British employees are sabotaging workplace robots over fears the machines will take their jobs

UK workers are sabotaging and assaulting workplace robots in an attempt to stop them taking their jobs, finds study. But for some manual workers they have found their own ways of stopping the robots' rise to world domination - by confusing them. The study by De Montfort University in Leicester which looked into the use of robotics in healthcare concluded that UK workers are particularly apposed to the introduction of the intelligent machines into the work place. Compared to Norway where the study found co-working robots are often given affectionate names and welcomed. Jonathan Payne, Professor of Work, Employment and Skills, said: 'We heard stories of workers standing in the way of robots, and minor acts of sabotage - and not playing along with them.' Adding: 'The UK seems to have a problem with diffusion and take-up of technology.'