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Subcontracting is a crucial cause behind the simultaneous existence of formal and informal entrepreneurship in India. This article aims to provide an over-time comparative analysis between the subcontracted and the non-subcontracted enterprises within the informal sector. Further, it also brings to fore the contribution of subcontracting towards ensuring sustainability of the informal enterprises.

By constructing a panel data from two rounds of NSS Unincorporated Enterprise Survey Data (2010 and 2015), and employing a PSM-DID method, considering labour productivity and net retained earnings as two critical indicators of growth and development of the informal sector firms, this study has made some broad claims regarding the differences in immediate and long run performances between the subcontracted and non-subcontracted informal sector enterprises in India.

This study finds that subcontracted enterprises have not only been performing at a much lower level than the non-subcontracted enterprises, they are also growing much slowly than their counterparts. However, it has been observed that for the establishments, who are capital abundant and also have a larger production capacity, subcontracting is showing the prospect for deriving sustainable gains.

This article contributes to the existing literature in the following two ways. Firstly, it provides an over-time comparative analysis between the subcontracted and the non-subcontracted enterprises within the informal sector. Secondly, it brings to fore the contribution of subcontracting towards ensuring sustainability of the informal enterprises.

March 18, 1966 Trade Dispute — Acts in furtherance of — Procuring breach of contract — Sub‐contract for “labour only” — Trade union objection in principle to “labour only” contracts — Industrial action to procure termination of sub‐contract continued after opportunity to learn terms on which sub‐contract terminable — Application by sub‐contractors for interim injunction — Whether industrial action prima facie unlawful interference with sub‐contract — Whether “labour only” contract “contract of employment”, Trade Disputes Act, 1906 (6 Edw. VII, c.47),s.3 — Trade Disputes Act, 1965 (c.48),s.1.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of contingent labour in the construction and civil engineering sector in the UK.

The paper presents the findings of a national postal survey of employment practices within the UK construction and civil engineering sector. The survey was conducted in 2002 and covered firms of all sizes within the sector. This technique has been supplemented with in‐depth interviews to provide a deeper understanding of the issues raised.

The paper finds that employers' use of contingent labour is widespread and that in many cases, the use of contingent labour has increased over recent years. It is argued that recourse to the use of contingent labour may increasingly be a constrained choice for employers, reflecting overall labour shortages and recruitment difficulties in the sector. The paper also finds that the use of contingent labour contributes to skills shortages in the industry, with the scope of training offered to workers on these contract forms being limited in nature.

The paper reveals the complex relationship between the use of contingent labour and ongoing skills shortages in the sector. The paper concludes that the cycle of turning to contingent labour in response to recruitment difficulties does not replenish the skill profile of the sector and therefore offers no long‐term solution to the skills shortages within the construction industry.

This paper examines the experiences of welfare clients on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Indian immigrant information technology (IT) workers on the H-1B visa to analyze how public–private collaborations in the spirit and practice of outsourcing, i.e. systematic fragmentation and decentralization of both corporate and state activities, function as mechanisms for disciplining labor. Through an analysis of these groups’ parallel experiences with exploitative work and employers in the U.S., this paper identifies how outsourcing is not merely a business model for cross-border trade, but also a key principle, component, and outcome of policy-based neo-liberal economic restructuring.

Intra-European labour migration has divergent labour market consequences across institutional settings and economic sectors. Some sectors experience increasing pressure on industrial relations and labour market segmentation while others do not experience such effects, and it remains unclear how to explain this variation. Based on empirical findings from a comparative study of four economic sectors in Denmark, this article discusses the role of labour market institutions and structural conditions in shaping the consequences of labour migration at a sectoral level.

The purpose of this paper is to show how internal and external labour markets operate in the construction sector, associated with different strategies taken by firms in recruiting and retaining particular groups of employees. It draws on research of the house building sector which aims to discover how far firms develop human resource policies, recruitment and retention strategies, and training and development activities in response to skill shortages.

The paper is based on a questionnaire survey of skills shortages, recruitment and retention in house building firms, drawn from databases of social and private housebuilders and a detailed investigation of firms.

The results show worsening skill shortages and hard‐to‐fill vacancies, particularly for site managers and tradespersons. These shortages are especially bad for house building firms, above all those with higher levels of direct employment in the social housing sector. Despite this, firms rely for operative recruitment on traditional and informal methods and procedures, on experience – not qualifications – as the main criterion, and on “poaching” – all symptomatic of a craft labour market. For managers, there is some evidence of retention measures, in particular through training and promotion, implying the development of internal labour markets. And for professionals there are indications of occupational labour markets with their dependence on institutionalised systems of training and qualifications.

The paper shows that firms take little responsibility themselves for resolving skill shortages and establishing training needs, though national training policy is reactive and driven by employer demand. Obligatory skills certification and an institutionalised industrial training system would facilitate a move from this deadlocked situation, from craft to occupational labour markets.

The purpose of this document is to show the effects of globalization on the workers of the electronics cluster in the state of Jalisco. It begins with the assumption that the globalization has impacted the interests of the workers in their working conditions and created the precarization of workers. The text is divided in three sections: the first section presents the characteristics of the electronics cluster; the second section outlines a profile of the workers of this industry, and the last one presents the results of the precarization of work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics between employers' use of temporary agency workers and the aspirations of agencies to expand their role further within organisations.

The study focuses on the construction sector in the UK. A mixed methods approach is employed comprising a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews with construction employers.

Construction employers' use of temporary agency workers remains driven by “traditional” reasons, to meet short‐term peaks in demand and for one‐off tasks. Construction employers have widespread reservations about the use of temporary agency workers. There is little evidence of an expansion in the range of tasks or managerial functions being performed by agencies in construction. Together, these findings point to limits to the inexorable expansion of temporary agencies in the sector.

Further research is needed to assess the extent to which these reservations surrounding agencies, and the limits on the expansion of agencies that these reservations imply, are applicable to sectors outside construction.

Employers' lack of appetite for agency workers stem from perceived problems of quality of agency labour and a desire to maintain control over production. These reservations suggest that agency aspirations to increase their role and functions further in the construction sector are likely to be frustrated.

Much research has pointed to the growth of agency working in recent years. The principal value of this research is in highlighting the potential limits to the inexorable expansion of agency working. The paper also reveals employers' reservations towards agencies, which have been neglected in the literature to date.

Construction waste originates from various sources, generally from the inception of construction through to the completion of a building project. Previous research has shown that there is a link between the quantity of waste generated and the way labour is organized in the construction industry. However, these studies have failed to look into the sources of waste with respect to labour utilization and how it influences the generation of waste. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of labour arrangements on construction waste generation, particularly the sources of waste and the attitudes of workers.

Using a combination of direct observations and source evaluations on six case study sites, the waste in direct and subcontracted labour (SL) arrangements was quantified. A questionnaire survey was administered to the workers participating in the observation study to elicit their attitudes to waste and closely linked issues.

The results show that SL produced more waste than direct labour in all three work processes considered. A lack of organizational commitment and effective strategy emerged as the main problem in waste reduction.

Subcontractors should be made responsible for their share of waste generated in a project. Main contractors should record who are “approved subcontractors” based on their performance at site which should include inter alia waste generation. The approved subcontractor method is a way of barring subcontractors from being included on future projects if they do not meet the performance standards of a main contractor.

This study shows that waste generation has a relationship to organizational commitment and strategy rather than to workers’ attitudes. In order to manage construction waste effectively, it has to be considered in the financial equation of a project, because attitudinal changes are difficult to achieve unless there is a personal financial benefit attached to it.

The rapid growth in part‐time and temporary work over the past decade has accounted for most of Britain’s large rise in jobs compared with other EC countries. This article analyses the influence of the Institute of Manpower Studies model as an aid for manpower planning and discusses current thinking in research using three case studies to analyse the value for manpower strategy.