Transnational regulation of temporary agency work compromised partnership between Private Employment Agencies and Global Union Federations

This article critically assesses the potential for the international regulation of temporary agency work (TAW) through building partnership between the Global Union Federations (GUFs) and major Private Employment Agencies (PrEAs). Given the limits of existing national and international regulation of TAW, particularly in developing countries, and the current deadlock in dialogue through the International Labour Organization, the argument of this article is that Transnational Private Labour Regulation (TPLR) offers a unique opportunity to establish a basis for minimum standards for temporary agency workers. This article goes on to propose three potential TPLR frameworks that, although compromised, are transparent, fair and sufficiently elastic to accommodate the distributive and political risks associated with partnership. They also offer important gains, namely increasing the competitive advantage of the PrEAs involved, minimum standards for agency workers and ‘field enlarging’ strategies for the GUFs and their affiliates

(Re)considering new agents: a review of labour market intermediaries within labour geography

The world of work continues to change. Labour markets in most countries are increasingly shaped by policies of neoliberal deregulation while strategies of flexibility dominate public policy and corporate strategy across an array of sectors. At the forefront of these changes are the myriad labour market intermediaries that are used by workers and employees to enhance their ability to navigate ever more complex and volatile labour markets. For some, mediated employment, recruitment and work practices mean greater career progression and profit making ability, but for many others, it means increased precarity, vulnerability and insecurity. This paper critically reviews existing literature within geography on three types of private labour market intermediary, namely temporary staffing agencies and contract brokers; executive search firms and headhunters; and informal intermediaries such as gangmasters. The final section addresses the future for research in labour geography and, in particular, suggests new ways in which to broaden our understanding of labour market intermediaries and their impact on worker agency

The relationship between contract type and job satisfaction in a mediated moderation model. The role of job insecurity and psychological contract violation

In the last decades, research on the relationship between contract type, job insecurity and outcomes has been constantly increasing. Previous evidence indicated that job insecurity moderates the impact of contract type (permanent vs temporary) on job satisfaction. The present study aims to investigate these relationships considering two facets (intrinsic and extrinsic) of job satisfaction and psychological contract violation as mediator, in the mediated moderation model. Participants were 638 employees of different Italian organizations, with open-ended or fixed-term contract. As hypothesized, results indicated that job insecurity moderates the relationship between contract type and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction differently for contract type. The job insecurity effects were more negative for permanent workers regarding intrinsic job satisfaction and more negative for temporary workers regarding extrinsic job satisfaction. The mediated moderation analyses supported the study’s main hypothesis, pointing out that psychological contract violation negatively mediated the interaction effect