‘Good when they want to be’ : migrant workers in the supermarket supply chain

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Thompson, Paul and Newsome, Kirsty and Commander, Johanna (2013) ‘Good when they want to be’ : migrant workers in the supermarket supply chain. Human Resource Management Journal, 23 (2). 129–143. ISSN 0954-5395 (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2011.00186.x)

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Abstract

Despite the increased attention paid to the role and effects of migrant labour in the contemporary economy, there has been insufficient attention to the role of employers and the employment relationship. Recent studies have highlighted distinctive labour power characteristics of new labour migrants from Central and Eastern Europe that make them ‘good workers’ in the eyes of employers. Drawing on multiple case studies across the supermarket supply chain, this paper explores what kind of human resource migrant labour is perceived to be, particularly be employers and what happens in practice as the dynamic tensions of the employment relationship unfolds in particular sector contexts. It argues that utilisation is conditioned more by the requirements of temporal flexibility – framed by the dynamics of employment within the supply chain - than any essential features of migrant labour power.

ORCID iDs

Thompson, Paul, Newsome, Kirsty and Commander, Johanna ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1629-1917;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)