"Getting by" in time and space: fragmented work in local authorities
"Getting by" in time and space: fragmented work in local authorities
Manual work in British local authorities has been substantially restructured since the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in 1988. The central argument of this paper is that CCT has led to an increasing fragmentation of work, employment, and labor markets. Drawing primarily upon interviews with cleaning and catering employees in three case study councils, I demonstrate that labor forces are now highly diversified as wage and other divisions have emerged among groups of workers both between and within different local labor markets. The employment experiences of individual workers also have become fragmented. Not only is job tenure limited to the length of a contract, but also private contractors frequently seek to alter employees' terms and conditions of work during the life of the contract itself. Additionally, many cleaning and catering workers must now combine multiple part-time, frequently insecure jobs in an attempt to obtain a living wage. Extending the work of Mingione, the paper stresses the complexity of restructuring within what have been low-wage, low-status, and highly gender-segregated sectors of employment.
compulsory competitive tendering, fragmented polarization, gender, local labor markets, restructuring.
157-177
Reimer, S.
d6594766-1967-4439-a8bb-14e52a6e2f5f
1999
Reimer, S.
d6594766-1967-4439-a8bb-14e52a6e2f5f
Reimer, S.
(1999)
"Getting by" in time and space: fragmented work in local authorities.
Economic Geography, 75 (2), .
Abstract
Manual work in British local authorities has been substantially restructured since the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in 1988. The central argument of this paper is that CCT has led to an increasing fragmentation of work, employment, and labor markets. Drawing primarily upon interviews with cleaning and catering employees in three case study councils, I demonstrate that labor forces are now highly diversified as wage and other divisions have emerged among groups of workers both between and within different local labor markets. The employment experiences of individual workers also have become fragmented. Not only is job tenure limited to the length of a contract, but also private contractors frequently seek to alter employees' terms and conditions of work during the life of the contract itself. Additionally, many cleaning and catering workers must now combine multiple part-time, frequently insecure jobs in an attempt to obtain a living wage. Extending the work of Mingione, the paper stresses the complexity of restructuring within what have been low-wage, low-status, and highly gender-segregated sectors of employment.
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Published date: 1999
Keywords:
compulsory competitive tendering, fragmented polarization, gender, local labor markets, restructuring.
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Local EPrints ID: 56865
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/56865
ISSN: 0013-0095
PURE UUID: e3c3f928-78b4-43f8-a262-23edea961b30
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Date deposited: 18 Aug 2008
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 01:53
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