Contingent work
Encyclopedia
Contingent work, also sometimes known as casual work
, is a neologism which describes a type of employment
relationship between an employer and employee. There is no universally agreed consensus on what type of working arrangement constitutes contingent work, but it is generally considered to be any one or combination of the following:
Whether a person who does contingent work can be described as 'having a job' is debatable - however, contingent work is usually not considered to be a career
, or part of a career. One of the features of contingent work is that it usually offers little or no opportunity for career development
.
If a job is full time
, permanent, and either pays a regular salary
or a fixed wage
for regular hours, then it is usually not considered to be contingent work.
Contingent work is not an entirely neutral term, because commentators who use the phrase generally consider it to be a social problem
. Employment agencies
and classified advertising
media are more likely to use the phrase casual work, particularly to attract student
s who wish to earn money during the summer vacation
, but who aren't interested in a long term career. Whilst all casual work is considered to be contingent work, not all contingent work is casual. In particular, part time jobs, or jobs in organizations that have a high staff turnover, may be considered contingent work, but aren't necessarily casual.
. Before then, the predominant regular work was in agriculture
. Textile
workers would often work from home, buying raw cotton
from a merchant
, spinning
it and weaving
it into cloth at home, before selling it on.
In the 1770s, cotton mills started to appear in Lancashire
, England
, using Richard Arkwright
's spinning jenny
and powered by water wheel
s. Workers would often work in twelve hour shifts, six days a week. However, they would still often be paid on a piece work
basis, and fines would be deducted from their pay for damage to machinery. Employers could hire
and fire
pretty much as they pleased, and if an employee had any grievance
about this, there was very little they could do about it.
, led to the formation of the first trade union
s. As trade unions became larger, their sphere of influence
increased, and started to involve political lobbying
, resulting in much of the employment law that is now taken for granted.
. Many manufacturing organisations that employ large numbers of people have relocated their operations to developing nations. As a result, whenever they do hire staff in Europe
or North America
, they often need to be able to fire them quickly and keep costs as low as possible, to remain competitive. As a result, some employers may look for loophole
s in employment law, or ways of engaging staff that allows them to circumvent union-negotiated employment law, creating what is now known as contingent work.
s. This term was made popular by Douglas Coupland
's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
, and stems from the notion that jobs in McDonalds and other fast food
and retail
business
es are frequently insecure, and that the hiring and firing is as fast as the food.
with the brush of contingent work. Some say that temporary work patterns such as self-employment
, consultancy and telecommuting
can bring benefits of flexibility
not just to employers, but employees as well, and can improve work-life balance, and make it easier for workers to manage family
responsibilities. However it is argued that such benefits are only realized in middle class
jobs, whose entry barriers are too high for workers with below-average earnings.
Casual employment
Casual employment is an Australian employment classification under Australian workplace law whereby an employee is paid at a higher hourly rate in lieu of having their employment guaranteed, and lacking other usual employment conditions such as sick leave...
, is a neologism which describes a type of employment
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
relationship between an employer and employee. There is no universally agreed consensus on what type of working arrangement constitutes contingent work, but it is generally considered to be any one or combination of the following:
- Work which is temporary or lacks job securityJob securityJob security is the probability that an individual will keep his or her job; a job with a high level of job security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of becoming unemployed.-Factors affecting job security:...
- Work which is part timePart timeA part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
- Work which is paid on a piece workPiece workPiece work is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed "piece rate" for each unit produced or action performed regardless of time...
basis
Whether a person who does contingent work can be described as 'having a job' is debatable - however, contingent work is usually not considered to be a career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
, or part of a career. One of the features of contingent work is that it usually offers little or no opportunity for career development
Career development
In organizational development , the study of career development looks at:*how individuals manage their careers within and between organizations and,...
.
If a job is full time
Full time
Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined as such by his/her employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible workers, such as annual leave, sickleave, and health...
, permanent, and either pays a regular salary
Salary
A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis....
or a fixed wage
Wage
A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by workers in exchange for their labor.Compensation in terms of wages is given to workers and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees...
for regular hours, then it is usually not considered to be contingent work.
Contingent work is not an entirely neutral term, because commentators who use the phrase generally consider it to be a social problem
Social injustice
Social injustice is a concept relating to the claimed unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens and other incidental inequalities...
. Employment agencies
Employment agency
An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In all developed countries there is a publicly funded employment agency and multiple private businesses which also act as employment agencies.-Public employment agencies:...
and classified advertising
Classified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...
media are more likely to use the phrase casual work, particularly to attract student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s who wish to earn money during the summer vacation
Summer vacation
Summer vacation is a vacation in the summertime between school years in which students and instructors are off school typically between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on the country and district.-Students:In some countries, students participate in programs such as organized sports, summer camps, and...
, but who aren't interested in a long term career. Whilst all casual work is considered to be contingent work, not all contingent work is casual. In particular, part time jobs, or jobs in organizations that have a high staff turnover, may be considered contingent work, but aren't necessarily casual.
Industrial Revolution
The concept of what we now consider to be a job, where one attends work at fixed hours, didn't become widespread until the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. Before then, the predominant regular work was in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. Textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
workers would often work from home, buying raw cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
from a merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
it and weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
it into cloth at home, before selling it on.
In the 1770s, cotton mills started to appear in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, using Richard Arkwright
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright , was an Englishman who, although the patents were eventually overturned, is often credited for inventing the spinning frame — later renamed the water frame following the transition to water power. He also patented a carding engine that could convert raw cotton into yarn...
's spinning jenny
Spinning jenny
The spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning frame. It was invented c. 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology...
and powered by water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
s. Workers would often work in twelve hour shifts, six days a week. However, they would still often be paid on a piece work
Piece work
Piece work is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed "piece rate" for each unit produced or action performed regardless of time...
basis, and fines would be deducted from their pay for damage to machinery. Employers could hire
Recruitment
Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.The recruitment...
and fire
Termination of employment
-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...
pretty much as they pleased, and if an employee had any grievance
Grievance
A grievance is a wrong or hardship suffered, which is the grounds of a complaint.-History and politics:A grievance may arise from injustice or tyranny, and be cause for rebellion or revolution....
about this, there was very little they could do about it.
Trade Union movement
Individual workers were powerless to prevent exploitation by their employers. However, the realisation that all workers generally want the same things, and the benefits of collective bargainingCollective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
, led to the formation of the first trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s. As trade unions became larger, their sphere of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
increased, and started to involve political lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
, resulting in much of the employment law that is now taken for granted.
20th century decline in manufacture
Manufacture has declined during the 20th century in the Western worldWestern world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. Many manufacturing organisations that employ large numbers of people have relocated their operations to developing nations. As a result, whenever they do hire staff in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
or North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, they often need to be able to fire them quickly and keep costs as low as possible, to remain competitive. As a result, some employers may look for loophole
Loophole
A loophole is a weakness that allows a system to be circumvented.Loophole may also refer to:*Arrowslit, a slit in a castle wall*Loophole , a short science fiction story by Arthur C...
s in employment law, or ways of engaging staff that allows them to circumvent union-negotiated employment law, creating what is now known as contingent work.
Contingent work in culture
Contingent work jobs are widely referred to as McJobMcJob
McJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige dead end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement...
s. This term was made popular by Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, published by St. Martin's Press in 1991, is the first novel by Douglas Coupland. The novel popularized the term Generation X, which refers to Americans and Canadians who reached adulthood in the late 1980s...
, and stems from the notion that jobs in McDonalds and other fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
and retail
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
es are frequently insecure, and that the hiring and firing is as fast as the food.
Critics of the concept
Critics say that it's unfair to tarnish all employment agenciesEmployment agency
An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In all developed countries there is a publicly funded employment agency and multiple private businesses which also act as employment agencies.-Public employment agencies:...
with the brush of contingent work. Some say that temporary work patterns such as self-employment
Self-employment
Self-employment is working for one's self.Self-employed people can also be referred to as a person who works for himself/herself instead of an employer, but drawing income from a trade or business that they operate personally....
, consultancy and telecommuting
Telecommuting
Telecommuting or telework is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links...
can bring benefits of flexibility
Labour market flexibility
Labour market flexibility refers to the speed with which labour markets adapt to fluctuations and changes in society, the economy or production.-Definition:In the past, the most common definition of labour market flexibility was the neo-liberal definition...
not just to employers, but employees as well, and can improve work-life balance, and make it easier for workers to manage family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
responsibilities. However it is argued that such benefits are only realized in middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
jobs, whose entry barriers are too high for workers with below-average earnings.
Further reading
- Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition, edited by Kathleen Barker and Kathleen Christensen
See also
- Contract attorneyContract attorneyA contract attorney works on legal cases on a contract basis. Such work is generally of a temporary nature, often with no guaranteed employment term.A contract attorney is-Civil litigation:...
- Contingent workforceContingent WorkforceA contingent workforce is a provisional group of workers who work for an organization on a non-permanent basis, also known as freelancers, independent professionals, temporary contract workers, independent contractors or consultants...
- Day laborDay laborDay labor is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form of contingent work.-Types:Day laborers find work through three common routes....
- McJobMcJobMcJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige dead end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement...
- PermatempPermatempA permatemp is an employee whose status is somewhere between a temporary employee and a permanent employee. The word is a portmanteau of the words permanent and temporary.There are two types of permatemp employment relationships...
- Precarious workPrecarious workPrecarious work is a term used to describe non-standard employment which is poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and cannot support a household. In recent decades there has been a dramatic increase in precarious work due to such factors as: globalization, the shift from the manufacturing sector to...
- PrecarityPrecarity (Euromayday)* For a sociological view of labor conditions, see Precarious work* For a social Christianity view see Precarity Precarity is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare...
- Psychological contractPsychological contractA psychological contract represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions, and informal obligations between an employer and an employee. It sets the dynamics for the relationship and defines the detailed practicality of the work to be done...