Changing workplace geographies: Restructuring warehouse employment in the Oslo region

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Jordhus-Lier ◽  
Anders Underthun ◽  
Kristina Zampoukos
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Temporary Work ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
Scale Network ◽  
Recruitment System ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies ◽  
Temporary Agency Workers

The article examines changing employment relations in Norwegian warehouses, and conceptualises the increasing use of temporary agency workers as a redrawing of workplace geographies. The empirical basis for the analysis is four qualitative warehouse workplace studies, including focus group and interview data. The theoretical framework of the article combines an adapted version of the territory-place-scale-network (TPSN) framework developed by Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones with the concepts of labour control and labour agency. The analysis shows how a networked recruitment system based on Swedish labour migrants, mediated via temporary work agencies, encourage workers to work their way through levels of employment insecurity in order to secure permanent employment. The article argues that the blurring and redrawing of legal boundaries through labour hire can be understood as a territorial strategy of control that affects the workplace as a scale of justice for trade unions. Moreover, the analysis shows how managerial control is conditioned by workers’ individual, habitual and collective agency.

scholarly journals The double psychological contracts of temporary agency workers

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 708-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Morf ◽  
Alexandra Arnold ◽  
Bruno Staffelbach
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Contract ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Job Attitudes ◽  
Psychological Contracts ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Temporary Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Traditional Work ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies ◽  
Temporary Agency Workers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how temporary agency workers’ job attitudes are influenced by the fulfilment of the psychological contract; a set of employees’ expectations, formed with the temporary work agency and its client: the host organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper estimated moderated regressions with data collected through an online survey of 352 temporary agency workers employed by a large temporary work agency in Switzerland. Findings – Results suggest that temporary agency workers’ job satisfaction, commitment towards the host organisation, and intentions to stay with the temporary work agency relate positively to the fulfilment of the psychological contract by both organisations. Additionally, reported spill-over-effects imply that the fulfilment of the psychological contract by one organisation moderates job attitudes towards the other organisations. Research limitations/implications – Results of the explorative study reveal that future research should consider the interrelated nature of psychological contracts in working arrangements when multiple employers are involved. However, for more generalisable results, a greater international sample, including different temporary work agencies, would be favourable. Practical implications – Findings will help temporary work agencies to better understand how they rely on host organisations to fulfil the temporary agency workers’ psychological contract to attract and retain temporary agency workers. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature in the understudied field of non-traditional work arrangements as one of the few to examine these spill-over-effects both empirically and theoretically.

scholarly journals “The Staircase Model” – Labor Control of Temporary Agency Workers in a Swedish Call Center

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Gunilla Olofsdotter
Keyword(s):  
Call Center ◽  
Structural Control ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Temporary Work ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Telecommunication Services ◽  
Labor Control ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies ◽  
Temporary Agency Workers

The article explores the labor control practices implemented in a call center with extensive contracting of temporary agency workers (TAWs). More specifically, the article focuses on how structural and ideological power works in this setting and on the effects of this control for TAWs’ working conditions. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with TAWs, regular employees, and a manager in a call center specializing in telecommunication services in Sweden. The results show that ideological power is important in adapting the interests of TAWs to correspond with those of temporary work agencies (TWAs) and their client companies, in this case the call center. The results also show how ideological power is mixed with structural control in terms of technological control systems and, most importantly, a systematic categorization of workers in a hierarchical structure according to their value to the call center. By systemically categorizing workers in the staircase model, a structural inequality is produced and reproduced in the call center. The motives for working in the call center are often involuntary and are caused by the shortage of work other than a career in support services. As a consequence, feelings of insecurity and an awareness of the precarious nature of their assignment motivate TAWs to enhance their performance and hopefully take a step up on the staircase. This implies new understandings of work where job insecurity has become a normal part of working life.

German temporary agency workers’ SWB: the impact of POS provided by agencies

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 1030-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Imhof ◽  
Maike Andresen
Keyword(s):  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Temporary Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies ◽  
Perceived Job Insecurity ◽  
Temporary Agency Workers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the specific relationship between temporary agency workers (TAWs) and their employing temporary work agencies in Germany that is characterized – in contrast to other European countries – by agencies’ central role in employment and the prevalence of permanent contracts. The study addresses a research gap in understanding the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) provided by temporary work agencies in the relationship between employment-specific antecedents and TAWs’ subjective well-being (SWB). Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 350 TAWs in Germany, the mediating role of POS provided by agencies is analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The authors show that procedural justice, performance feedback and social network availability positively relate to POS while perceived job insecurity shows the expected negative influence and distributive justice has no impact on POS. POS, in turn, positively relates to SWB. The partially mediating effect of POS between employment-specific antecedents and SWB is also confirmed. Research limitations/implications The study is based on cross-sectional data and self-reported measures; this may limit causal inferences. Practical implications The results highlight the importance of agencies creating POS and reducing perceived job insecurity for improving TAWs’ SWB. Originality/value The study contributes to previous POS research by focusing on the agencies’ role and by showing the mediating effect of POS on TAWs’ SWB in Germany.

Are Temporary Work Agencies More Vulnerable to Ethnic Hiring Discrimination?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Decoster ◽  
Stephanie Segers ◽  
Eva Derous
Keyword(s):  
Temporary Work ◽  
Hiring Discrimination ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies

scholarly journals Employment Protection and Temporary Work Agencies

Labour ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Baumann ◽  
Mario Mechtel ◽  
Nikolai Stähler
Keyword(s):  
Employment Protection ◽  
Temporary Work ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies

Regulatory avoidance in the temporary work agency industry: Evidence from Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Knox
Keyword(s):  
Temporary Work ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Temporary Work Agencies

Within the context of the Australian Senate’s Inquiry into corporate avoidance of the Fair Work Act 2009, this research examines regulatory avoidance in the temporary work agency industry. The findings highlight that regulatory avoidance in Australian temporary work agencies has intensified and expanded, normalising exploitation and further exacerbating precarious work and its detrimental outcomes. The study contributes to debates regarding regulation of temporary work agencies and illustrates the importance of examining how regulatory avoidance is constructed and played out in national contexts.

9. Collective labour law

2019 ◽  
pp. 635-703
Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The Law

This chapter considers the laws that affect trade unions and employment relations at a collective level, with the exception of strikes and other industrial action which are examined in Chapter 10. The chapter begins by considering the legal status of a trade union and the statutory concept of trade union independence. The applicability of trade union law to workers in the gig economy is also considered. The focus then shifts to the ways in which the law seeks to secure freedom of association, by provisions which protect and support union membership and activities including giving protection against discrimination and providing rights to time off for union duties and activities. The chapter then turns to the concept of recognition of unions for collective bargaining, and the legal rights that come with recognition. It also examines the statutory system for securing recognition. The relevance of the European Convention on Human Rights is considered throughout as are the changes made by the Trade Union Act 2016. The law relating to domestic and European works councils is also considered.

Fissured Employment and Network Bargaining: Emerging Employment Relations Dynamics in a Contingent World of Work

ILR Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 001979392096418
Author(s):  
Mark Anner ◽  
Matthew Fischer-Daly ◽  
Michael Maffie
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Work Relationships ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Firm Strategies ◽  
Network Bargaining

For decades, direct employment relationships have been increasingly displaced by indirect employment relationships through networks of firms and layers of managerial control. The firm strategies driving these changes are organizational, geographic, and technological in nature and are facilitated by state policies. The resulting weakening of traditional forms of collective bargaining and worker power have led workers to counter by organizing broader alliances and complementing structural and associational power with symbolic power and state-oriented strategies through what the authors term “network bargaining.” These dynamics point to the limitations of dominant theories and frameworks for understanding employment relations and suggest a new approach that focuses on a range of direct and indirect work relationships, evolving forms of worker power, and networked patterns of worker–employer interactions.

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