The operation and management of agency workers in conditions of vulnerability

Abstract

This article focuses on the operation and management of agency labour by employers and observes that there are strong contradictions between the employers' stated reasons for using agency labour and the employment agencies' perceptions of why such labour is utilised. While discussing agency labour generally, the article also takes account of the position of migrant workers within the agency sector, since agencies have represented a significant route into employment for migrant labour. It draws primarily on 22 in-depth interviews with employers and employment agencies mainly in the food processing, cleaning and care sectors. The research revealed that while some employers were using agency staff to cover for specific peaks in production, others had used it as an alternative method of dealing with vacancies that otherwise might have resulted in permanent employment.

Strategies for recruiting highly skilled migrants from India and China: a case study of firms in Sweden

“…However, interorganisational relations are also important (cf. Hedberg et al ., ; Hopkins and Dawson, ; McKay and Markova, ; Poros, ; Thompson et al ., ). Cropper et al .…”

“…A distinction is made between the starting of recruitment from a specific category of migrants and the continued use of this labour source (cf. McKay and Markova, ; Waldinger and Lichter, ). Explanations of the initial recruitment and continued recruitment are different, at least to some extent.…”

“…In order to lower the risks associated with hiring new workers, the managers may be more likely to rely on information provided by outside sources, such as other firms (cf. McKay and Markova, ).…”

Barriers to migrant worker unionization: Examining the impact of structural and subjective barriers to migrant worker unionization in the UK

“…Entering a society already characterized by the proliferation of precarity to all spheres of social life (Casas‐Cortés, ; Federici, ; Jørgensen, ; Standing, ), migrant workers in the UK are overwhelmingly concentrated in the most precarious, exploitative, and symbolically stigmatized jobs of the market (indicatively, see Anderson & Ruhs, ; Miles, ). Overwhelmingly overeducated for the jobs that they perform (Office for National Statistics, ), they are routinely subject to pressure, instability, and the constant, overhanging threat of dismissal (McKay & Markova, ; Meardi, Martín, & Riera, ). The distribution of migrants within an already constrained labor market is heavily gendered and further structured by essentialist stereotypes that attribute certain characteristics to specific migrant groups (McDowell, ).…”

“…This is especially relevant in sectors that are defined by intense working conditions, antisocial hours, high turnover rates, and social stigmatization (Menz & Caviedes, ). Recruitment agencies are ideally placed to provide this type of labor and play a fundamental role in the introduction of migrants to the UK market and on their subsequent management and distribution (McCollum & Findlay, ; McKay & Markova, ; Sporton, ). Upon interviewing agency recruiters, McCollum and Findlay (, p. 439) conclude that labor markets and migrant labor are connected by a mutually reinforcing relationship where “flexible labour markets create a structural demand for migrant labour and a ready supply of migrant labour allows flexible labour markets to flourish.”…”