Temp workers aren’t just bored housewives

Tell anyone you work as a temp, and more often than not they’ll assume you provide short term secretarial or administrative support. The stereotypical temp is an unskilled (or maybe semi-skilled) worker – always a woman, usually young – who files paperwork, answers the phone and fetches cups of coffee. But this narrow and sexist image is a far cry from the reality of temporary, labour hire or agency work today.

Transient work has always existed under capitalism, but “the temp”, didn’t appear until the middle of last century; she was an employment industry construct.

The temp was promoted as a “never-never girl”. According to a now ill-famed US advertisement, she “never takes a vacation or holiday. Never asks for a pay rise. Never costs you a dime for slack time (When the workload drops, you drop her.) Never has a cold, slipped disc or loose tooth. (Not on your time anyway!)”

She was created for bosses who wanted to fill short labour gaps arising during staff absences or unexpected business peaks. To establish the industry, and minimise union opposition, temping agencies deliberately constructed an image of temps that relied heavily on the accepted gender roles of the time.

Temp work, they said, was for bored housewives who needed something to fill their inane lives while the children were at school. Confined to performing basic administrative work, temps were not considered “real” workers. The agencies assured organised labour that they were no threat to union jobs.

Today, a temporary or labour hire worker is as likely to be found in a warehouse or down a mine as in an office. A 2012 survey conducted by Hays, one of the world’s largest suppliers of temporary staff, found that in Australia and New Zealand close to 45 percent of temporary workers are men. Most are older than 30.

Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays, says, “The use of these workers is no longer a quick fix but is a long term staffing solution for employers.” Deligiannis’ observation is informed by a good dose of self-interest. But he points to a real dynamic.

A 2005 federal government inquiry reported that labour hire workers grew from 0.8 percent of the total workforce in 1990 to 3 percent in the early 2000s.

This may seem an insignificant figure, but the effect can be felt in a number of ways.

First, workers who are engaged as temps can constitute a secondary market. They often experience unpredictable hours, fluctuating pay and inferior rights and entitlements. The relationship between the temp worker and employer is indirect; the “host” organisation has no contractual relationship with the employee.

Temps are therefore denied sick leave, holiday pay, paid lunch breaks, maternity leave and other entitlements. Unfair dismissal and compensation obligations also can easily be circumvented – and it is difficult for temps to engage in protected industrial action against their “host”.

The employment of temps and labour hire workers can be a way to fragment the workforce and weaken solidarity. In some instances, they have been used directly as strike breakers.

Unified action is more difficult in workplaces where people are employed under different contracts with different pay rates and conditions; the overall bargaining power of workers is therefore weakened.

The strategy of divide and conquer has always been part of the bosses’ arsenal. So it’s no surprise that the sectors in which the largest groups of temp workers are now found – mining, manufacturing, the public sector, health and community services – have traditionally also been among the better unionised.

With annual revenue in excess of $20 billion in Australia alone, the labour hire industry isn’t going to disappear any time soon. Our strategy has to be to remove barriers that stop temps joining the same union as their permanent co-workers. And then we need to fight like hell for their rights – together with everyone else’s.

[Cathy has worked as a temp with a single “host” employer for six years]