all makes a change from when 1 was a student, when 1 did casual, unskilled, seasonal work for a fruit

company, paid by the hour, with no (12).........or holiday pay or anything. They treated workers

really badly, so (13).........was Iow, nobody was motivated, productivity was minimal, and there

was a lot of (14).........and high tumover - I used to see new people almost every day. There was

no job (15)........., and nothing changed if our performance was good or bad, so we all did the

minimum.

EXERCISE 2

Match up the following words and expressions into logical pairs:

white collar worker