Smuggling-in flexibility: Temporary work contracts and the “implicit threat” mechanism. Reflections on a new European path
This paper describes some of the changes which have taken place in business and workforce practices in recent decades. In particular, it focuses on firms’ increasing recourse to outsourcing and non-standard forms of employment in pursuit of business flexibility.
This paper deals with business and workplace management practices under the
Post-Fordist production system. In particular, it focuses on firms’ ever-increasing search for flexibility – that is, ways of rapidly adjusting their activities to meet contingent business needs. This kind of flexibility is paramount in a system in which demand for goods and services is competition is incessantly pushing firms to reduce production costs. In these circumstances, firms have not only changed their production methods,
but have also adopted new techniques of workforce management, significantly
different from those which characterized the Fordist or Taylorist production systems. These techniques are challenging traditional categories of both employment law and industrial relations, which were constructed and construed with reference to the Fordist–Taylorist workplace.
Post-Fordist production system. In particular, it focuses on firms’ ever-increasing search for flexibility – that is, ways of rapidly adjusting their activities to meet contingent business needs. This kind of flexibility is paramount in a system in which demand for goods and services is competition is incessantly pushing firms to reduce production costs. In these circumstances, firms have not only changed their production methods,
but have also adopted new techniques of workforce management, significantly
different from those which characterized the Fordist or Taylorist production systems. These techniques are challenging traditional categories of both employment law and industrial relations, which were constructed and construed with reference to the Fordist–Taylorist workplace.