Hyper-individualized recruitment: Rural-urban labour migration and precarious construction work in Bangladesh

Abstract

Indirect recruitment through individual recruiters triggers specific areas of precarious employment in the construction sector of Bangladesh. This paper critically examines the navigating role of individual recruiters in determining precarious work conditions for the rural-urban migrant labourers. It unpacks the inter-connections between recruitment practices, rural-urban labour migration and precarious employment in the construction sector of Bangladesh. Taking the case study of migrant construction labourers in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, it draws on surveys and in-depth interviews to examine specific conditions of individualized recruitment practices and employment relations that contribute to various pressures and insecurities amongst migrant construction labourers. Examining labour recruitment through the lens of precarious work, this paper argues that neoliberal practices have led to indirect recruitment practices where the pronounced existence of individual recruiters as the key actors underpins the precariousness of construction labour in Bangladesh.

“The lottery of my life”: Migration trajectories and the production of precarity among Bangladeshi migrant workers in Singapore's construction industry

“…Beyond the state and the market, there has been less attention on the role of migration brokers and labor market intermediaries in producing conditions of precarity, despite Enright’s (2013: 296) observation that formal and informal labor market intermediaries play an active role in facilitating migration, molding employment relations and “reshaping the spatialities of workers' mobility, thus having a dramatic effect both in constraining and enhancing worker agency.” Particularly in industries such as construction where the use of brokers for recruitment and subcontracting remains prevalent, it is important to analyze the role of intermediaries in simultaneously facilitating labor market flexibility by down-sourcing risk to migrants, and exploiting these vulnerabilities for profit (Debrah and Ofori, 1997; Enright, 2013). As Reza (2016: 45) explains, mediated or indirect recruitment “through layers of individual recruiters blurs their responsibility toward workers and such employment practices increase the intensity of precariousness by favoring capital against labor.” Given the inherent volatility associated with economic ups and downs in the construction sector, businesses cope with the risks of the “boom-bust character” of the industry by using labor supply intermediaries where the risks can be downloaded through the recruitment process onto the workers, thus intensifying precarity (Reid-Musson et al., 2015: 11).…”

Do decent working conditions contribute to work–life balance

“…In fact, in Asia, there is a tendency to label the workers in the informal sector as precarious. According to Reza (2016), the construction industry represents a significant proportion of precarious workers in Bangladesh. But, according to other studies (Barkat et al, 2003;Agarwala, 2013), the garment industry is considered to represent precarious work in the sense that the employment contracts bring limited social benefits and statutory entitlements, high job insecurity, low job tenure, low earning, poor working conditions and high health risk.…”

Precarious or Decent Work? Perceived Working Conditions and Life Satisfaction of SME Workers in Sylhet, Bangladesh

“…In Asia, workers in the informal sector tend to be described as precarious. According to Reza (2016), the construction industry in Bangladesh is responsible for a considerable proportion of precarious workers. Other studies (Barkat et al 2003;Agarwala 2014) argue garment work is considered precarious in the sense that employment contracts have limited social benefits and legal entitlements, job insecurity, low employment, low incomes, poor working conditions, and high health risks.…”