Multinational Enterprises Programme Working Papers Research on Employment Bffects of Multinational Snterprises Working Paper No. 5 Employment of multinational in the United Kingdom by terprises JM, Stopford, London Business School « Geneva, International Labour Office, 1979Copyright (e) International Labour Organisation, 1979 This is one of the working papers prepared for an ILO research project on the Employment Effects of Multinational Enterprises in Home and Host Countries, undertaken in the 1978/79 biennium by the ILO's Multinational Enterprise Programme. Responsibility for the opinions expressed in the working papers rests solely with their authors and’ the release of the working papers does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO of the opinions expressed in them. The working papers are intended to provide elements for fubther discussion of the subjects treated in them. The research project benefited from financial support of the Government of the Netherlands, the Central Union of Swiss Employers’ Associations and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions which is, herewith, gratefully acknowledged.INTRODUCTION For many years multinational enterprises: (MNEs). especially those in the manufacturing industries, have been accused by their critics of creating many undesirable economic and social conditions. Prominent in the list of charges have been those to do with employment and the creation of wealth in both home and host countries. In the home countries, those that export capital, there has been concern that MNBs export jobs when they invest abroad. In the host countries the concerns have been rather different and more complex. ‘There have been worries that investment in a host country does not always create new jobs, especially when the investment takes the form of acquiring a local firm. Indeed, acquisition can be followed by the destruction of jobs as operations are ‘rationalised’ and new work procedures installed. Furthermore, the MNEs are often accused of shutting down operations in the host country so as to protect employment in the home country during different trading periods. And, to add insult to this sense of injury, the MBs are thought to pay infletionary wage rates. These charges have been repeated so often that they tend to become encrustations on conventional thinking about employment, Yet evidence to support thése charges is at best patohy.