Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35891 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4492
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A firm's decision to employ agency workers may be perceived as a replacement of directly employed workers or as way to curb union power, which trade unions would oppose. Alternatively, trade unions may encourage the (temporary) employment of agency workers in a firm, if they manage to bargain higher wages for their members. We estimate the relationship between hiring agency workers and trade union activity at the workplace, in particular, the type of collective bargaining agreements. We use British data from the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (WERS) of 1998 and 2004. The empirical association between the employment of agency workers and union strength is weak, but positive. Furthermore, workplaces with collective bargaining have lower wages in the presence of agency workers, suggesting that agency workers are hired against the unions.
Subjects: 
Work agency
trade union
collective bargaining
flexibility
Workplace Employment Relations Survey
JEL: 
D21
J31
J40
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
283.49 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.