Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce

Abstract

An increasing number of low-status consumer service jobs in the UK are undertaken by economic migrants, who are often recruited through the aegis of employment agencies. This article explores the use of migrant agency workers by a London hotel and a hospital, looking at the ways in which such a labour force is recruited and assembled in parts of the service sector in Greater London. It argues that even in the most locally-based of service-sector jobs, typically involving face to face interactions, new sets of transnational connections are producing a globalized labour force. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2008.

Occupational health and safety of temporary and agency workers

“…The latter group face a specific set of issues, notably the lack of legal clarity as to who is responsible for their OHS (Howes, 2011), coupled with an increasing diversification of the people taking this type of work (McDowell et al, 2008). With the use of in-depth ethnographically-informed study, this paper aims to investigate the underlying cultural causes of differences in OHS outcomes for these groups.…”

Moving beyond the dichotomy of workplace and community unionism: The challenges of organising migrant workers in London’s hotels

“…The high labour turnover and the informal nature of the employment relationship in the hotel industry make it extremely difficult to draw statistics on the exact size and union representation of the workforce. Research in the UK highlights the inherent difficulty of recording the number of casual workers and employees of third party agencies (Forde and Slater, 2011;Kalleberg, 2000;McDowell et al, 2008). Even the union officers involved in the industry for decades were unable to report definite numbers in terms of union members, or the exact percentage of agency employment in the two Hyatt hotels.…”

“…In my hotel, if they see you are taking sides, they don't give them the extra hours they want … and they really want to get money … they need work so they have to shut up to get what they want. (Priscilla, Nigeria, 17 years in London, in-house, housekeeper, September 2008) While partly reproducing some of the stereotypes about the 'hardworking' and 'moneyoriented' Poles (Dutton et al, 2008;McDowell et al, 2008) Priscilla, a long-term member of the hotel union branch, also highlights how they are not intrinsically 'hardworking' but are rather induced to work hard and avoid 'taking sides' on the basis of their more precarious status.…”

“…Exclusion from citizenship rights (Cam, 2013) and/or dependence on a contract of employment for legal residence in the UK (Anderson, 2010) contribute to curtailing migrant workers' proclivity to unionisation. The combination of new migration patterns in the UK under the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and lack of union protection for the 'newly arrived' has further reduced the already weak bargaining power of workers in low-paid service jobs (McDowell et al, 2008;McKay, 2008).…”

“…High labour turnover (31% according to People1st, 2009), the migrant nature of the workforce, especially in London (Wills, 2005) and employers' hostility to unions (Lucas and Mansfield, 2010) explain the low level of unionisation. Migrant agency workers in the sector are subject to the most insecure employment conditions, as well as very low wages, bullying, harassment and long working hours (Lucas and Mansfield, 2010;McDowell et al, 2008;Matthews and Ruhs, 2007;TUC, 2008). Women comprise a significant part of the workforce, 59% according to the LFS (2009), and struggle to combine long working hours and family commitments (Dutton et al, 2008).…”