IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v46y2008i3p389-412.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New Contractual Relationships in the Agency Worker Market: The Case of the UK's National Health Service

Author

Listed:
  • Kim Hoque
  • Ian Kirkpatrick
  • Alex De Ruyter
  • Chris Lonsdale

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a trend towards the negotiation of closer contractual relationships between employers and employment agencies. However, little is known about this change or its likely consequences. In theory, such relationships can benefit employers by lowering fees and also reducing many of the hidden costs associated with the use of agency staff by improving the effectiveness of placement matching. Against this is the suggestion that formal partnerships are unlikely to have a positive impact given the uncertainty of demand for temporary labour and broader tendencies for risk displacement in buyer–supplier networks. In this article, our aim is to explore this matter focusing on recent developments in the UK's National Health Service. We find that new contractual relationships such as framework agreements and master vendor contracts are having mixed effects. While they serve to reduce direct costs for employers in the short term, this has been at the expense of relationship building and improvements in placement matching. These developments are also found to have some potentially negative consequences for the agency workforce itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim Hoque & Ian Kirkpatrick & Alex De Ruyter & Chris Lonsdale, 2008. "New Contractual Relationships in the Agency Worker Market: The Case of the UK's National Health Service," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(3), pages 389-412, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:46:y:2008:i:3:p:389-412
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00693.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00693.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00693.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephanie Tailby, 2005. "Agency and bank nursing in the UK National Health Service," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(2), pages 369-389, June.
    2. Dr Chris Forde, 2001. "Temporary Arrangements: The Activities of Employment Agencies in the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(3), pages 631-644, September.
    3. Laurie Hunter & Phil Beaumont & Diane Sinclair, 1996. "A ‘Partnership’ Route To Human Resource Management?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 235-257, March.
    4. Simon Peel & Peter Boxall, 2005. "When is Contracting Preferable to Employment? An Exploration of Management and Worker Perspectives," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(8), pages 1675-1697, December.
    5. Chris Forde & Gary Slater, 2005. "Agency Working in Britain: Character, Consequences and Regulation," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 249-271, June.
    6. Guy Davidov, 2004. "Joint Employer Status in Triangular Employment Relationships," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(4), pages 727-746, December.
    7. Susan N. Houseman & Arne L. Kalleberg & George A. Erickcek, 2003. "The Role of Temporary Agency Employment in Tight Labor Markets," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(1), pages 105-127, October.
    8. Jamie Peck & Nikolas Theodore, 1998. "The Business of Contingent Work: Growth and Restructuring in Chicago's Temporary Employment Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 12(4), pages 655-674, December.
    9. Gideon Kunda & Stephen R. Barley & James Evans, 2002. "Why Do Contractors Contract? The Experience of Highly Skilled Technical Professionals in a Contingent Labor Market," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(2), pages 234-261, January.
    10. Forde, Chris, 2008. "“You know we are not an Employment Agency”: Manpower, Government, and the Development of the Temporary Help Industry in Britain," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 337-365, June.
    11. Marchington, Mick & Grimshaw, Damian & Rubery, Jill & Willmott, Hugh (ed.), 2004. "Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199262243.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John S. Heywood & W.S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2011. "Estimating the Use of Agency Workers: Can Family-Friendly Practices Reduce Their Use?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 535-564, July.
    2. Syed Muhammad Waqar Hussain & Munir Hussain, 2014. "Factors influencing the employees’ job placement through recruitment agencies in Karachi, Pakistan," KASBIT Business Journals (KBJ), Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology (KASBIT), vol. 7(2), pages 79-106, December.
    3. Angela Knox, 2014. "Human resource management (HRM) in temporary work agencies: Evidence from the hospitality industry," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 25(1), pages 81-98, March.
    4. Ian Clark & Trevor Colling, 2018. "Work in Britain's Informal Economy: Learning from Road†Side Hand Car Washes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 320-341, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Linda McDowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2008. "Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 750-770, December.
    2. Chris Forde & Robert MacKenzie, 2010. "The Ethical Agendas of Employment Agencies Towards Migrant Workers in the UK: Deciphering the Codes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 31-41, December.
    3. John S. Heywood & W.S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2011. "Estimating the Use of Agency Workers: Can Family-Friendly Practices Reduce Their Use?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 535-564, July.
    4. Fang, Tony & Samnani, Al-Karim & Novicevic, Milorad M. & Bing, Mark N., 2013. "Liability-of-foreignness effects on job success of immigrant job seekers," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 98-109.
    5. Lakshmi Parvathy & Rajalaxmi Kamath, 2024. "Labour Contractors (Thekedaars) to Human Resource Companies: Labour Market Intermediaries in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(1), pages 197-219, March.
    6. Jahn, Elke & Pozzoli, Dario, 2011. "Does the Sector Experience Affect the Pay Gap for Temporary Agency Workers?," Working Papers 11-9, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    7. John T. Addison & Christopher J. Surfield, 2005. "‘Atypical Work’ and Compensation," GEMF Working Papers 2005-14, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    8. Jahn, Elke J., 2008. "Reassessing the Wage Penalty for Temps in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3663, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. John T. Addison & Christopher J. Surfield, 2007. "Atypical Work and Pay," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 1038-1065, April.
    10. Peter Cappelli & J. R. Keller, 2012. "A Study of the Extent and Potential Causes of Alternative Employment Arrangements," NBER Working Papers 18376, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Benjamin Hopkins & Chris Dawson, 2016. "Migrant workers and involuntary non-permanent jobs: agencies as new IR actors?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 163-180, March.
    12. Chris Forde & Gary Slater, 2016. "Labour market regulation and the ‘competition state’: an analysis of the implementation of the Agency Working Regulations in the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(4), pages 590-606, August.
    13. Ian Kirkpatrick & Kim Hoque, 2006. "A retreat from permanent employment?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(4), pages 649-666, December.
    14. Allison Forbes, 2018. "A Measure of Interdependence: Skill in the Supply Chain," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(4), pages 326-340, November.
    15. Linda Mcdowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2009. "Precarious Work and Economic Migration: Emerging Immigrant Divisions of Labour in Greater London's Service Sector," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 3-25, March.
    16. Lars W. Mitlacher, 2005. "Temporary Agency Work, the Changing Employment Relationship and its Impact on Human Resource Management," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 16(3), pages 370-388.
    17. Andersson Joona, Pernilla & Wadensjö, Eskil, 2012. "A Price for Flexibility? The Temp Agency Wage Gap in Sweden 1998-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 6587, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Jahn Elke J., 2010. "Reassessing the Pay Gap for Temps in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 230(2), pages 208-233, April.
    19. Chris Forde & Gary Slater, 2005. "Agency Working in Britain: Character, Consequences and Regulation," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 249-271, June.
    20. Peter H. Cappelli & JR Keller, 2013. "A Study of the Extent and Potential Causes of Alternative Employment Arrangements," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(4), pages 874-901, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:46:y:2008:i:3:p:389-412. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.