I have always thought that productivity means screw thee worker.

Yes and they Company is to stupid to not reward them for great ideas rather, they say mind your business and do your job. I was that manager and I was put down a number of times for great ideas. One was to convert our product from glass containers to plastic because of the wt factor. We were never acknowledged for this idea. Two years later they converted without any recognition or reward.

Sounds like neoliberalism talk to me.

I would bet a private company has been hired to do this 'empowering' training, and the shareholders and owners of the company offering these services are laughing all the way to the bank.

This neoliberalism bollocks really irritates me actually. It's similar to corporations who teach mindfullness techniques to staff who are stressed from overwork. The money spent on the training could have been spent on extra staff instead, which would have avoided the need for mindfulness training in the first place.

The real answer is to make businesses into co-operatives, so the staff can run the company themselves and share in its profits. If it's public sector, the unions need greater control.