Precarious Work and Qualitative Health Aspects

The provided document delves into the topic of precarious work and its effects on employees' qualitative health aspects. It references various studies and research papers to discuss the issues surrounding non-standard work arrangements, migrant illegality, slavery, and exploitative work. The document also touches upon regulating working conditions in temporary agency work and the rise of precarious employment in Europe. A conceptual model for precarious work and qualitative health aspects is included as an illustration.

BUSINESS- MANAGING
PRECARIOUS WORK

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Essay question - What are some challenges of managing a precarious workforce?........................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Incompetent Human Resource Management .............................................................................4
Onset of digitalization and AI.....................................................................................................5
Lack of awareness with respect to Employment Relations and Industrial Relations..................5
Health and safety standards.........................................................................................................6
Effects of Organisational Behaviour...........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

Essay question - What are some challenges of managing a precarious workforce?
INTRODUCTION
Precarious workforce is the segment in the labour markets which deals with the
replacement for fulfilling needs of permanent jobs but without the benefits and provisions of
such profiles. Its focus is on the attached insecurities and uncertainties of the workforce in
context to this temporary setup of work, namely termed as 'precarious'. This assignment is
based on the challenges that any management of organisation face while maintaining this tricky
scenario. It will include about the mismanagement of precarious workforce, which is becoming a
socio-economic determinant that has impacted the labour markets and the government's
regulatory framework to manage a safe and healthy environment.
MAIN BODY
With advent of technological advancements and globalization, there are several changes
in the workings of the labour markets, which have become flexible with a uniformity in regulatory
frameworks. However, it also establishes networks of low wages and hazardous profiles for
unsegmented taskforce in any organization in any sector or industry (Stewart and Stanford,
2017). Additionally, there is a rise of new employment forms due to sudden increase in the job
insecurities. The following are the few challenges while managing a precarious workforce:
Incompetent Human Resource Management
When there is lack of collaboration and understanding between this type of taskforce
and the Human Resource Development of an organization, then it leads to mismanagement of
the entire taskforce and leads to side-effects in terms of the employer. In this regard, there are
few additional parameters that add to the precarious nature. It consists of constant pressure of
creating jobs, lack of benefits, cultural differences and work ethics with individual's moral
principles. Taskforce are mainly hired on temporary basis and sometimes, it is difficult in
handling the responsibilities and assigned tasks in appropriate time-frames with effectiveness.
On the other hand, Arrowsmith, 2016 stated that it is important that rationalism occurs to
supervise this ongoing conceptual modes. Here, the HR department tries to bring balance by
giving clear and concise instructions and code of conduct to be followed. They foster positive
outlooks to bridge the gaps between such workers for better productivity at workplaces.
However, in this uncertain crisis, there is communication gaps that makes the workers hesitant
and unapproachable which impacts the business environment in adverse manner. Along with
this, the employer also incur losses that has adverse impact on the profitability and productivity
as well. The challenge is that quality gets hampered as there are no fixed benchmarks in the

workplace assessment for overall performance of such taskforce. This also adds to the
complete woes of the owners of organizations
Onset of digitalization and AI
With sudden onset of technological discoveries along with innovative and useful
inventions, it has made the lives of employers easier. Moreover, it brought revolutionary
changes in the industrial sector and has decreased the additional burdens and pressures on the
manual work and helping them in laying a concrete framework based on implementation of
machineries and equipment. The burden has been lessened and the ill-effects has been
minimised such as while managing the accounts in ledgers or record-keeping, etc. has become
effective by storing it directly and easily through couple of information systems at the
organizational levels (Markey and McIvor, 2018). Nevertheless, artificial intelligence has laid the
foundation of user-friendly and better equipments which established a safe and secure systems
for human's life and supported the employers to invest once for longer duration.
Simultaneously, this has posed a great threat to the job opportunities in the
marketplaces along-with inhibited the dependency of labourers in the production or
manufacturing sector. These are mainly replacing the individuals with advanced machineries
etc. which are hampering their growth and lack of options for working during the seasonal
duration(Nielsen, Dyreborg and Lipscomb, 2019). The traditional rules and policies are getting
reviewed and re-aligned to execute the use of machines, equipments and more that would
proved beneficial for the owners to optimize their allocated resources with proper division of
labour segregation.
Lack of awareness with respect to Employment Relations and Industrial Relations
People working under the non-standard employment is in direct relations with
establishment of an unprotected and poorly paid jobs. This is mostly due to exploitative nature
of the industrialists that do not focus on improving the employees' engagement. Here, the major
component is structural modifications in the employment rate which could be helpful for
determination of employee retention policy by employer. It has striking impact on the working
practices of any company and often leads to unionism which hamper profits of company. Such
practices have established the birth of precarious work at the workplace (Campbell and
Burgess, 2018). In addition to this, it affects the relations between employer and employees.
This leads to the rise of dual labour market that concentrates on the associated insecurities
regarding the legislations and rules with policy-making.

Whereas, the relations in terms of industrial operations and employment outline are
specific in both organised and unorganized sector. Henceforth, Livanos and Papadopoulos,
2019 elucidated that it is necessary to provide proper training and implement programs to make
the unstable workforce a little reliable and less tricky. This would facilitate in maintaining and
evaluating the smooth running of operational activities in any enterprise or company on part of
employer. Moreover, the insecurities can be minimised by outlining a standardized procedures
so that employees-employers relationship would be maintained in positive direction. It will
increase the overall effectiveness of the company.
Health and safety standards
This is considered as one of the important factors that is becoming the most challenging
factor in the management of precarious workforce. Labourers such as migrants, seasonal
workers, etc. are more vulnerable to health issues. They have no legal status and this impacts
the uncertainties in more profound manner. Such section has no facilities and are in need of
proper management of the regulatory framework. Along with this, there is a connection between
the gender, health and this form of employment (Strauss-Raats, 2019). For instance, the major
advantage is that women are the major contributor to this type of employment. The challenging
part is to create opportunities on consistent basis since the knowledge, skills and other
requirements are not specific and rather need restricted conditions for better feasibility. It also
shed light on the cultural disparities that affect the mental health systems of individuals who
have moved from one state to another.
The biggest issue that the precarious workers have to face is that they are treated as the
foreign individuals and denied any sort of acceptance within the society of any geographical
locations. They are involved in the handling of different liabilities to pertain their jobs at work
place, after the suitable planning in terms of rules, ethics, policies etc. to be followed. However,
the women from the precarious group are more prone to harassment, discrimination and
cheating, which must be looked into. Legal operations and other authentication measures may
be prolonged, affecting their daily wages and work practices along with their health conditions
(Howard, 2017). As they are economically discriminated, they are denied from any sort of health
care benefits and pensions, leading an extra burden on them related to services of health care.
As they are short termed employees and are not been given permanent status within a firm,
they are deprived from any sort of health support from an NGO or health care organisation.
Furthermore, they are mostly hired on hourly basis by the employers, or number of days etc.
and thus, they are made to work for longer period, affecting their health in all aspects. Also, lack

of proper data regarding their registration and migration status is also a major issue which the
precarious workers face and affects the credibility of the organization's management (Lewis and
Waite, 2019).
Effects of Organisational Behaviour
The employers have a benchmark to maintain their brand image and value at the global
competitive markets. They conduct Critical Management Studies to understand the
shortcomings to overcome such challenging issues while managing this unreliable taskforce,
who gets exploited and do not get the incentives and other facilities (Campbell and Price,
2016). Additionally, it reflects on the exploitation and inhuman treatment with respect to their
human rights.
Nevertheless, on the other side, there are several interventions proposed by the
government that are given to such companies which focus on giving authentic evaluation and
supports this taskforce to sustain the standards of living and aid in eradicating the financial
instability. Organisational behaviour must be managed so that any discrimination or unethical
treatment can be avoided to assess the management approaches while managing the working
practices and overall ethical standards to maintain the qualitative measures.
I
llustration 1: Conceptual Model for precarious work and qualitative health aspects
(Source: Benanch and et.al., 2015)

CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that business-managing precarious work is essential
component to be considered while laying the basics to bring radical altercations in the field of
this temporary jobs. Furthermore, it has also added the need to demonstrate an understanding
in mitigating the measures to overcome the mentioned challenges at faster levels. This would
be useful for the employers and the management to administer their responsibilities and working
practices in more systematic order by enhancing the overall development and progress of
company's profits. Lastly, it shed light on the employees' engagement which is necessary step
to maintain the connections and overall reputation of the organizations.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arrowsmith, J., 2016. Working time. In Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Edward
Elgar Publishing Limited.
Campbell, I. and Burgess, J., 2018. ’Patchy progress? Two decades of research on
precariousness and precarious work in Australia’, Labour & Industry: a Journal of the
Social and Economic Relations of Work, vol. 28. No.1. pp 48-67.
Campbell, I. and Price, R., 2016. Precarious work and precarious workers: Towards an
improved conceptualisation. The Economic and Labour Relations Review. 27(3). pp.314-
332.
Howard, J., 2017. Nonstandard work arrangements and worker health and safety. American
journal of industrial medicine. 60(1). pp.1-10.
Lewchuk, W., 2017. ’Precarious jobs: Where are they, and how do they affect well-being?’, The
Economic and Labour Relations Review, vol. 28. No. 3. pp 402-419.
Lewis, H. and Waite, L., 2019. Migrant illegality, slavery and exploitative work. The Modern
Slavery Agenda: Politics, Policy and Practice in the UK, p.219.
Livanos, I. and Papadopoulos, O., 2019. The Rise of Precarious Employment in Europe:
Theoretical Perspectives, Reforms and Employment Trends in the Era of Economic
Crisis. Emerald Group Publishing.
Markey, R. and McIvor, J., 2018. ’Regulating casual employment in Australia’, Journal of
Industrial Relations, vol. 60, no. 5, pp 593-618.Minter, K. (2017) ’Negotiating labour
standards in the gig economy: Airtasker and Unions New South Wales’, The Economic
and Labour Relations Review, vol. 28. No. 3. pp 438-454.
Nielsen, M.L., Dyreborg, J. and Lipscomb, H.J., 2019. Precarious work among young Danish
employees-a permanent or transitory condition?. Journal of Youth Studies.22(1). pp.7-
28.
Stewart, A. and Stanford, J., 2017. ’Regulating work in the gig economy: What are the options?’,
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, vol. 28. No. 3. pp 420-437.
Strauss-Raats, P., 2019. Temporary safety. Regulating working conditions in temporary agency
work. Safety science.112.pp.213-222.
Online
Benanch, J. and et.al., 2015. What should we know about precarious employment and health in
2025?. [Online]. Available
through:<https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/45/1/232/2363833>.