Deployment Of Labour Research Articles

Seeking the Balance between Flexibility and Security: A Rising Issue in the Low Countries

Belgian policy-makers are coming to regard the Netherlands as a `model'. Belgian observers commenting on the `Dutch miracle' frequently refer to the greater flexibility of the deployment of labour. The share taken by temporary employment is indeed much lower in Belgium. The OECD links this `shortfall' to an excess of protective regulations (Belgosclerosis). In this paper we critically evaluate the theoretical arguments cited for relaxing the right of dismissal and the use of flexible forms of employment. On the basis of this theoretical exercise, we compare the Belgian and Dutch policies on dismissal protection, prevention of dismissal and temporary employment. We examine whether differences in institutional embedding lead to differences in the way in which companies seek to achieve flexibility. The main conclusion is that the institutional frameworks of Belgium and the Netherlands have been built up along different lines. Dutch legislation encourages contractual flexibility. Belgian legislation focuses more on temporal flexibility. A competition for the greatest flexibility has little point given these observations. It is not a question of `more' or `less', but of `different' flexibility. The wider significance of the comparison is that it clearly demonstrates that the compromise between flexibility and stability (and job security) can be forged in different ways.

Economic and Cultural Forces in the Child Labour Debate: Evidence from Urban Bangladesh

The relative influence of economic and cultural forces is a key area of debate amongst those exploring the causes of child work, and in wider discourse on household labour deployment. Data from Dhaka slums suggest that household poverty and income stability are important economic determinants of children's work. However, economic forces alone cannot explain child-work deployment. Evidence on the availability of adult household members to replace child contributions, and on gender and age differentials in household labour deployment, point towards the importance of cultural factors. Key cultural determinants of children's work include gender norms, age subordination and the cultural importance of avoiding idleness.

Genetic algorithm model in optimizing the use of labour

The construction industry is characterized by the existence of multiple trades and crafts. With the existence of multiple-tiers of labour-only-subcontracting in Hong Kong, tradesmen are normally assigned to tasks of a narrowly defined skill. Lately, there has been a call for the adoption of a directly employed labour scheme by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the public works departments in Hong Kong in order to improve both safety and quality. However, current industry practice has hindered the adoption of directly employed labour, which requires assigning tradesmen to broadly defined task groupings. In implementing the scheme, the first thing to be resolved is how to maximize the levels of use of workers, because that is the major financial incentive to encourage contractors to adopt the directly employed labour policy. This coupled with the shortage of some skilled craft workers call into question the traditionally accepted ‘single-skilled’ or ‘single-task’ approach in labour deployment. A genetic algorithm model is developed to optimize the labour deployment and practical examples are presented. The optimization results are very promising, confirming the practical application value of the model.

Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numerical flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.

Child housework in urban Bangladesh: an exploration of intra‐household labour deployment

Child housework in urban Bangladesh: an exploration of intra‐household labour deployment

Child housework in urban Bangladesh: an exploration of intra-household labour deployment

This article examines key debates on intra-household labour deployment using evidence on children's housework in urban Bangladesh. It argues that theories that emphasize the economic rationality of household decision making are inadequate for explaining task allocation in Bangladeshi slum households. Cultural and social forces must be considered when seeking to explain household labour deployment. In urban Bangladesh, age and gender hierarchies are of particular relevance. Such evidence suggests that gaining community acceptance is sometimes prioritized over utility maximization in household livelihood strategies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction: Flexibility for the Individual, Organization and Society

The term “flexibility” is introduced as the theme of this issue of the journal: its use at the individual, organizational and societal level is discussed. The multiple ways and the different contexts in which it is used make it a problematic term. Yet for employers as well as governments, flexibility in the use and deployment of labour is seen as critical to maintain competitive advantage. However, despite what might be based on good intentions, this drive towards flexibility may leave certain parts of the workforce at least confused and uncertain. There may be other employees who feel part of a “core” group, for whom change is more often positive. Those at the other end of the spectrum are at risk of social exclusion, denied the benefits of full participation in society. Thus flexibility becomes an issue which touches individuals, organizations and governments together, not separately.

Labour Deployment in Plants in Canada and Sweden

Labour Deployment in Plants in Canada and Sweden

Reshuffling Paperworkers: Technological Change and Experiences of Reorganization at a Québec Newsprint Mill

This article offers an historical-geographical account of how an aging newsprint mill located in Gatineau, in the Outaouais region of western Quebec, with serious obstacles to cost-effective production, came to be chosen for a complete in situ technological reorganization project in the early 1990s. This apparent paradox is explained by locating the mill with respect to the production system and corporate strategy of its parent company, with respect to changing production and demand requirements, and with respect to its particular labour relations history. We focus on the process through which this drastic reorganization was implemented at the mill, showing how logistical considerations particular to this type of continuous-process industry, as well as procedures laid out in the labour contract, influenced the company's timetable and labour deployment strategies during this period. We show how the process of technological reorganization helped create the conditions for the subsequent implementation of functional flexibility. We also refer to the unpredictable contingencies that necessitated building flexibility into the timetable for downsizing the workforce by some 450 jobs. As well as considering the constraints faced by local management, we explore how the reorganization process was experienced by workers, especially those facing prolonged uncertainty as to their future at the mill. We examine the seeming paradox of the prevalence of overtime at the mill even as workers were being laid off. In conclusion, we critically discuss the appropriateness of concepts such as management strategy and numerical flexibility and point to the need for further concept development to facilitate analyses of labour deployment strategies adopted during periods of production reorganization.

Labour Exploitation for Military Campaigns in British Colonial Africa 1870-1945

In the vast literature on warfare in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, relatively little has been written about the recruitment, organization and deployment of non-combatant labour required to service and supply the fighting line. The hundreds of thousands of general labourers, drawn from all parts of the globe, who served on the Western Front in 1914-18 have been almost completely ignored by historians.' So also have the porters and carriers employed for military operations in tropical Africa during the colonial period. Most moder campaigns in tropical Africa wars of conquest, punitive expeditions to enforce alien rule, and the first world war were fought in regions where terrain, climate, inadequate roads, and the ravages of the tsetse fly made it virtually impossible to use animal transport. Mechanical means of transport were rarely available before 1940 and most military operations were labour intensive, dependent upon large numbers of carriers to sustain long supply lines and fighting soldiers. A few articles have examined particularly the large-scale recruitment of military porters in East Africa and elsewhere during the first world war.2 More generally, details about conscription of labour for war and the social and economic consequences this had on African communities are thinly scattered in a limited number of monographs and unpublished theses based on papers in the Public Records Office and in African archival collections. One or two researchers have collected oral evidence, but that is a rapidly disappearing source.3 The African labourer toiling with his load rarely left any personal record and only a few observers thought his lot worth more than a passing reference. This article describes the policies and practices of the British colonial authorities in tropical Africa to raise large numbers of labourers for military campaigns,

Buyer‐Supplier Relations and Industrial Relations in the UK Automotive Industry

The UK motor industry has been at the centre of many important developments in British manufacturing in the 1980s. On the industrial relations front there have been reports of “macho management”, declining trade union influence (especially at the shop floor level), and new working practices and greater flexibility in the deployment and utilisation of labour. On the manufacturing front there is evidence of new production systems being developed (principally based on just‐in‐time or minimum inventory systems), of more systematic quality control systems being developed, and of new technology being widely deployed and developed (e.g. CNC machines, CAD/CAM, and robotics). All these changes have been geared towards improving the performance of the industry in respect of both price and non‐price factors (e.g. quality, lead times, design, delivery, etc). One area which researchers, and the industry itself, has tended to neglect is that of relationships with suppliers. It is only in the last 4–5 years that manufacturers such as Ford, and more recently Austin Rover, have undertaken a systematic reappraisal of their “buyer‐ supplier” relations, with the focus very much on improving quality, sharing research and development costs, and implementing stock reduction programmes and JIT deliveries. Contracts are now awarded to a much smaller number of “preferred” or “single” suppliers, frequently based on a long‐term commitment for the life of a particular model. These changes are currently transforming the structure of the component supplier network, the relationship that exists between motor manufacturer and component supplier, and production methods and industrial relations procedures throughout the industry which are now required to meet the demands of quality assurance, JIT delivery and the like.

Ownership nationality and industrial relations practices in British non‐manufacturing industries

This article reports that foreign‐owned plants in non‐manufacturing in Britain display the same personnel management style as those in manufacturing with a greater commitment of resources to personnel management, more systemic labour deployment and higher pay levels than their British counterparts.

A preliminary review of batch sizes in a job shop using a digital simulation model

A previous paper 1 described the design of a simulation model. This model, written in GASP IV, allows the management of a large machine shop to try out policies under realistic assump tions without disrupting operations. This paper outlines the results of approximately 30 "runs" on the model, which are designed to provide an insight into the ef fects of modifying the batch sizes used in the machine shop. The results obtained suggest that the major impact of increased batch sizes is on the flow of work through the plant. The overall conclusion is that the current manufacturing system cannot ac commodate larger batch sizes. The presently used batch sizes suit the configuration of work centres and the deployment of labour in the job shop.

Food Production and Family Labour in Southern Malawi: the Shire Highlands and Upper Shire Valley in the Early Colonial Period

The mechanics of food production by peasant cultivators have received relatively little attention from historians of colonial Africa, and yet a knowledge of food production systems and the labour they require is crucial to any understanding of rural change and stratification in the colonial period. On the Shire Highlands of Southern Malawi, ecological disturbance and the alienation of land in the early years of the twentieth century meant that an intensification of labour on food production was needed if hunger was to be avoided. The differential success of various groups in holding on to their family labour was a major factor making for economic differentiation in this period. Full-scale famine was avoided by the ability of some groups to adopt new cropping patterns, intensify labour, and thus continue to produce a food surplus. A degree of land shortage could be accommodated as long as labour could be intensified on the available land. In the Upper Shire valley at the same time, there was little shortage of land, but the concern for food security there was important in determining the outcome of the introduction of cotton as a cash-crop. The attainment of food security in this area, which was prone to drought, involved the deployment of family labour on food production over much of the year, including the planting of second crops and back-up crops in the dry season. The introduction of cotton was largely a failure because the returns did not compensate for the loss of labour on food production.