labour

labour la‧bour [ˈleɪbə ǁ -ər] , labor noun [uncountable]

1. work involving a lot of physical or mental effort:

• The garage charges £65 an hour for labour.

• those involved in repetitive, unskilled manual labour (= work that involves using your hands )

2. HUMAN RESOURCES withdraw your labour to stop working at your job for a period of time as a protest:

• Union members voted to withdraw their labour for 24 hours.

3. HUMAN RESOURCES all the people who work for a company or in a country:

• a shortage of skilled labor

• Some US companies relocate to Mexico in search of cheap labor (= people who are paid very low wages ) .

• The airline's labor costs are amongst the lowest in the industry.

ˌcasual ˈlabour , casual labor HUMAN RESOURCES

workers that a company employs on a temporary basis:

• Casual labour is widely used within the hotel and catering industries.

ˈchild ˌlabour , child labor

the use of children to do work that is normally done by adults:

• The company has been accused of using child labour for the production of its garments.

ˈcontract ˌlabour , contract labor HUMAN RESOURCES

employees who do not work directly for an organization, but are employed by a firm that has a contract to do particular work for the organization:

• One hospital used contract labor for 30,000 or 40,000 hours annually.

diˌrect ˈlabour , direct labor

1. HUMAN RESOURCES workers such as those who operate machines, who are directly involved in the production of goods or services, rather than those involved in organizing or managing:

• The direct labor work force is up by 60% over last year's levels.

• A batch of this product requires four direct-labor hours.

• Direct labour costs have decreased.

2. ACCOUNTING the cost of employing workers to make a particular product or provide a particular service. This does not include other costs such as the amount spent on materials etc:

• Direct labor as a percentage of total costs declined throughout this period.

3. HUMAN RESOURCES in Britain, workers who are employed directly by an organization such as a local government authority, rather than being employed through a separate company:

• a design that could be easily executed by direct labour

ˌforced ˈlabour , forced labor

people who are forced to do hard physical work in bad conditions, or the work itself:

• the replacement of forced labour by wage labour

• Thousands suffered imprisonment or forced labour.

ˌindirect ˈlabour , indirect labor HUMAN RESOURCES

workers such as those involved in organizing or managing, who are not directly involved in the production of goods or services:

• Under the contract, we pay them a fixed monthly sum to cover their direct and indirect labour costs.

ˌorganized ˈlabour , organized labor especially AmE

all the people in different industries who belong to a union (= an organization that protects workers' rights ) :

• Organized labor has traditionally opposed changes in the federal laws on overtime pay.

ˌsweated ˈlabour , ˈsweat ˌlabor

disapproving people who work very hard for very low pay, or the work they do:

• Working from home is no longer associated with sweated labour.

* * *

labour UK US UK (US labor) /ˈleɪbə^r/ noun [U]

► practical work, especially involving physical effort: »

The cost will depend on the amount of labour involved.

»

They gave us an estimated price including parts and labour.

»

The shorts sell for $45, but the hard labor of the women who made them cost just 50 cents.

»

Most jobs these days aren't exhausting manual labour.

► HR workers in a company or a country, especially people who do practical work with their hands: skilled/unskilled labour »

Foreign workers were brought in to fill a temporary shortfall in skilled labor.

»

We use casual labour during busy periods.

»

cheap/local/temporary labour

»

More companies are building plants abroad to take advantage of cheaper labor costs.

»

labour disputes/shortages/standards

→ See Note WORKFORCE(Cf. ↑workforce)

● withdraw your labour — Cf. withdraw your labour

→ See also AGENCY LABOUR(Cf. ↑agency labour), CASUAL(Cf. ↑casual) adjective, CHILD LABOUR(Cf. ↑child labour), DIRECT LABOUR(Cf. ↑direct labour), DIVISION OF LABOUR(Cf. ↑division of labour), FORCED LABOUR(Cf. ↑forced labour), INDIRECT LABOUR(Cf. ↑indirect labour), ORGANIZED LABOUR(Cf. ↑organized labour), SWEATED LABOUR(Cf. ↑sweated labour)