Temporary Workers Research Articles

How Temporary Employment Relates to Community Health Services Utilization: Evidence from China Migrants Dynamic Survey

Although community health services provide initial health counseling, nursing care, and medical diagnosis as basic social services in many countries, their equitable provision faces challenges. This study examined the relationship and underlying economic and social mechanisms between temporary employment and the utilization of community health services by China’s migrant workers. Data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, which included 69,524 respondents, was used to conduct a mediation analysis based on the inverse odds ratio weighting. Findings included: (a) temporary employment decreases the probability of migrant workers having a community health record and receiving community health education; (b) the notable lack of social capital among temporary migrant workers accounts for their reduced utilization of these services, whereas their economic capability and local integration appear to have little or no influence on deficiency of accessibility. These results suggest that to achieve equitable community health services in China, policymakers should concentrate on reducing social marginalization of temporary migrants, such as fostering engagement in diverse community activities and public affairs. Future research ought to evaluate the effectiveness of current policy interventions and highlight the cumulative disadvantages of temporary employment on social services.

Does Jobs without Boundaries within the Gig Economy a Paradox?

"The idea that individuals take ownership of their personal growth and, as a result, take control of improving their job competences has been a major tenet of proponents of what is known as the boundaryless professional view. In this provocative article, we discuss the barriers to and possible solutions for advancing boundaryless professions in the gig economy, which, although initially seeming to provide favourable circumstances for such occupations, is plagued by several variables that make these professions difficult. Therefore, it’s possible that professions without boundaries exist in the gig economy. Specifically, we hypothesise that gig workers’ employability is restricted by the acquisition of pertinent professional competences that are hindered by intra- and interorganizational career barriers. We then propose that, to reduce these limitations, we should think about eschewing employer-centric, conventional HRM methods and introducing new, network-based, self-organized HRM actions (in the form of collaborative communities of practice)."

Aligning expectations with real-world experiences: a talent management study on the restaurant industry in Finland

PurposeSkilled workers are crucial for an organization’s success, and managing, retaining and attracting them is vital in long-term. This study aims to explore talent management practices in the Finnish restaurant industry and to align workers' expectations with the real-world experiences of their work to reduce turnover and enhance job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a mixed methods approach, including a survey and interviews with workers and managers to gain insights into their expectations and experiences of work. The study considers themes for designing and implementing effective talent management procedures.FindingsThis study highlights the importance of employees' experiences of their work conditions, leveraging positive emotions and fair utilization of temporary agency work (TAW). Understanding the different work preferences of generational cohorts and addressing the challenges associated with owner disengagement and TAW can also contribute to attracting and retaining talent in the restaurant industry.Originality/valueSkilled workers have often been portrayed as targets that need to be managed, with insufficient consideration given to their preferences, needs and expectations. With the findings of this study, companies can establish mutual understanding with their employees and attract diverse talent.

The Fragmented Labor Power Composition of Gig Workers: Entrepreneurial Tendency and the Heterogeneous Production of Difference

The literature on digital labor platforms requires a focus beyond techno-utopianism, foregrounding the role of living labor that materially sustains the fantasies of convenience ingrained in platform capitalism. The gig workers embodying living labor exhausted by location-dependent platform work are mainly migrants. Yet, greater understanding of the complexity of difference production and the gigification of work is needed. The article is prompted by the desire to understand the relationship between entrepreneurialized workers and heterogeneously produced differences within the labor power composition of gig workers active on location-based labor platforms. Drawing on ethnographic data produced together with migrant workers engaged in food delivery and cleaning gigs via labor platforms in Helsinki, the article first analyzes the organizing logic of gig work mediated via platforms through the notion of transversal entrepreneurial tendency, and second, the entwined forms of social, legal, and algorithmic difference produced among gig workers. The article argues that differentiation in labor power composition is dynamically related to the interactions required and facilitated by the platforms. The article contributes to discussions on entrepreneurialization in the contemporary world of work and the specific ways in which the social, legal, and algorithmic production of difference shape the constitutive hierarchies of platform labor.

CARING SELF-EFFICACY AND BEHAVIORS OF MIGRANT NURSING ASSISTANTS WORKING IN RESIDENTIAL AGED CARE FACILITIES

Abstract Data show a significant proportion of nursing assistants from migrant backgrounds in the Australian aged care industry. However, compared to locally-born counterparts, they are more likely to be employed as casual staff and offered shorter shifts, irregular hours, and lower pay, often without employment benefits. Previous studies have shown that the working environment of an organization influences employees’ self-efficacy, affecting their performance. This study hypothesized that migrant nursing assistants from non-English-speaking countries have lower confidence in caring for older residents and, thus, execute less-satisfactory caring behaviors than their local, English-speaking colleagues. The caring self-efficacy was quantitatively measured from the perspective of nursing assistants in residential aged care facilities (N = 280), and caring behaviors were explored from older residents’ perspective (N = 13). Results showed that nursing assistants whose first language was not English had lower levels of caring self-efficacy than native English speakers. However, older residents found that they frequently met residents’ individual needs and were more competent, emotionally present, respectful, and amiable, despite communication issues. Older residents insisted that the personalities of nursing assistants have a greater impact on their job performance than their backgrounds. These findings suggest that although migrant nursing assistants from non-English-speaking countries had low self-efficacy to carry out their job, their performance was appreciated by older residents. This study supports the Australian government’s strategy of using immigration to prevent or respond to an aged care workforce crisis, but it also advocates for improved working conditions, organizational resources and benefits for those with non-English-speaking backgrounds.

Migrant healthcare assistants’ decision to work in long-term care

In high-income countries, population ageing has a significant impact on the labour force and care demands. As a result, the tendency is to rely on migrant workers to meet workforce and care demands. Drawing on insights from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study focused on unskilled migrant healthcare assistants in Norway’s long-term care. The objectives were to explore factors influencing the decision of unskilled migrant healthcare assistants to work in elderly care, sources of knowledge about work in elderly care, and challenges encountered in elderly care work. The key research questions were as follows: a) What factors influence the decision of migrant healthcare assistants to work in elderly care? b) What are the sources of knowledge/information about work in elderly care for migrant healthcare assistants? c) What are some of the challenges of working in elderly care for migrant healthcare assistants? Qualitative research and purposive sampling were used to recruit 20 participants: 13 unskilled migrant healthcare assistants and seven managers of long-term care facilities in South-Eastern and Northern Norway. Data were collected using in-depth individual interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, and thematically analysed. Findings indicated that factors influencing unskilled migrant healthcare assistants' decision to work in the elderly care sector included cultural norms and values of caring for older people, nonrecognition of overseas qualifications and economic considerations. State-organized language learning programmes, Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) offices, as well as migrant family and community networks, provided crucial information about work in elderly care. Challenges regarding lack of career progression, temporary working contracts, low status and poor wages emerged. In conclusion, meaningful employment outcome through better opportunities for career progression are essential for unskilled migrant healthcare assistants’ well-being and care for older people. It would be useful for long-term care policymakers and stakeholders to address the challenges faced by its aged care workforce.

Resilience in Times of a Pandemic

Abstract: This study uncovers how workers of the gig economy adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic and exhibited capacity for resilience. Following the grounded theory approach, it analyzes more than 400 Upwork and Uber workers' conversations that were posted on Reddit during the first year of the pandemic. Findings reveal that, to face the pandemic risks, gig workers shared news and strategic knowledge with the community, temporarily transformed their work and designed new working practices, and sought emotional support from peers. These findings underscore the processes of resilience among gig workers, allow for comparisons between Upwork and Uber workers, and reveal how gig workers support each other in online communities, which functioned as relational resources.

A Study on Contingent Workforce : Gig Economy with Reference to International Bakery Product Limited

The purpose of this project is to study the contingent workers of gig economy, with the special attention to "International Bakery Product Limited". The gig economy, characterized by short- term, has witnessed significant growth in recent years. This shift has brought about a new category of workers known as contingent workers, who engage in temporary work rather than traditional full-time employment. While the gig economy offers flexibility and antonomy, it also presents challenges for contingent workers, including limited benefits, income instability, and Discrimination as independent contractors This project delves the contingent workers in the gig economy, examining the various types of gig work, the motivations behind individuals participation, and the implications for workers. The project also explores the Employee job satisfaction. Training Program Effectiveness, workplace safety, competencies of employee and challenges of workers.

Hiding behind the platform: the myth of flexibility for gig workers in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Mainstream arguments hold that the digital gig economy has been a boon for countries with high levels of unemployment, and some have even deemed it the future of work. Online platform companies handling transportation, courier and food delivery services – such as Gojek, Grab and Maxim – have similarly built narratives that the drivers who become their partners will enjoy flexible working conditions. Using a structural analysis of flexible work mechanisms in the digital gig economy, this article explores the asymmetrical power of gig workers and online platform companies. Taking a post-positivist approach, the data in this research were collected through interviews with 290 platform drivers. The results show that the structural situation, wherein extensive reserves of labour exist and workers’ power is weak, has created a significant power asymmetry between gig workers and platform companies. The impact of this asymmetry of power makes the flexibility promised to gig workers a myth and actually increases precarity for workers.

Hassles of platform-based food couriers: An Asian case study

IntroductionThe burgeoning development of Asian food platforms has attracted many workers intending to engage in gig work as platform-based couriers. This study explored the hassles experienced by food couriers working for platforms through content analysis. MethodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with 27 participants from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore to collect textual data. ResultsThe results revealed five types of hassles experienced by platform-based food couriers: hassles from food platforms, hassles from on-demand restaurants, hassles during food delivery rides, hassles from customers, and hassles in personal life. Hassles from food platforms are caused by unreasonable revenue calculation methods, unreasonable management approaches, the technological problems of platform systems, inadequacy in courier insurance and welfare, and ineffective job training. Hassles during food delivery rides include higher safety risks, uncontrollable emergencies and situations, inadequacies in transportation facilities, unfriendly treatment from doormen and residents, and theft during food delivery. Hassles from on-demand restaurants include bearing responsibilities for loss and penalties caused by restaurant management and unfriendly attitudes toward couriers. Hassles from customers entail malicious comments, miscommunication with customers, customer behaviors of taking advantage of couriers, customer cancellations during the food delivery process, and unreasonable customer demands. Finally, hassles in personal life include work-related illness, work-life conflict, work precarity, and stereotyping toward couriers. ConclusionThe findings of this study provide a pertinent reference for stakeholders, including food platforms,on-demand restaurants, local transport administration and commnunity, to improve their operational and human resource management systems in the food platform-based gig economy model.

Pressure Power Parity Insufficiency of Protection for the Digital Labour and Workers of the Gig Economy and the Dire Requirement of the Changes in the New Labour Code

Abstract The labour jurisprudence through a wide-ranging literature has approached the topic from different angles and categorized the term worker as either an independent contractor or as an employee. This definition of worker does very little to nothing in the lives of the workers of new forms of labour. There has been in the rise an emergence of the new forms of labour which is an umbrella term that also includes the gig worker and platform labour under the term. This shift in the workforce has enabled them to have a source of income and flexibility and has caused a huge increase in the gig workers at more than 17% CAGR [Compound Annual Growth Rate] has made the lawmakers difficult to classify them under the current law. The new amendment brought out in the parliament has proposed to codify the labour laws. law which is supposed to govern the gig worker has not clearly defined them in the definition. The new code which is supposed to clear the confusion has brought more mist in the terms of definition of who is a “gig worker” and “platform worker” which allows it to open interpretation, which makes the code still archaic and incomplete. Even the new bill fails to provide clarity regarding the workers of the new forms. This paper tries to analyse the current situation of the gig worker more exactly the platform workers and what would be the implication of the new labour code in the lives of the gig workers. This paper also proposes a separate bill that shall solely deal with that of the workers of the newer forms of business which shall be included in the new labour code.

Temporary agency employment: A supplement to regular jobs – under certain circumstances

In countries with strict employment protection legislation, firms may seek to replace regular by atypical jobs in order to cut wages or to become more flexible. In Germany, the number of unprotected temporary jobs is comparatively low. During the past decades, temporary agency employment, however, has increased considerably and the share of agency workers is now above the EU average. Using German establishment data, the analysis draws on longitudinal (generalized method of moments) and cross-sectional (matching and difference in differences) methods to evaluate whether agency workers replaced or supplemented regular workers during and after the Great Recession of 2008/2009. The study finds that hiring (more) agency workers made it possible for user firms among Germany’s core manufacturing industries to employ a larger number of regular workers at the same time. In specific sectors and regions, temp agencies therefore provided an alternative to government-sponsored instruments such as short-time work schemes. Obviously, from the view of workers, many disadvantages remain, even more so as it is rare for temp spells to offer a stepping stone into regular employment.

Contending With Precarity: Health and Multi-Sectoral Supports for Migrant Agricultural Workers in Southern Ontario.

Research has long-documented how Canada's temporary foreign worker programs (TFWP) foster workers' precarity through their status as non-citizens and living and working conditions, ultimately, impacting their health. While studies point to limited supports and services for workers, their role in reinforcing or alleviating the precarious conditions that migrant agricultural workers experience remains largely unexplored. This paper draws on interviews with 35 service providers in three migrant-intensive regions in southwestern Ontario, to explore how service providers describe and construct support. We explore the barriers workers face in accessing services, challenges providers experience in supporting workers, and strategies employed to surmount these barriers. We argue that this multiregional analysis is important to illuminate how support shapes and is shaped by the larger structural context, namely common features of Canada's TFWP. A more comprehensive understanding of support moreover, provides direction for sustainable interventions that can promote the health and wellbeing of this population.

Transcending Borders? Horizons and Challenges of Global Tech Worker Solidarity

While the reach of tech firms has become planetary, the counterpower of their workforces often remains local. The article explores the challenges and opportunities to transnational solidarity among tech workers, the higher-paid employee strata of tech companies. Based on three recent cases of transnational organizing, I argue that three markers stick out in the efforts: informal organizing instead of institutional power-building, the importance of labour migration and the surprising lack of using structural power to this date. The articles concludes that tech worker organizing can learn from the conflicts of lower paid gig workers in the industry and institutional developments geared toward transnational worker representation.

Short-time allowances in times of crisis: a survey experiment

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries used short-time work schemes, i.e., subsidies for temporary working hours reductions due to production drops. In Germany, regulations on entitlements and benefits have been much more generous during the pandemic than they were in noncrisis times. This paper conducts a factorial survey experiment among the workforce to investigate which amounts of short-time benefits and which associated replacement rates were perceived as appropriate during the pandemic. We interpret our findings in the context of the deservingness theory. Our results show that the assessments are partly consistent with the legal design features in Germany. One of our key findings is that, according to respondents, the short-time allowance should decrease slightly with an increasing duration of short-time work. In Germany, however, with the onset of the pandemic, a rule was temporarily implemented that step-wise increased short-time work benefits with the duration of short-time work.

The Legal Formation of Class in Migrant Care and Domestic Work

This article analyses the relationship between law and class formation through the case of migrant care and domestic work, and puts sociological class theory into conversation with critical migration research. It contributes to class theory by analysing how law helps produce class relations in the Finnish context. The Finnish state channels migrants into cleaning and domestic work through policy measures, and migration law ties them to the reproductive sector, making law a central social relation that defines migrants’ relation to production. The analysis draws on interviews with migrant care and domestic workers (N = 30) holding temporary work permits and examines their structural and affective descriptions of a position restricted by law. The article argues that the way migrant domestic work is formalised in the legislation produces a class relation for migrants, in which they lack full ownership over their labour power. The findings demonstrate how migrant domestic workers express gratitude for their employment despite experiencing it as devalued, indicating labour as repayment of the ‘gift’ of the residence permit.

An Analysis of Gig Workers and Challenges Surrounding Their Employment

The workforce in India comprises about 450 million informal workers, amounting to 92.4% of India’s workforce. In terms of employment, the unorganised sector employs about 83% of the workforce. Interestingly, a new sector of informal workforce has emerged in the last decade famously called the “gig workers” or “platform-based” workers. The term “unorganised worker” has been defined under the Unorganized Workers' Social Security Act, 2008, as a home based worker, self-employed worker or a wage worker. This definition, perhaps does not include gig workers but they fall under the second clause of the definition where the term has not been defined in any of the labour codes. They are addressed as platform workers, as they are employed by corporations via digital applications creating a platform-dependent employment system. Rajasthan was the first state in India to draft a bill, for the protection of gig workers and provide them with adequate regulatory mechanism to prevent exploitation of their freelance. This paper analyses various aspects of gig economy, taking into account the increasing need of platform workers. It also proposes certain measures to address the needs of these workers and suggests a well devised mechanism for smooth relations between worker and the aggregator. Much of the gig economy boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, where it came in handy for delivery of food, essentials, and transportation services, which was hugely affected during the pandemic. The scope of the research is limited to discussing various issues faced by platform workers (workers employed by aggregators like Swiggy, Ola, Uber etc.) and suggesting certain solutions for the same.

The Effect of Internal Control and Compensation on Honorary Employee Performance (Case Study of BAPENDA Southeast Sulawesi Province)

This study aims to test and explain the Effect of Internal Control and Compensation for the Performance of Temporary employees. The independent variable in this study is Internal Control and Compensation, while the dependent variable in this study is the Performance of Temporary employees. Data collection method used aquestionnaire. The data analysis used the descriptive analysis method and multiple linear regressionanalysis. This research also uses factor analysis to show the most influential indicators in one variable. The result of this study indicate that (1) the internal control variabel has t-count > t-tabel and significance value < significance level (2) compensation variable has t-count > t-table and significant value< signivicance level (3) internal control variable and compensation for the performance of Temporary employees has a value of t-count > f-table and a significant value of significance level.

Theoretical and Practical Aspects Related to Work of Temporary Employees for Users from Other European Union States. Work Through Temporary Employment Agency and Secondment

The work of employees through a temporary employment agency is a form of atypical work that involves more discussions. In this material, I propose to compare the institution of temporary work through a temporary work agency with that of posting. I will also highlight the particularities of the temporary employee's work within the provision of transnational services, highlighting internal and community legislative aspects as well as the problems that the two institutions bring to the practice of national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Essentials of Employee Safety Measures in Organization

The Occupational Safety Act of 2007 was established after multiple amendments to the Manufactories Act of 1951. These amendments expanded its scope beyond just industrial workplaces, applying to all working environments and individuals, whether temporary or permanent employees. The main objective of this Act is to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals at work, as well as providing protection to non-employees who may be affected by work-related hazards. Employers are obligated to comply with all safety regulations, rules, instructions, and procedures outlined in the Act. They must take necessary precautions to safeguard their own safety, as well as that of their employees, by implementing appropriate systems of work, preventive measures, and control mechanisms.The purpose of this study is to examine the safety measures implemented by a mining company for its workers. The aim is to assess the level of satisfaction among workers regarding these safety measures. The analysis and findings from this study will be valuable in improving the existing safety measures. Ultimately, the results will contribute to an overall sense of satisfaction among the workforce in relation to the company's safety practices.