Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
Throughout much of the 20th century, the wages of the weak were enhanced, directly or indirectly, by the strength of trade unions. In the past two or three decades, global competitive pressures have undermined them. The consequent increase of inequality threatens social stability. One response has been greater government intervention with, for example, more use of minimum wages. Another response is the mobilisation of consumers to protect employment standards by reputational threats to brand names. Wages are too important to society to be left to unconstrained market forces.
Professor William Brown has been the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Cambridge since 1985. In Cambridge he has served as Chair of the Faculty of Economics and Politics, and is currently Chair of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. His research has been concerned with workplace bargaining, pay determination, and the effect of legal change and outside intervention on labour relations.
For the past 20 years he has served as an ACAS arbitrator, was until recently a member of ACAS Council, and has been a member of the Low Pay Commission since it was established to manage the National Minimum Wage in 1997. Professor Brown is the Master of Darwin College, Cambridge and in 2002 was awarded a CBE for services to employment relations.
The Madingley Lectures take place at Madingley Hall, home of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE). This lecture series, given by eminent speakers across a wide range of subjects, is an important part of ICE's commitment to public engagement.
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