IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/indrel/v49y2018i4p336-351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blurring boundaries: informal practices in formal employment in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Alicja Bobek
  • James Wickham

Abstract

Formal and informal employment have traditionally been perceived as separate. This division usually has a social, geographical and temporal character. However, it has also been argued that formal and informal economic practices are not necessarily distinctive and often coexist within the same spaces, firms or even jobs. This article explores the blurring boundaries between formal and informal work. By using examples from four sectors of the Irish economy, we demonstrate how some employers ‘informalise’ working conditions of their formal employees. As we show, such informalisation is mainly focused on cutting employment costs and setting earnings below the minimum wage. This has resulted in a further erosion of the formal–informal division in some sectors of Ireland's post‐recession labour market.

Suggested Citation

  • Alicja Bobek & James Wickham, 2018. "Blurring boundaries: informal practices in formal employment in Ireland," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 336-351, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indrel:v:49:y:2018:i:4:p:336-351
    DOI: 10.1111/irj.12225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12225
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irj.12225?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. Peter Nisbet, 2007. "Human capital vs social capital," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(8), pages 525-537, July.
    2. Colin C Williams, 2017. "Tackling employment in the informal economy: A critical evaluation of the neoliberal policy approach," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 38(1), pages 145-169, February.
    3. Colin C. WILLIAMS & Mark A. LANSKY, 2013. "Informal employment in developed and developing economies: Perspectives and policy responses," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(3-4), pages 355-380, December.
    4. Chris F. Wright & William Brown, 2013. "The effectiveness of socially sustainable sourcing mechanisms: Assessing the prospects of a new form of joint regulation," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 20-37, January.
    5. Torben Krings & Alicja Bobek & Elaine Moriarty & Justyna Salamońska & James Wickham, 2011. "From boom to bust: Migrant labour and employers in the Irish construction sector," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 32(3), pages 459-476, August.
    6. Peter Nisbet, 2007. "Human capital vs social capital," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(8), pages 525-537, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Nikolaus Hammer & Réka Plugor, 2016. "Near†sourcing UK apparel: value chain restructuring, productivity and the informal economy," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 402-416, November.
    9. Colin C. Williams, 2014. "Explaining cross-national variations in the prevalence of envelope wages: some lessons from a 2013 Eurobarometer survey," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 524-542, November.
    10. Ruth Milkman & Ana Luz González & Peter Ikeler, 2012. "Wage and hour violations in urban labour markets: a comparison of L os A ngeles, N ew Y ork and C hicago," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 378-398, September.
    11. Dickens, William T & Lang, Kevin, 1988. "Labor Market Segmentation and the Union Wage Premium," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(3), pages 527-530, August.
    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. McGinnity, Frances & Russell, Helen & Privalko, Ivan & Enright, Shannen & O'Brien, Doireann, 2021. "Monitoring decent work in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT414.

    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. 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.
    2. Lijun Tang & Syamantak Bhattacharya, 2018. "Beyond the management–employee dyad: supply chain initiatives in shipping," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 196-210, May.
    3. Ian Clark & Alan Collins & James Hunter & Richard Pickford & Jack Barratt & Huw Fearnall-Williams, 2023. "Persistently non-compliant employment practice in the informal economy: permissive visibility in a multiple regulator setting," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 47(3), pages 611-632.
    4. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    5. Surhan Cam & Serap Palaz, 2023. "Mutual interests management with a purposive approach: Evidence from the Turkish shipyards for an amorphous impact model between (subjective) well‐being and performance," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 40-70, January.
    6. repec:ces:ifodic:v:14:y:2017:i:4:p:19267788 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rebitzer, James B & Robinson, Michael D, 1991. "Employer Size and Dual Labor Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 710-715, November.
    8. Martínez Mora, Carmen & Merino De Lucas, Fernando, 2017. "La estrategia de retorno de la industria española: El caso del sector calzado en Alicante, su importancia y determinantes/Reshoring the Spanish Production of Footwear: Its Importance and Determinants," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 35, pages 777-800, Agosto.
    9. Patrizia Casadei & Simona Iammarino, 2023. "Backshoring, offshoring and staying at home: evidence from the UK textile and apparel industry," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 2148-2173, December.
    10. Hüttenhoff, Frederic & Jaehrling, Karen, 2024. "Werkverträge - wachsende Parallelwelt in transnationalen Arbeitsmärkten," IAQ-Report 2024-04, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ).
    11. Janet Druker & Geoffrey White, 2013. "Employment relations on major construction projects: the London 2012 Olympic construction site," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5-6), pages 566-583, November.
    12. Ioana A. HORODNI & Colin C. WILLIAMS & Adrian V. HORODNIC, 2016. "Are Practices Of Competitors In The Informal Sector A Major Threat For Hotels And Restaurants?," THE YEARBOOK OF THE "GH. ZANE" INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC RESEARCHES, Gheorghe Zane Institute for Economic and Social Research ( from THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY, JASSY BRANCH), vol. 25(1), pages 49-60.
    13. Chris F. Wright, 2016. "Leveraging Reputational Risk: Sustainable Sourcing Campaigns for Improving Labour Standards in Production Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 195-210, August.
    14. Schneider Friedrich & Buehn Andreas, 2017. "Shadow Economy: Estimation Methods, Problems, Results and Open questions," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-29, March.
    15. Janet Druker, 2016. "Blacklisting and its legacy in the UK construction industry: employment relations in the aftermath of exposure of the Consulting Association," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 220-237, May.
    16. Sebastián Galiani & Guido Porto, 2011. "Trends in Tariff Reforms and Trends in the Structure of Wages," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0124, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    17. Colin C. WILLIAMS, 2015. "Out of the shadows: Classifying economies by the extent and nature of employment in the informal economy," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 154(3), pages 331-351, September.
    18. Ariane Pailhé, 2003. "Labour Market Segmentation in Central Europe during the First Years of Transition," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(1), pages 127-152, March.
    19. Shu Meng & Xin Gao & Lianfeng Duan, 2022. "Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic and Developing a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: The Theory and Practice of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policies in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-20, July.
    20. Thomas Neumann, 2021. "The impact of entrepreneurship on economic, social and environmental welfare and its determinants: a systematic review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 553-584, July.
    21. Colin C. Williams & Ioana A. Horodnic, 2015. "Explaining and tackling the shadow economy in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: a tax morale approach," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 81-98.

    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:indrel:v:49:y:2018:i:4:p:336-351. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-8692 .

    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.