'Good jobs' and hidden costs: women workers documenting the price of precarious employment

Thalia Kidder and Kate Raworth

This article describes the precarious terms and conditions of employment experienced by millions of women working in global supply chains in the food and garment industries, and describes the main forces leading to that precariousness. It then presents a typology of costs and determinants of precarious employment, in the form of a matrix, which serves as an analytical framework for documenting the hidden costs borne by women workers. Thirdly, the article presents some of the approaches used by Oxfam International and partner organisations to make calculations of those costs, including the challenges encountered. Lastly, the article suggests several ways in which the matrix could be used and some ideas for further research.

It has been frequently claimed that women workers are among the winners of globalisation. 'In praise of cheap labour: bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all' wrote the economist Paul Krugman, in response to critiques of employment terms and conditions in garment factories around the world (Krugman 1997, 1). Employed at the end of chains that supply fresh produce and garments to major retailers, many are earning cash incomes for the first time and often earning more than they would in alternative employment opportunities.

But there are often hidden costs for women who are employed in these labour-intensive trading sectors, because they are employed in precarious ways. Many are repeatedly hired on short-term contracts, paid by piece rate, lack social security or employment benefits, face long and erratic hours, and are at risk of sudden job loss. Poor management or gender relations have typically been blamed for precarious conditions; however, two other significant factors are shaping employment conditions: the sourcing and purchasing practices of retailers who demand low-cost, fast, and flexible production in their supply chains, and government policies and practices aiming to make the labour force more 'flexible' to meet these retailers' needs.

As part of an ongoing international campaign to 'Make Trade Fair', Oxfam International undertook research with partner organisations in 12 countries as a basis for campaigning for the rights of workers employed in global fresh-produce and garment supply chains. More than 1,300 workers – mostly women – were interviewed, as well as around 130 farm and factory managers, 50 supply-chain agents, 50 NGO and government officials, and 17 retail company representatives.

The aim was to produce evidence of the costs borne by workers as a result of retailers' sourcing and purchasing practices, and governments' labour policies and practices. In particular, we aimed to show the costs not only of poor working conditions but of insecure terms of employment which are shaped by the above factors. The motivation to make these costs explicit was threefold:

1 To reveal how workers are bearing the costs of being employed in supply chains which demand greater speed and flexibility, and how government policies weaken, or fail to enforce, national labour laws. Women workers effectively provide a subsidy to production under this business model, and pay the price of government trade strategies that rely on precarious jobs.

2 To provide policy makers with a fuller account of the monetary and non-monetary costs incurred by workers as a result of flexible labour-market policies and practices – in the same way that feminist economics has made calculations of the value of unpaid work, and environmental economics has estimated the costs of environmental degradation.

3 To provide women workers' organisations with an approach for systematically identifying these costs, so that they can propose ways of removing or reducing them, and hold decision-makers accountable.

Precarious employment in global supply chains

In both rich and poor countries, women are the ones who cut, sew, and pack clothing, pick and pack fruit, prune and cut flowers. Women constitute 65 per cent of the factory workforce in the Honduran garment industry, 85 per cent in Bangladesh, and 90 per cent in Cambodia. In the cut flower industry, women hold 65 per cent of the jobs in Colombia and 87 per cent in Zimbabwe. In the fruit industry, women constitute 69 per cent of temporary and seasonal workers in South Africa, and 52 per cent in Chile, while women hold only 26 per cent and 5 per cent of the long-term jobs in these countries, respectively. Ninety per cent of home-based workers in the UK are women (Dolan and Sorby 2003; Oxfam International 2004).

Women's over-representation in labour-intensive industries, and in the more precarious jobs within them, can be attributed to several factors. First, some factory and farm managers adhere to gender-stereotyped ideas that women employees are more dextrous for this 'hand work', more 'flexible' about performing endless repetitive and unskilled tasks, or more 'docile' and therefore less likely to make demands.

Second, more women than men may apply for precarious jobs: women's family responsibilities may leave them unable to turn down daily or temporary jobs, while men may travel in search of better opportunities. Likewise, seasonal or home work may produce fewer conflicts with women's family duties.

Third, the myth persists that women's jobs provide 'extra' income, perpetuating the rationale that it is less important for them to have a stable job, employment benefits, training opportunities, or promotion. In fact, our research affirmed that benefits such as paid leave time, health and maternity coverage, and regular hours are highly valued by women workers because it is precisely those benefits that enable them to balance their paid work with the responsibilities imposed upon them by gender roles for unpaid caring work in the home.

Lastly, women are over-represented in these jobs because there are few better alternatives available to them. 'May God bless the flowers, because they provide us with work,' say the women in Colombia's flower greenhouses (Oxfam International 2004,16). Burdened by school costs and medical expenses, women in poor families increasingly depend...