It's About Fissured Work

[alice malice]

Here, David Weil argues that an important contributing factor is the
growth of the "fissured workplace". His term captures changes in the
organisation of employment, whereby large firms with recognised brands
devolve responsibility for their workers to increasingly complex
networks of suppliers and franchisees. These trends not only affect
the lower-skilled or easily standardised jobs readily associated with
outsourcing - cleaning, hotel housekeeping and manufacturing assembly
- but have spread to higher skilled work and sectors such as law and
the media.

Drawing on statistical sources, industry examples and company case
studies, Weil describes a common trajectory of progressive fissuring
in US workplaces - with remarkably similar employment effects. New
organisational models became popular starting in the late 1980s,
premised on large firms slimming down to "core competencies". Pressure
from capital markets to maximise "shareholder value" increased
incentives to cut costs. Technological advances lowered the expense
(and risks) of coordinating complex networks of suppliers. Turning
over responsibility for large areas of work to third parties became a
proven formula for generating increased profits, and higher returns
for investors.

If systematic violations of basic labour standards are tolerated,
workers will be increasingly reluctant to speak out against them

By now, we are used to hearing business leaders extol the virtues of
replacing unwieldy bureaucracies with flexible market-based
contracting. However, Weil convincingly argues that a major source of
savings from these new organisational models comes from their success
in cutting labour costs via downward pressure on pay and working
conditions.

The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What
Can Be Done to Improve It

By David Weil
Harvard University Press, 424pp, £22.95
ISBN 9780674725447
Published 27 February 2014
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