Crop spraying near St Mary Bourne, England. geograph.org.uk/Wikimedia Commons.
Seeking to position itself in a world of globally interconnected economies, daunted by multi-faceted competition over resources and escalating debt, 21st-century Europe has been lifting barriers to the flow of capital and labour. In the process of European market unification, production outsourcing characterised by long, cross-border product and labour supply chains and an expanding use of atypical forms of employment (e.g. posted work and temporary agency work) has become dominant. In this setting, the European Commission has produced several directives – Directive on services in the internal market, Posted Worker Directive, Agency Worker Directive – which aim to liberalise the outsourcing capacities of enterprises while regulating businesses’ flexible labour market strategies and protecting labour across the EU labour markets. Nevertheless, research indicates that workers in these atypical forms of employment are more exposed to risk factors than permanent workers.
Britain, although characterised by a flexible regulatory approach with regard to the legal status of temporary agency workers and the governance of their employment, has spearheaded global attempts at regulating the temporary agency sector over the past 10 years by establishing the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). The GLA is a ‘non-departmental public body’ that regulates the activities of labour providers through a licensing scheme intended to protect vulnerable workers in the agriculture, horticulture, shellfish, and associated food processing industries across the UK.
