The changing world of the temporary worker: the potential HR impact of legislation

David Biggs · Brendan J. Burchell · Mike Millmore

34 citations0/0 files storedPersonnel Review

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies Labor Law and Work Dynamics Employment and Welfare Studies

Abstract

Purpose Temporary workers have many human resource and labour market implications. These consequences are further influenced with the introduction of new legislation relating to temporary workers. The purpose of this article is to present research on the impacts of the legislation – Fixed Term Employees Regulations and Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations – on temporary workers in the labour force. Design/methodology/approach Information from 24 Labour Force Surveys, conducted between December 1997 and November 2003, were analysed with two longitudinal Labour Force Surveys. Qualitative data was also gathered from six temporary worker employers and 17 agency workers. Findings Analysis of data demonstrated that the utilisation of temporary workers had declined in the labour force: Temporary workers had decreased in real terms by 24 per cent and agency workers who were less regulated by only 11 per cent. Also, an increased take‐up of permanent work by temporary workers was found post‐legislation (27 per cent) compared with pre‐legislation (22 per cent). Research limitations/implications Some limitations exist in the study using National Statistics and qualitative data to analyse labour force dynamics. Further research is warranted in this area investigating how strategic decisions in utilising temporary workers are formed and how recent legislation has influenced these policies. Practical implications Changes in temporary worker legislation have direct consequences to the labour force. Originality/value The paper reveals the decline of temporary workers in the labour force between 1997 and 2003 and examines specific legislation, which may have influenced this phenomenon.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 34 citations exist upstream.

References

1993Determinants of Employment Externalization: A Study of Temporary Workers and Independent Contractors 1999Britain At Work: As Depicted by the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2000Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey 1993TOWARD AN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF CONTRACT LABORERS: THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL INVOLVEMENT AND EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEE CO-WORKERS.2001Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey 1998Britain at Work 2000Why Do Temporary Help Firms Provide Free General Skills Training?2001Why Do Temporary Help Firms Provide Free General Skills Training?

Cited by

2015Methodological considerations in the use of audio diaries in work psychology: Adding to the qualitative toolkit 2007On the transferability of “traditional” satisfaction theory to non‐traditional employment relationships: temp agency work satisfaction 2016Temporary agency workers shake a work community: a social capital perspective

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.