Computer Chips and Paper Clips Technology and Women's Employment, Volume II: Case Studies and Policy Perspectives (1987) / Chapter Skim
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Restructuring Work: Temporary, Part-Time, and At-Home Employment
Restructuring Work: Temporary, Part-Time, and At-Home Employment
Pages 268-310
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From page 268... ...
Alternative work schedules include temporary work, part-time work, multiple jobholding, and at-home work. Each of these employment strategies predates the introduction of high-technology products and production processes; this paper attempts to identify the particular impact of developments in technology on the changing extent of these work schedules.
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From page 269... ...
THE TRANSFORMATION OF LABOR MARKETS To a large extent, increased use of alternative work schedules can be explained by developments over the last decade and a half that have reduced the importance and undermined the existence of internal labor markets. These developments include the spread of microprocessor-based technologies, increased emphasis on reducing labor costs, and the growth of higher education.
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From page 270... ...
Thus, ~ would argue that by-products of the implementation of computer and communications technologies include the disrupt tion of natural learning sequences, a decline in the importance of job ladders and internal labor markets for nonprofessional employees, the resulting weakening in internal labor market structures, and the attendant reduction in occupational mobility for ordinary workers. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute all changes in the organization of work that undermine internal labor markets to the direct effects of the way in which technological change is
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From page 271... ...
POISED FOR CONTRACTION Internal labor markets play a special role in meeting the needs of companies that are poised for expansion: they guarantee that the company has workers already in the pipeline at every skill level ready to move up the job ladder should an increase in demand for the company's products warrant increases in production. Under these conditions, assistant managers are not an unnecessary and costly layer of bureaucracy; rather, they are a pool of workers, loyal to the company, steeped in its culture, and possessing the requisite skills to assume the position of manager should the company decide to open additional branch operations.
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From page 272... ...
IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN WORKERS The occupational changes brought about by office automation technologies and the desire of many companies for immediate reductions in employment have direct implications for career mobility for women within organizations. Internal labor markets—with their opportunities for promotion and career advancement have
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From page 273... ...
The erosion of internal labor markets has weakened the claim of clerical workers to the protections and benefits afforded by permanent full-time employment. Firms have relied on office automation technologies to facilitate their use of clerical temporary workers and home workers.
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From page 274... ...
Thus federal officials publicly welcomed the new rules on temporary employment because having more temporary employees without civil service protection will make it easier for them to adjust the size of the work force. They expect to be able to use the temporary workers as a cushion to protect permanent employees from being laid off first.
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From page 275... ...
According to Sacco, "companies are increasingly pre-planning for the use of temporary workers and budgeting for them at the beginning of the year." For example, Johnson and Johnson Products, a health care supplier that is an affiliate of the Johnson and Johnson Corporation, has built the use of 450 temporary workers during the year into its personnel plans. The company is budgeting $500,000 for temporary clerical workers, secretaries, lab technicians, data-processing clerks, accounting clerks, and computer clerks to be hired through temporary help agencies (Flamingo, 1984~.
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From page 276... ...
The industry currently supplies temporary workers in four main areas: office clerical/office automation (OA) operators, medical (with hospital distinguished from nursing home and homemaking services)
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From page 277... ...
. Since temporary employment now functions in part as an economic buffer, it is not surprising that employment in the temporary help services industry declines early in a recession and recovers quickly at the beginning of an expansion.
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From page 278... ...
Business Week reports that the industry's giants, Kelly Services Inc. and Manpower Inc., have more than 800,000 temporary workers on their books (Business Week, 1985~.
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From page 279... ...
Year Total Women Total Women Annual average 1982 1983 1984 1983 89,566 39,052 90,138 39,812 99,156 41,831 400.9 255.7 471.8 302.9 630.8 398.9 Jan 87,590 38,849 387.2 254.9 Feb 87,598 38,945 379.5 248.5 Mar 88,208 39,225 410.1 266.1 Apr 89,064 39,509 433.6 279.3 May 89,921 39,774 447.9 287.1 June 90,738 39,886 461.1 294.5 July 90,112 39,243 483.4 314.0 Aug 89,842 39,097 498.5 317.4 Sept 91,485 40,237 519.8 328.3 Oct 92,049 40,669 535.1 338.0 Non 92,406 40,998 534.3 335.6 Dee 92,645 41,316 571.2 370.6 1984 Jan 91,065 40,590 547.0 352.5 Feb 91,612 40,862 551.6 353.4 Mar 92,234 41,210 575.2 365.4 Apr 93,234 41,390 597.9 379.5 May 94,063 41,584 621.3 392.5 June 95,003 41,735 633.6 394.0 July 94,236 41,966 649.7 406.8 Aug 94,486 42,094 669.8 419.2 Sept 95,358 42,246 685.3 430.0 Oct 95,894 42,441 6B7.0 432.7 Nov 96,215 43,142 678.0 427.9 Dee 96,308 43,313 675.7 433.2 1985 Jan 94,628 42,595 644.2 410.8 Fteb 94,851 42,785 637.5 402.1 SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics (1984a:Table 309; 1984b:Tables B-2 and B-3; 1985a:Tables B-2 and B-3; 1985c:1563.
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From page 280... ...
Nor is the appeal of temporary work, as industry spokespeople suggest, the possibility of increased variety in work. A study of a large national firm that hires more than 50,000 health care temporary employees each year found that more than 60 percent of the temporary workers gave freedom to schedule work in a flexible manner as the most important reason for working at a temporary help firm (Gannon, 1984; see Table 3~.
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From page 281... ...
Several temporary help agencies provide training in word processing and office automation to their clerical workers: Kelly Services of Detroit, which has equipped 360 of their 500 offices to teach basic word-processing operations for a variety of PCs; Olsten Temporary Services of Westbury, N.Y., which provides training at 45 office-automation training centers; and Manpower Temporary Services of Milwaukee, which provides training in word processing and in business applications of personal computers (using IBM PCs)
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From page 282... ...
In addition, temporary workers typically receive few fringe benefits and very little access to job training. The constraints on employers with respect to job assignment, layoffs, hiring and promotion policies, fringe benefits, and retirement benefits that exist as a result of both explicit and implicit contracts between companies and their full-time employees are waived in the case of temporary workers.
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From page 283... ...
One study of a national sample of mothers with children under the age of five found that one-fourth of those employed part time felt they were prevented from working more hours by the unavailability of suitable day care (Presser and Baldwin, 19803. On the demand side of the labor market, the growth of part-time employment has paralleled the growth of retail trade and service industries.
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From page 284... ...
These workers typically receive few fringe benefits and they earn, on average, only $4.50 an hour compared ~ About 65 percent of part-time workers in 1983 were women. Assuming that this percentage also applies to workers with some involuntary part-time employment during the year, then the number of such women was well over 9 million.
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From page 285... ...
In part, this is accomplished by substituting part-time workers for overtime work by full-time employees; but part-time employment is also used to reduce labor costs by paying part-time workers less than full-time workers and by excluding them from some or all fringe benefits. However, Nollen and his colleagues found that employers generally hold the view that jobs involving continuous-process technologies are not suited to part-time employment.
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From page 287... ...
287 ~ oo C9 CO o: oo CO ~ ~ ~ ~ C~ oo ~ ~ C5)
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From page 288... ...
Table 5 reports the proportion of those with work experience who were employed part time for all workers, and separately for men and women, in broad industrial groups likely to be affected by offlce-automation technologies finance, insurance, and real estate; business and repair services; other professional services; and public administration. The proportion of workers with part-time employment at some time during the year is, of course, higher than the proportion employed part time during May of that year.
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From page 290... ...
In each of the industries most likely to be affected by the adoption of new technology manufacturing, transportation, and public utilities; finance, insurance, and real estate; business and repair services; other professional services; and public administration the proportion of women working part time declined during this period. Only in retail trade and personal services did the proportion of women in the industry working part 2 Several points should be kept in mind while interpreting Tables 6, 7, and 8: (1)
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From page 291... ...
1970 1980 1984 Industry Men Women Men Women Men Women All industries 18.3 35.0 16.4 33.5 15.9 32.6 Mining 12.5 19.1 8.9 15.1 12.5 19.1 Construction 24.9 34.2 21.0 31.4 19.4 31.9 Manufacturing 13.6 25.2 10.1 19.7 9.2 17.3 Transportation and public utilities 14.7 27.8 12.9 22.6 11.5 19.4 Trade 23.1 45.9 23.3 48.5 23.5 47.7 Retail 26.6 47.7 28.4 51.8 28.8 50.9 Finance, insurance, and real estate 16.4 26.4 14.3 23.2 12.4 20.1 Service 22.6 37.6 20.9 35.9 19.9 35.7 Business and repair 19.7 39.5 18.5 37.1 17.9 35.2 Personal 20.7 40.4 23.2 42.8 20.9 41.8 Other professional 18.1 33.5 15.5 28.1 12.4 27.0 Public administration 17.8 31.6 14.0 27.8 12.8 23.8 NOTE: Percentages are based on data for wage and salary workers excluding agricultural and private household workers. SOURCE: Derived from Bureau of Labor Statistics unpublished monthly data; annual averages.
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From page 292... ...
SOURCE: Derived from Bureau of Labor Statistics (January 1985a:Table 34~; values are annual averages of monthly data.
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From page 293... ...
A comparison of Tables 6 and 7 indicates that the increase in the proportion of clerical workers employed part time has not translated into an increase in part-time work in industries such as business services; public administration; and finance, insurance, and real estate. The spread of office automation technologies in these industries has reduced clerical labor requirements per unit of output and, hence, the relative importance of clerical occupations (Appelbaum, 1984~.
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From page 294... ...
Among women working part time, increases in the proportions working 15 to 29 hours were registered in every industry affected by new technology—manufacturing, transportation, and public utilities; finance, insurance, and real estate' business and repair services; other professional services; and public administration. Simultaneously, the proportion of women working 30 to 34 hours declined in every affected industry (Table 9~.
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From page 296... ...
Thus, multiple jobholding has become an increasingly important phenomenon among women. The growth in multiple jobholding occurred mainly among white women.
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From page 297... ...
Their earnings, however, averaged only 28 percent of those of full-time workers. Among part-time clerical workers, most of whom are women, the average work week was 50 percent of full-time hours, while earnings were 38 percent of full-time earnings (Mellon and Stamos, 1982:Table 5~; These figures have remained virtually unchanged during the last few years.
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From page 298... ...
estimates that there were 35 home worker programs for white-colIar workers in 1982, involving perhaps 600 workers. Larger estimates put the number of workers employed as telecommuters at 10,000, though Nilles reports that no more than 1,000 of these were fulltime telecommuters (Kingston, 19833.
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From page 299... ...
They are more likely to be paid piece rates, less likely to receive fringe benefits, and are sometimes required to pay rent for the equipment they need to do the work. Thus, the Blue Cross Cottage Keying Program in Washington, D.C., pays its home workers 16 cents per completed insurance claim.
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From page 300... ...
Clerical home work is attractive to firms because of its potential for reducing labor costs. The strategies adopted are a cause for concern to organizations such as 9 to 5, the National Association of Working Women, which opposes electronic home work because it shifts overhead costs, including machinery rental, to employees; it reduces hourly wages by switching to piece rates; it shifts costs of health and life insurance and social security and retirement income to individual workers; and it provides employers with workers whom they can easily release (Gregory, 1983~.
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From page 301... ...
In addition, as in the case of temporary workers, firms have substantial flexibility in scheduling home workers to meet high demand and not using them in off-peak periods, without incurring the costs associated with layoffs and unemployment compensation. In addition, some firms have achieved cost savings by shifting overhead costs and equipment rental to home workers.
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From page 302... ...
Finally, teleworking increases employment opportunities for those who cannot easily work away from home on a daily basis the handicapped, the elderly, and, to some extent, mothers of young children. THE FUTURE OF HOME WORK Despite its attractiveness to employers, explosive growth in the number of home workers does not seem likely.
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From page 303... ...
The result would be an increase in telework at home as workers with conventional jobs used telecommunications to complete some tasks at home, rather than a rapid increase in electronic home work and the clerical cottage industry. CONCLUSION Management's interest in implementing alternative work schedules and using temporary workers, part-time workers, and home workers especially in clerical occupations appears to be more closely related to management's desire to reduce labor costs
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From page 304... ...
Concern with reducing labor costs and, in some cases, with realizing savings from office automation immediately rather than over a longer time horizon appears to have led some firms to implement alternative work schedules. These schedules function mainly to increase the flexibility of employers in varying hours to meet periods of high demand and, in some instances, to eliminate fringe benefits to employees.
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From page 305... ...
At-home work, while a discernible trend, involves only a tiny fraction of workers. Temporary work is increasing rapidly at present, but it is not certain that this increase reflects the preferences of women, especially when the initiative comes directly from the employer as in the case of the new federal regulations on temporary work.
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From page 306... ...
Human resource strategies include the use of temporary workers, parttime workers, and home workers to supplement a smaller staff of permanent full-time employees when employment needs are high in order to avoid rayons later. The cost savings to firms are substantial and include ease in scheduling work and in cutting back employment, as well as savings on fringe benefits and pensions.
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From page 307... ...
Monthly Labor Review 101~1~. Reprinted with supplementary tables in Bureau of Labor Statistics, Multiple Job Holders in May t977, Special Labor Force Report #211.
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From page 308... ...
1984 Preferences of temporary workers: time, variety and flexibility. MontHy Labor Remew 107~83:26-28.
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From page 309... ...
ILO Symposium 1978 Arrangemcn;t; of Working Time and Social Pro bleary Connected untie Shift Work in Industrialized Countries. Geneva: International Labour Office.
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From page 310... ...
Monthly Labor Review 103~5~:36-39. Taylor, Daniel, and Edward S
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