Agency work as an extreme phenomenon in working life. A study of agency work and today’s working life

Abstract

The study examines agency work and today’s working life. The starting point is that agency work relationships are atypical even among other atypical employment relationships, which justifies the claim that agency work is an extreme phenomenon in today’s working life. In the study I ask: What do the problems encountered by agency workers in their employment relationships tell us about today’s working life? In order to answer this question, I examine what kinds of problems agency workers encounter and how agency work is interpreted. I examine agency work at the structural and social level.

The principal sources of data used in the study are texts on agency work collected from seven internet discussion forums (N=3,350), reports and texts on the subject produced by the Confederation of Finnish Industries and its affiliated employers’ association for staffing companies, the Federation of Finnish Staffing Services (N=20), texts on agency work published in Helsingin Sanomat between 2003 and 2007 (N=102), and 12 short expert interviews. The study is situated within the field of critical working life research, which has examined matters such as power, subordination, exploitation, control, and inequality. Methodologically, the study applies the research programme of sociologist Matti Kortteinen, which is based on the concepts of structure, the social, and action. From the basis of this research design, the aim is to discern in agency work the broader lines of development that tell us about today’s working life.

Agency workers encounter several different problems in their employment relationships, relating to the absence of reciprocity in the relationship between employers and employees, as well as to the precariousness and insecurity of the employment relationship. Labour legislation enables the precariousness and insecurity of agency work, and for the current new phase of capitalism agency work is the most ideal form of labour. On this basis it is clear that precariousness and insecurity are structural features inherent to agency work. The problems encountered by agency workers in their employment relationships reveal about today’s working life that the goals of employers and employees are in opposition to one another. The foundation of this confrontation lies in the clash between an employee culture that values permanent employment and an employer culture that favours atypical employment relationships. (AI translation)

• ISSN: 1795-2832
• ISBN: 978-952-209-059-1
• Press Release in Finnish
• Publication in PDF-format