Employees across the country have seen their pay frozen or cut, while their working hours have been increased.
This is according to a new ICM/Guardian poll, which has found that as many as one in five workers have found themselves working longer hours since the recession began.
Meanwhile many employees have endured pay freezes – which, with rising inflation, can amount to significant real terms pay cuts.
Some 16 per cent of those surveyed said they had received pay cuts since the start of the recession. Nearly a quarter said they expect to receive either a pay freeze or a cut each year during the next three years.
The increasing precariousness of many employees’ situations has led many commentators to suggest that the UK now faces a sustained period of industrial action.
Unions including the NUT and PCS have already voted to walk out on 30 June, in what is widely expected to be the first day of a lengthy battle between unions and government on issues including pension rights.
