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The Embedding of Precarious Employment in Ireland: Stories of Workers from the South-East

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The Embedding of Precarious Employment in Ireland: Stories of Workers from the South-East The embedding of precarious employment in Ireland: stories of workers from the South-East A thesis submitted by Joe Moran for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Maynooth University Sociology Department Faculty of Social Sciences May 2016 Head of Department: Prof. Mary Corcoran Research Supervisor: Dr. Mary P. Murphy TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND BOXES 5 SUMMARY 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 7 ABBREVIATIONS 9 CHAPTER 1 11 Mapping the landscape 11 INTRODUCTION 11 CONCEPTUAL CHOICES – PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL INCLUSION 11 AIMS OF THE STUDY 14 MY PERSONAL INTEREST IN THE STUDY 14 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 16 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 17 CHAPTER 2 22 Understanding the narrative of precarious employment 22 INTRODUCTION 22 UNDERSTANDING PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT 24 SHIFTING SANDS OF THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PRECARIOUS WORK 29 PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT AND THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC WELL-BEING OF WORKERS 31 THE STORY OF PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT IN IRELAND 39 CONCLUSION 49 CHAPTER 3 52 Constructing precarious employment in Ireland through policies of social inclusion 52 INTRODUCTION 52 SOCIAL INCLUSION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION: THE RELATIONSHIP TO PAID WORK 54 THE EU AND IRELAND’S POLICY-FRAMEWORK ON SOCIAL INCLUSION 60 EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES, FLEXICURITY, ACTIVATION AND QUALITY OF WORK AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT 65 THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRECARIOUSNESS THROUGH SOCIAL INCLUSION POLICIES? 75 2 CHAPTER 4 79 A methodology of engagement – using narrative inquiry 79 INTRODUCTION 79 SOCIO-ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUTH-EAST OF IRELAND 79 RESEARCH DESIGN 83 RESEARCH QUESTION AND KEY DEBATES 83 NARRATIVE INQUIRY 85 RECRUITING AND ENGAGING WITH PARTICIPANTS 90 DATA PRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS 102 ETHICS 105 QUESTIONS OF CREDIBILITY 107 CONCLUSION 109 CHAPTER 5 110 Contextualising precarious employment through first order narratives 110 INTRODUCTION 110 SHELLEY’S STORY - TEMPORALITY 110 AMY’S STORY – THE ORGANISATIONAL DIMENSION 117 NEIL AND GRACE’S STORY - PROTECTION 126 LARRY’S STORY - ECONOMIC 130 CONCLUSION 135 CHAPTER 6 136 Narratives of paid employment: a turn to embedded precariousness? 136 INTRODUCTION 136 FLEXICURITY – WHO BENEFITS? 137 EXPERIENCES OF THE Irish SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM 140 ACTIVATION 148 HUMAN CAPITAL 152 QUALITY OF WORK 157 CONCLUSION 159 CHAPTER 7 161 Identity and the master narrative of paid work 161 INTRODUCTION 161 WHY DO WORKERS CONTINUE TO WORK IN JOBS THAT ARE PRECARIOUS? 163 PRECARIOUS WORKERS, IDENTITY AND MASTER NARRATIVES 166 ARE THERE BENEFITS FROM PAID PRECARIOUS WORK? 178 CONCLUSION 180 3 CHAPTER 8 181 Social inclusion or embedded precariousness? 181 INTRODUCTION 181 MORALITY, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION 182 STORIES OF PRECARIOUS WORKERS AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND INCLUSION 183 SOCIAL INCLUSION OR EMBEDDED PRECARIOUSNESS? 194 CONCLUSION 199 CHAPTER 9 201 Concluding thoughts – time for new beginnings for some old stories? 201 INTRODUCTION 201 NEW BEGINNINGS FOR SOME OLD STORIES? 201 MAKING A CONTRIBUTION 212 CONCLUSION 217 APPENDIX 219 INFORMATION SHEET 219 CONSENT FORM 221 REFERENCES 223 4 LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND BOXES BOX 2.1 Standing’s (2011: 10) Forms of Labour Security Under Industrial Citizenship 25 BOX 2.2 Rodgers’ (1989: 3) Definition of Precarious Employment 26 TABLE 2.1 Details of Research Studies on Precarious Employment 36 FIGURE 2.1 European Collective Bargaining – Selected States 47 FIGURE 2.2 Incidence of Low Pay In Selected OECD Countries - 2001 and 2011 48 TABLE 3.2 Silver’s Three Paradigms of Social Exclusion and Model of the New Political Economy 57 FIGURE 4.1 Unemployment Rates in the South-East 2007 and 4th Quarters 2010-2015 81 TABLE 4.1 Research Participants (presented in order if my interviews with them) 94 5 SUMMARY The embedding of precarious employment in Ireland: stories of workers from the South-East Real-life narratives of the precarious employment of 13 low-paid and insecure workers located in the South-East region of Ireland form the basis of this thesis. This study examines the relationship between EU and Irish policies of social inclusion and their application to workers in precarious employment. The stories of the workers challenge the integrationist claims these policies that work is the best route out of poverty, as the narratives of the participants point to lives of strenuous effort to make ends meet when that work is poorly paid, of poor quality and insecure. The participants’ stories also challenge the exclusionary claims of social exclusion; the workers are economically marginalised but not excluded from society’s norms and aspirations. This collective case of the 13 workers in the South- East of Ireland leads me to conclude that there are a variety of responses by workers to their experience of precarious employment which are not fully represented in the scholarly literature. The question “why do these workers continue to work in circumstances of precarious employment and low incomes?” emerges as a key concern within the thesis. The thesis argues that the explanation for their continued engagement with work is the inter-relationship of two closely connected ideas: a worker identity and the concept of a master narrative of work. The participants in this study identify with and show a strong moral commitment to work within a universal master narrative based on the belief that paid work is inherently good, irrespective of the nature of that work and the level of reward achieved. The thesis concludes that the social inclusion model of worker activation being pursued by the Irish state will lead to the embedded precariousness of employment for workers who are committed to the idea of work but who will remain marginal and yet essential to the workforce. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The completion of this PhD thesis was for me as much an endurance test as it was an act of scholarship. And I’m fully aware that neither the endurance test nor the scholarship could have ended successfully without the love and support of many people. I wish to thank everyone who in any way helped me on that six-year roller- coaster of a journey. I wish to thank the 13 people who took part in my study. They trusted me enough to allow me access to important and often deeply personal stories from their lives. I wish to thank them for their willingness to participate in my study in the first place, for their generosity in the time they afforded me, for their kindness to me when we met, for their openness about their lives, for their insights into their world of paid work and for sharing their experiences of the Irish social protection system. I sincerely hope that what I have written in the following pages does justice to their stories. I am very grateful to my extended family, my friends, other postgraduate students and faculty at Maynooth University as well as colleagues at the Waterford Institute of Technology who over the years either actively helped me or showed an interest in my progress. I am particularly grateful to Professor Michael Howlett, my Head of Department, and Dr Richard Hayes, Head of School of Humanities, at WIT, for their unwavering financial and practical support. Thanks also to Michelle Maher who, while completing her PhD at the same time as me in the Sociology Department, Maynooth, was a regular source of encouragement that always seemed to arrive at the crucial moment. I especially thank her for her supportive presence on the day of my viva. To Dr Mary Murphy, my supervisor, thank you for your patience, for your generosity in sharing with me your incredible knowledge and your equally wonderful insights from which I benefited enormously. Your optimism, encouragement and belief in me gave me such a boost that I always left our supervision sessions feeling totally re-invigorated. I also wish to say thank you to Professor Seán O’Riain for his valuable review of my thesis at a critical point which brought greater clarity to my thinking. Thanks also to my Examiners, Professor Tracy Shildrick of Leeds University and Dr Delma Byrne, of the Sociology Department at Maynooth University. The insights from your evaluation of my work have contributed significantly to the final version of my thesis. Finally, I turn to my family. Words cannot express my love and gratitude to Anne, Anna, Maireád and Róisín. For all of them it was one heck of a long journey littered with my absences on Saturdays and family holidays as I worked on my thesis. I have no doubt they are every bit as glad as I am that this part of our life’s journey 7 together is complete and they no longer have to hear ‘Be quiet, Daddy’s working on his PhD’. Thank you, Anne for your love throughout the past six years and beyond. Without you this journey would not even have begun. With all of my love I dedicate this work to you. 8 ABBREVIATIONS AIRO All-Island Research Observatory ALMPs Active labour market policies B&A Behaviours and Attitudes CCM Critical Communicative Methodology CEO Chief Executive Officer CSO Central Statistics Office CV Curriculum Vitae FÁS Foras Áiseanna Saothair (former state employment support agency) FIS Family Income Supplement DSP Department of Social Protection ECDL European Computer Driving Licence EES European Employment Strategy EU European Union FETAC Further Education and Training Awards Council GAA Gaelic Athletic Association HACCP Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point HSE Health Service Executive HP Haase-Pratschke JLC Joint Labour Committees ILO International Labour Organization MUD Moral underclass discourse NCPP National Centre for Partnership and Performance n.d. no date n.p. no page 9 ABBREVIATIONS NESC National Economic and Social Council NUTS Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OFP One Parent Family Payment OMC Open Method of Coordination NAPS National Anti-Poverty Strategy PtW Pathways to Work RED Redistributionist discourse SER Standard employment relationship SID Social integrationist discourse TUC Trades Union Congress UK United Kingdom US United States VECs Vocational Education Committees 10 CHAPTER 1 Mapping the landscape INTRODUCTION Your job is to go out and make a livin’, you know.
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