This article focuses on the interlinkages between the labour process and global value chains. It draws on the renewed growth in UK apparel manufacturing, specifically within the fast fashion value chain, and asks how value chain requirements are translated into the labour process as well as how the latter enables quick response manufacturing. The case study shows how buyer-lead firms engender accelerated capital circuits of fast fashion which rely on an increased segmentation of manufacturers and workers, the elimination of unproductive spaces in the labour process, and a further rise in the informalisation and precarity of labour. The article demonstrates a strategic disconnection within the fast fashion value chain: upstream manufacturers are only able to satisfy lead firms’ economic and operational standards if they disconnect – informalise – labour from the latter’s ‘ethical’ standards.

Fast fashion's emphasis on quick response production and supply chain management is at the basis of renewed growth in UK apparel manufacturing. This article shows how increasing pressure from lead firms has resulted in manufacturers maintaining profit levels, mainly, through informal subcontracting and informal employment, as opposed to increasing productivity.

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Because of a perceived decline in staff morale, the UK National Health Service has begun to routinely assess the extent to which commitment to the National Health Service may aid staff retention. While a number of studies have investigated the role of employee commitment in relation to staff turnover, no research to date has empirically tested if staff commitment to the NHS could protect job satisfaction from the effects of high job demands, and if this varies according to age. Using latent variable path analysis, this novel study examined this question among a national sample of Healthcare Professionals Allied to Medicine in the National Health Service. The results indicate that the negative effects of high job demands on job satisfaction were fully mediated by commitment to the National Health Service, but age mattered. Among the over 45s and over 55s, commitment to the National Health Service acted as an effective buffer against the negative effects of job demands on job satisfaction, but this effect was not as strong among the 35–44 age group. The broader policy implications of these findings are that age sensitive policies to support NHS workforce retention are needed. Also, pro-social institutions who employ Healthcare Professionals Allied to Medicine should develop policies for inspiring commitment to that institution, as it could help them with the demands of the job, and may even encourage more skilled workers to work longer.

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