The topography of temporary agency work : flexibility and precarity as an atypical form of employment

Abstract

"Temporary agency work is a labour policy problem of the first degree. While it is true that the number of temporary agency workers is not large, this form of employment has nevertheless managed to take over extensively from simple forms of work in the industrial core sectors. This entails temporary agency workers bring forced to accept clear disadvantages vis-à-vis the core workforce, as opposed to only a few advantages - such as a somewhat increased chance of finding a permanent job. In this book, the author not only examines the temporary agency work sector in its socio-historical context of emergence along with relevant actors, but also the establishments that use temporary agency workers. This reveals highly different forms of use of temporary agency work: from unproblematical, short-term replacements to a permanent change in the structure of the workforce by means of the use of flexible-precarious employment which could ultimately call into question the social embedding of work in the context of society, as it developed in the 20th century, and which could trigger or exacerbate processes of social schism. Working against this trend is a true political - and also trade-union - policy task." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Promberger, M. (2012): Topographie der Leiharbeit. Flexibilität und Prekarität einer atypischen Beschäftigungsform. (Forschung aus der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung 146), Berlin: Edition Sigma, 303 p.