The Growth of Labour Hire Employment in Australia

Laplagne, Patrick; Glover, Maurice; Fry, Timothy D.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.738904

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Important amongst these has been the rapid expansion of temporary agency work (also known as labour hire or leased workers). The number of agency workers more than doubled during the 1990s in most European Union (EU) member states, the United States of America (USA), and Australia (Storrie, 2002;Houseman, Kalleberg and Erickcek, 2003;Laplagne, Glover and Fry, 2005). By 2001, agency employment had stabilized at just under two per cent of the EU workforce (Arrowsmith, 2006) before more divergent patterns emerged.…”

Section: Elsa Underhill and Michael Quinlanmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Precarious Employment Affects Health and Safety at Work: The Case of Temporary Agency Workers

2011

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Precarious employment has been associated with adverse occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes across a range of studies. Temporary agency workers are particularly vulnerable, with studies showing they experience a higher incidence of workplace injury, and a greater likelihood of more severe injuries than all other employment types. Explanations for agency workers’ higher risk of injury have, to date, been impeded by data limitations associated with researching temporary employment. This article seeks to begin filling this gap through analyzing the experience of agency workers based upon two data sources. The first is a unique qualitative and quantitative data set developed from investigated temporary agency and directly hired workers’ compensation files; the second is focus groups of agency workers conducted in the State of Victoria, Australia. Quinlan and Bohle’s (2004) Pressures, Disorganization and Regulatory Failure (PDR) model, developed to explain the greater OHS vulnerability of precarious workers, provides the framework for analyzing the data. After explaining the key concepts in the PDR Model, the article analyses the data to test for evidence of economic pressures, disorganization at the workplace, and regulatory failure impacting upon temporary agency workers’ health and safety. The analysis supports the relevance of the PDR model, and provides an understanding of additional and unique risk factors which contribute to agency workers’ higher risk of injury. Temporary agency workers experience economic pressures in common with other types of precarious workers. However, these appear more acute amongst agency workers. They also confront disorganization risks, extending to mismatched placements; lack of familiarity with host workplaces; and more complex fractured communication. These contribute to workplace risks and create barriers to improving their experience. Many of these outcomes are a result of, or contribute to regulatory failure. The analysis finds strong support for the explanatory value of the PDR model as a tool for understanding how precariousness contributes to temporary agency workers’ adverse health and safety outcomes. It also suggests the complexities of the triangular employment relationship create additional economic insecurities and disorganization problems beyond those experienced by other types of workers, which the regulatory environment has yet to address.

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Section: Elsa Underhill and Michael Quinlanmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Precarious Employment Affects Health and Safety at Work: The Case of Temporary Agency Workers

2011

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“…Labour hire is often used to source additional staff, to outsource administrative burdens of employment, and to circumvent collective agreements, especially in the manufacturing, wholesale, transport and finance industries (Laplagne et al 2005;Coe et al 2009). Labour hire, or temporary staff agencies, receive commissions from client organisations in return for supplying labour (employees, contractors, trainees or apprentices) for a limited period.…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Risks of recruiting and laying off staff are transferred either to the labour hire agency or worker. Labour hire is often used to source additional staff, to outsource administrative burdens of employment, and to circumvent collective agreements, especially in the manufacturing, wholesale, transport and finance industries (Laplagne et al 2005;Coe et al 2009). Labour hire employment grew by over 15 per cent per year through the 1990s (see Laplagne et al 2005).…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustaining transitions from welfare to work: the perceptions of employers and employment service providers

Cortis¹,

Bullen²,

Hamilton³

2013

Aust J Social Issues

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Successive Australian Governments have sought to improve the capacity of the employment service system to build jobseekers' skills and capabilities and to promote transitions from income support to paid work. Yet despite these efforts, many jobseekers experience only short periods of employment, moving repeatedly between joblessness and positions with low skill requirements, low pay and few or fluctuating hours. This article explores ways to achieve more sustained transitions from welfare to work for disadvantaged jobseekers. We draw on data from a qualitative study of employment service providers who assisted jobseekers into work and the managers in the organisations that employed them. These informants' perspectives underline the importance of improving the quality of jobs that require low levels of skills and experience and demonstrate some ways employers and employment services can better work together and provide more enduring and effective forms of support.

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Chancen und Risiken atypischer Beschäftigung am Beispiel Australiens

Laß¹

2017

Atypische Beschäftigung Und Ihre Sozialen Konsequenzen

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The Growth of Labour Hire Employment in Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 9 publications

How Precarious Employment Affects Health and Safety at Work: The Case of Temporary Agency Workers

How Precarious Employment Affects Health and Safety at Work: The Case of Temporary Agency Workers

Sustaining transitions from welfare to work: the perceptions of employers and employment service providers

Chancen und Risiken atypischer Beschäftigung am Beispiel Australiens

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