If their employees are insufficiently productive to justify their wage… the employer will have to fire them or suffer losses to competitors. Whether this results in or encourages dour employers is situational. It’s good that in a free enterprise system there are multiple employers and the prospect of setting up your own business… of any magnitude. If I had to work with gov’t unions (and their members) and other nonsense stemming from the state, I’d also likely be more cynical. Firms that mistreat their employees tend to get a bad rep for it… especially in HRM crazed countries like the UK.