Temporary Agency Workers—Precarious Workers? Perceived Job Security and Employability for Temporary Agency Workers and Client Organization Employees at a Swedish Manufacturing Plant

Background The percentage of temporary workers in the workforce has increased in many European countries. The working environments of temporary workers are often characterized by job insecurity and exposure to hazardous working conditions. Studies have investigated the health status of this population but few of them have specifically investigated work-related diseases. The aim of this study is to compare the risk of uncompensated work-related diseases (UWRD) in temporary workers with permanent contract workers in France between 2009 and 2014. Methods UWRD and suspected associated exposure factors were notified by occupational physicians involved in French UWRD surveillance programme. Sociodemographic and professional characteristics were recorded for all salaried workers consulted by occupational physicians. We analysed musculoskeletal (MSD) disorders (elbow, hand/wrist, shoulder, back) and mental health disorders (MHD) according the type of consultation (periodic check-up, hiring...) using logistic regression. The distributions of notified exposure factors for MSD and MHD were compared between temporary and permanent workers. Results Of the 433 148 salaried workers consulted as part of the surveillance programme, 5.3% and 80.2% had temporary and permanent contracts, respectively. Temporary workers were as likely to have work-related shoulder, elbow and hand/wrist MSD as permanent workers. The former had a lower risk of MHD irrespective of the type of consultation ([OR] = 0.4, 95 % CI 0.3-0.5) and a lower risk of back MSD during on-demand/return-to-work consultations ([OR] = 0.2, 95% CI 0.1-0.5) and during periodic check-ups ([OR] = 0.3, 95% CI 0.2-0.7). Conclusions Temporary workers were not at a higher risk of UWRD (MSD and MHD) than permanent workers. This suggests that the generally poor health status found in temporary workers in previous studies may be linked more to their general health status and perceived job insecurity than to poorer working conditions. Key messages In our study, the risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders and mental health disorders in temporary workers was no greater than that in permanent workers. Poor general health known in temporary workers, may be linked more to their general health status, job insecurity and decreasing career trajectory than to poorer working conditions.

This chapter discusses job quality in terms of job security and employability in workplaces using temporary agency workers. The general picture from previous research is that temporary agency workers have lower job quality due to a more insecure position compared to workers in other types of employment relations. Most studies are done in contexts where the agency workers have temporary contracts lasting for the time of the assignment or lack the rights to pay in-between assignments. This study fills this gap and investigates job security and employability for temporary agency workers when their working conditions are equal to that of user firm employees. The aim is to elucidate and explain how job quality expressed as job security and employability is perceived in workplaces using temporary agency workers. We have selected a ‘best case’ situation involving temporary agency workers who share the same work tasks as user firm employees and who are highly integrated within the work organization. Our analysis shows no difference concerning perceived employability. However, they differ in job security. The most important explanation for temporary agency workers’ lack of job security is the lack of skill development offered by their employer, i.e. the temporary work agency.

Globally, the demand for temporary workers is rising across organizations and sectors, driven by benefits of lower cost and workforce flexibility. Flexibility for organizations, however, means job insecurity for the temporary worker. This study focuses on understanding how the Indian IT sector’s temporary agency workers (TAWs), that is, temporary workers recruited by staffing agencies to work with client organizations, cope with their job insecurity. Grounded theory-based analysis of 36 interviews revealed that TAWs rely on enhancing their employability as the primary strategy to combat job insecurity. In addition, to enhance employability, TAWs make proactive efforts to perform consistently and upskill continuously. TAWs also expect support, largely in the form of learning and development opportunities, from the staffing agency and client to augment employability. The findings and recommendations in this article to help TAWs improve employability hold significance for TAWs, staffing agencies as well as clients. With enhanced employability, TAWs overcome job insecurity—an impediment to job performance, which is of direct relevance to the worker and the client—and also affects the staffing agency’s long-term relationship with the client.

Purpose Research shows that the risk of work-related disorders is higher among temporary agency workers than among other employees. The purpose of this paper is to describe the working conditions of temporary agency workers and explains which factors contribute towards work-related disorders for this group. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a survey responded to by 482 agency workers in Sweden. The dependent variable is the prevalence of work-related disorders. Independent variables include personal characteristics, job characteristics, employment characteristics and temporary agency work characteristics. Findings The study indicates several risk factors: holding a position as a blue-collar worker; being assigned to more physically demanding work tasks and having fewer opportunities to learn new things than client organization employees; lacking training for work tasks; and lacking clarity regarding which work tasks to do during an assignment. Originality/value The theoretical implications of this study are related to the dual employment-management relationship in temporary agency work where the temporary work agency and client organization follow different logics. The logic in the employment relationship is to contract temporary agency workers out to client organizations, thus there is no time for formal training. The logic in the management relationship lies in making temporary agency workers profitable as soon as possible, encouraging shortcuts in training and instruction; thus, temporary agency workers risk being left with a lack of clarity regarding what to do and how to do it.

PurposeResearch shows that the risk of work-related disorders is higher among temporary agency workers than among other employees. The purpose of this paper is to describe the working conditions of temporary agency workers and explains which factors contribute towards work-related disorders for this group.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a survey responded to by 482 agency workers in Sweden. The dependent variable is the prevalence of work-related disorders. Independent variables include personal characteristics, job characteristics, employment characteristics and temporary agency work characteristics.FindingsThe study indicates several risk factors: holding a position as a blue-collar worker; being assigned to more physically demanding work tasks and having fewer opportunities to learn new things than client organization employees; lacking training for work tasks; and lacking clarity regarding which work tasks to do during an assignment.Originality/valueThe theoretical implications of this study are related to the dual employment–management relationship in temporary agency work where the temporary work agency and client organization follow different logics. The logic in the employment relationship is to contract temporary agency workers out to client organizations; thus, there is no time for formal training. The logic in the management relationship lies in making temporary agency workers profitable as soon as possible, encouraging shortcuts in training and instruction; thus, temporary agency workers risk being left with a lack of clarity regarding what to do and how to do it.

Today, many employees in organizations are employed via temporary agency work (TAW) constructions. Organizations profit from this form of flexible work, but TAWs themselves often do not appreciate it. This dissertation explored in what ways TAWs themselves and their two employment parties (employment agency and client organization) can increase the benefits from opportunities for competence development (OfCD), as this helps TAWs to stay employable. Three studies were conducted. Study 1, a survey study among 449 TAWs, aimed to explore TAWs’ expectations and fulfilled expectations of OfCD at both employment organizations, and to explore its relations with TAWs’ affective commitment towards these employment organizations. Study 2, a multiple case study of 7 TAW-cases in which all three parties of the triangle were involved, explored why TAW constructions do not work as an actual triangle, as well as what is needed to utilize the triangular employment relationship better. Study 3, a latent class analysis (n=449), aimed to explore which different profiles of TAWs can be distinguished regarding their deliberate informal learning activities and personal factors that relate to this informal learning behaviour. The dissertation showed that TAWs’ perceptions of TAW-work are rather traditional: short-term temporary work in which there is no room for competence development. This withholds them from engaging in competence development. Second, it was concluded that there is much diversity among TAWs which is one of the reasons that current policies for competence development fail. Third, we found that there is (almost) no communication between the two employment parties about individual TAW’s competence development. To make better usage of the potential of the triangular relationships among TAWs and their employers, the communication between the three parties should be improved. Based on these conclusions, it can be stated that a culture change is needed when it comes to providing TAWs with OfCD that contributes to both their short-term and their longer-term career, and when building a fruitful triangular employment construction. This culture change requires stratification of different aspects (further elaborated in this dissertation): (1) a different approach to facilitating TAWs’ CD, (2) a different approach to how these competencies can be managed, and (3) a different approach to the HRD-system. CD needs to be seen both as a means to maintaining a regular joint conversation and remain on speaking terms, and as a goal in itself, to generate a profitable situation for all parties involved. Only then, TAW-constructions can come closer to achieving its ideal.

Recent research suggests that the relationship between job insecurity and psychological outcomes is more negative among permanent compared with temporary workers. We investigate possible interaction effects between job insecurity and type of contract (temporary versus permanent) for various psychological outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, and self-rated performance), some of which have received little attention. We aim to explain these interaction effects, while taking into account the heterogeneous nature of temporary workers in terms of tenure, employment prospects, and wish to do temporary employment. We argue that permanent workers expect higher levels of job security; job insecurity breaches permanent workers’ but not temporary workers’ expectations. This may relate to unfavourable outcomes. Similarly, the heterogeneous nature of temporary workers may relate to job security expectations and thus to reactions to job insecurity. This study was conducted on a sample of 477 temporary and permanent workers from various occupational sectors in Belgium. The results suggested that the interaction effect between job insecurity and contract type may be limited to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Furthermore, permanent workers had higher expectations about job security. Breach of these expectations furthermore mediated the relationship between job insecurity and all outcomes, except for self-rated performance. However, the heterogeneity indicators were found to be unrelated to job security expectations.

Temporary agency workers are often portrayed as peripheral workers in organisations. Hence, they present a compelling illustration of the established-outsider theory of Elias and Scotson. According to this theory, differences in social cohesion, group charisma, and power of the members of subgroups within social entities can lead to an established-outsider figuration between these subgroups, which is maintained by processes of stigmatisation and exclusion. Applying a narrative approach, we focus on social relations between temporary agency and permanent workers along three routes. First, we show how and why social cohesion, group charisma, and power possession in the established group of permanent workers shape an established-outsider figuration. Second, we discuss how mechanisms such as stigmatisation and exclusion maintain this figuration. Third, we illustrate why temporary agency workers have the feeling of being stuck in their outsider situation. To accomplish our aims, we conducted in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers in Belgium. Our analyses are focused on temporary agency workers who encountered mainly negative experiences regarding temporary agency employment.

The chapter aims at explaining how institutional settings interplay with employment quality for temporary agency workers. The focus for our study is how national and sectoral regulation on employment and representation influences job security for temporary agency workers at the workplace level, thereby contributing to shaping those workers’ employment quality. By comparing two similar Belgian and Swedish workplaces, the chapter assesses how different social arrangements for TAW, including both regulatory settings at the national (industry) level and the collective practices of representation and voice of agency work at local levels, can explain agency workers’ experience of job security. As the two countries differ in terms of employment relations systems, regulation of TAW and representation structure, a comparative analysis is appropriate. Data were collected mainly through 47 semi-structured interviews lasting 60-120 minutes. Our results show that national regulations and collective structures for representation shape the unions’ possibilities to represent agency workers and their general approaches towards TAW. Hence, our findings add to the understanding of the conditions contributing to job insecurity and representation insecurity for agency workers. Our study also shows that a strong representation structure at the client organization and inclusive attitudes towards agency workers, is a prerequisite, but it is not sufficient to guarantee security. This chapter indicates that national regulation granting agency workers on assignment access to collective voice in the client organization is crucial for job security. Thus, this chapter illustrates the multi-dimensionality of job quality by showing how job security and representation security are intertwined.

Study aimWe hypothesise that due to a lower quality of working life and higher job insecurity, the health and work-related attitudes of temporary workers may be less positive compared to permanent workers. Therefore, we aimed to (1) examine differences between contract groups (i.e. permanent contract, temporary contract with prospect of permanent work, fixed-term contract, temporary agency contract and on-call contract) in the quality of working life, job insecurity, health and work-related attitudes and (2) investigate whether these latter contract group differences in health and work-related attitudes can be explained by differences in the quality of working life and/or job insecurity.MethodsData were collected from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2008 (N = 21,639), and Hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance and cross-table analysis.ResultsTemporary work was associated with fewer task demands and lower autonomy and was more often passive or high-strain work, while permanent work was more often active work. Except for on-call work, temporary work was more insecure and associated with worse health and work-related attitude scores than permanent work. Finally, the quality of working life and job insecurity partly accounted for most contract differences in work-related attitudes but not in health.ConclusionsEspecially agency workers have a lower health status and worse work-related attitudes. Job redesign measures regarding their quality of working life and job insecurity are recommended.

Purpose– Temporary agency workers (TAWs) have a double employment relationship: one with the agency that hires them with a formal contract, either temporary or permanent; and another with the client organization where they actually perform their work. As the social-exchange theory assumes that TAWs respond to the support they receive from both organizations with affective commitment toward the respective organization. The purpose of this paper is to propose that the type of contract with the agency moderates these relationships, specifically that permanent TAWs present a stronger relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) toward the agency and, to the contrary, that temporary TAWs show a greater relationship between POS and AOC toward the client.Design/methodology/approach– The hypotheses were tested with a sample of 522 Portuguese TAWs, of which 265 were temporaries and 257 were permanents. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with multigroup analysis using the AMOS program.Findings– The authors verified that POS from both the employment agency and the client organization were related to the TAWs’ affective commitment to each respective organization. Furthermore, the relationship between POS from the employment agency and the affective commitment to this organization was stronger in permanent than in temporary TAWs. However, contrary to the expectations, the contract with the agency did not moderate the relationship with client organizations: temporary and permanent TAWs showed a similar relationship between POS from this organization and their affective commitment toward it.Practical implications– These findings show the important organizational role of both the employment agency and the client in supporting their TAWs and attending to the type of contract they have with the employment agency.Originality/value– This paper contributes to the analysis of the TAWs’ double employment relationship and highlights the role of the agency contract in the explanation of these relationships.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the work-related identity of temporary agency workers (TAWs), a topic that has received a limited amount of attention in previous research.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a qualitative method and draws upon interviews with 30 TAWs from four agencies in the south of Denmark in order to link the experiences, as narrated by Danish TAWs, to their identity.FindingsThe study unpacks the components of the TAWs’ work-related identity and provides an understanding of the self-notions that the TAWs mobilize to respond to the conditions of temporary agency work. It identifies six components of work-related identity: Being new and unfamiliar, demonstrating the ability to adapt, dealing with uncertainty, feeling inferior and marginalized, pursuing opportunities, and the necessity to impress others. Both the agency and the user-firm try to regulate the TAWs’ identity as they expect agency workers to be flexible and adaptable persons, who possess a high degree of self-control. In so doing they provide a template for identification that the workers have to respond to. The study shows that TAWs develop this identity along two dimensions: their liminal position between the agency and the user-firm; and prescribed identity templates as TAWs strive for autonomy and craft their own work-related identity.Practical implicationsThere are managerial challenges with regard to motivation, tensions between temps and permanent staff, low levels of organizational commitment, well-being, and the performance of TAWs. These challenges can be better understood (and probably solved) when agencies and user-firms would take into account the agency workers’ struggle for identification. The paper demonstrates that the work-related identity of TAWs not only has consequences for their performance but also for their whole life. Furthermore, the constitution of agency workers as flexible resource has consequences for HRM in the user-firm.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the limited amount of knowledge about the meanings that TAWs reflexively attach to themselves as they seek to make sense of the conditions of temporary agency work. Investigating their work-related identity helps to better understand the implications of temporary agency work based on the investigation of the agency workers’ experiences.

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.

This study investigates whether temporary contract volition and workers' expectations for contract renewal are boundary conditions to explain differences in temporary workers' job insecurity feelings and well-being. It is hypothesized that (1) low volition through higher job insecurity indirectly associates with lower well-being and that (2) temporary workers' expectations of contract renewal weakens the links between both low volition and high job insecurity and high job insecurity and impaired well-being. Results based on an international data set of 1755 temporary workers employed in the education, manufacturing, and service sectors supported the first hypothesis and partly also the second. More specifically, low preferences for temporary contracts associated via higher job insecurity with lower job satisfaction, impaired health, and higher irritation. Contract expectations placed a boundary condition upon this indirect relation; however, the negative association between high job insecurity and impaired well-being was not weakened but strengthened. In conclusion, particularly temporary workers with low contract volition and high job insecurity feelings, who have high expectations for contract renewal are at risk for impaired well-being. Hence, this study sheds light onto the question how volition for temporary work and expected contract renewal relate to job insecurity and associate with individual well-being.

Temporary Employment and Segmentation in the Spanish Labour Market: An Empirical Analysis through the Study of Wage Differentials