The Impact of Casualisation on Employers and Employees - Essay Example

Name Professor Title Date The Impact of Casualisation on employers and employees Introduction Until few years ago, the ‘standard’ or ‘traditional type of employment typified the employment market in the developed economies. May, Campbell and Burgess claimed that such work structure also dominated the industrial relations in Australia until recently when labour restructuring has led to critical changes in employment sector in established capitalist markets (4). The employment type changed from permanent and full time to casualisation as a way of cost cutting and to preventing employees from unionization. O’Donnell defined casualisation as the practice where employment changes from a predominance of permanent positions and full-time to casual positions (2). Studies show that today there 35 percent of all employees in Australia who work casual basis and are do not have annual leave and sick leave (Watson 6). Despite of being highly adopted in retail and nursing, casualisation has had both positive of negative impacts in these industries. Therefore, this essay will discuss the impact of casualisation on employers and employees in "Retail" and "health (nursing) in Australia. Negative and positive implications of casualisation for employees and employers in retail sector in Australia Australian retail is a very large sector based on its needs for more personnel. SDA pointed out that it employees 13percent of the total workforce in Australia (2). The sector is the outstandingly diverse and host employees from discount stores, departmental stores and supermarkets. In the past, the sector had been hiring people on permanent and full time basis to devote their profession and time to providing high quality services. However, increase in cost of labor and economic fluctuation has made many retail companies in Australia to embrace casualisation (SDA 3). Some of the Australia retail companies which have adopted casualisation include Woolworths Limited, Aldi, Coles and Wal-Mart Australia. Since the start of adoption of this type of employment, different opinions have been put forth by market analysts. While other thinks that it has positive impact on the employees and employers, other thinks it has strong negative impacts. Bruyn claimed that Casualisation has helped employers in retail sector to reduce the shortage of employees (n.p). Conventionally, departmental stores and supermarkets had been hiring permanent staffs who work on full time basis with little requirement for part time or casual workers. However, embracement of 24-hour economy and extended shopping implied that the permanent workers could not work for such long hours hence the need for casual employees to reduce the shortage of workers (SDA 3). On employees’ perspective, casualisation increase work participation and reduces unemployment. Hiring people even in casual terms increase a number of people in the workforce hence the income to sustain their lives. For instance, students with little income can work in departmental store or supermarkets as a casual and still attend classes (Huws 56). In this, they can earn some income to pay for school and pay for basic needs. This strategy also reduces number of unemployment in the country. Casualisation has a negative impact on employees in terms of planning (Campbell & Brosnan 7). Management expert explain workers on casual terms cannot appropriately plan for their future. Casualisation is that insecure work with no assurance of continuity of employment. In the retail sector there are some casuals who have worked over the years but still have little benefits available to them compared to permanent and full time employees. Bruyn opined that constant change of rosters makes casuals not to fully benefit from employment hence making it difficult to plan ahead and attain efficient work-life balance (n.p). The situation is even hard for employees who hold family responsibilities because today you can be called to work, then tomorrow there is no work. SDA pointed out that causualisation help employers reduce cost of operation (3). Economic fluctuation and inflation in Australia makes consumer consumption to vary quite often. At one time the consumption particularly celebration seasons like Christmas, Valentine, Diwali and Eid al-Fitr makes supermarkets, discount stores and departmental store to have high demand for services and products. For instance, when the Christmas season is nearing particular from there is for employees meet the high demand for goods and services at the retail sector (SDA 3). However, when the seasonal demands are over, there are low purchases a situation which reduces the need for more employees. Organization which retains high number of employees when the demand is low incurs great losses. Buddelmeyer and Wooden casualisation has been fronted as the best strategy to cut operation costs (110). The logic is just a to employee causal employee who work on part time basis; that is when there is demand for goods and services. Some management experts argue that while casualisation negatively employees’ turnover, it also affect job satisfaction of employees (Grinspun 3). Employees like to work where there is job security, and that can only be assured by permanent employment. There are a number of facets which are considered responsible for the general employees’ satisfactions in an organization which include the pay, work environment, supervision, promotion, job and personal characteristics (Grinspun 3). The casuals normally experience uncertain working engagement with limited benefits, while the employer enjoys more profits of paying low salaries. Wooden and Warren asserted that the situation causes a concern for casuals making them to look for work elsewhere where they can enjoy work benefits like paid up leave, sick leaves and other job related benefits (275).In addition there is there is an increasing research linking casualisation to decreased job satisfaction and employees turnover. Robertson, Birch and Cooper argued that lack of enough time to fully utilize their profession make casuals dissatisfied and even to look for work elsewhere (226). Employee’s turnover affects employer as they have to devote resource to hire new people time and again. Negative and positive implications of casualisation for employees and employers in Nursing The restructuring in labor force in nursing sector in Australia has led to casualisation where nurses as casuals on part time basis (Becker, McCutcheon and Hegney 45). Even though casualisation was adopted with good intention, it has had its negative impacts of employees and employers. One of the positive impacts of casualisation on employers was increase competitiveness and productivity. SDA claimed that shifting from full time traditional employees to free-beneficial casual workforce has been sound economic to employers (3). The healthcare institutions have been able to save a lot of money based on the arrangement. Casual employees are often called only when there is demand for more nurses especially when there is an increase in number of patients. This means the employers do not need to pay monthly salary but only if the nurses are called for work. Duffield held that Ffull- time and permanent position are very expensive to maintain because the employer will have to pay for allowances, annual leave and sick leave (208). Therefore, causal enable employer to cut cost and save that money for other projects. Casualisation helps employers reduce the gap of nursing shortage. Duffield claimed that even though casualisation was initially was meant to increase flexibility of personnel in nursing workplaces, changing demographics of patients have led casual to be used increase number of nurses (210). Studies demonstrate that shortage of nurses is caused by fact that most of these workers are ageing (Grinspun 55). Similarly, general ageing population is significantly increasing hence more need for health care. Grinspun projected that the number of ageing nursing employees is likely to increase up to 2025 thus the requirement to continue increase their numbers to fulfill such needs (56). Approaches to fulfill such prospects are required to make sure that health care in Australia is able to offer accessible, affordable and high quality care. Even though casualisation has not been the major solution to tackle shortage, it supplies personnel which can be employed flexibly to deal with the current shortage of employees. Numerous researches have established that shortage of full time and permanent has made health care institutions to use casual increase number of nurses during shifts for nearly performance as opposed to previous trend of seasonal demands Becker, McCutcheon and Hegney argued that in many cases when there are shortage of nurses the few that are providing care are always overwhelmed with work hence cannot effective service (57). Therefore, hiring more casual has increased efficiency of care in Australia hospitals. Employees also benefit from flexibility point. Individual employees need that flexibility of work hence, the choice for Casualisation (Grinspun 61). Evidences from Australian health care sector shows that numerous nurses prefer casualisation rather than permanent positions owing to flexibility of work, higher pay per hour and incentives. Casualisation also encourage to participate in employment especially aged workers and women (Becker, McCutcheon and Hegney 46). Aged workers are not fit and flexible to work for long hours as young employees. Working as a causal make them participate in labour market when their feel fit, and relax at home when they do not feel to work. On the other hand, women are charged with responsibility both at work and home. While they provide services at work, there is also a demand to attend to house chores. As such, a flexible work-life balance is needed to perform in both (Duffield 210). Casualisation provides that flexibility to women employees. Despite of preferences of casualisation it leads to less motivation among employees. Halcomb et al. explained casualisation to mean staff who are ‘‘underclass”, are paid poorly, have restricted integration with the department and have no job security (3). In many cases, when employees are feeling perceived as underclass, they lose morale for work hence underperformance. Furthermore, job security is an important factor for a nurse. Personnel without job security always worry about when they are going to be laid off. Such situations create low motivation in employees making them unable to perform as expected. Researchers have found relationship between remuneration to motivation (Wooden & Warren 281). Employees who are well remunerated feel that their effort and profession is respected hence they strive for high performance. The vice versa is also true; nurses who are underpaid are sometimes unable to meet their thus does not feel putting more efforts into it. Low motivation on casuals negatively impacts the employer. Becker, McCutcheon and Hegney postulated that low motivation impacts the performance of an organization making it unable to compete (47). Health care institutions are very important sector in economy because their keeps the health of employees making others sectors running. However, if such institutions are underperforming it affects performing of other companies too. For private hospital it’s even when. When nurses underperform as a result of low motivation, people stop trust the health care institution and look for service elsewhere (Grinspun 62). Conclusion Casualisation in retail and nursing sectors in Australia has increased considerably in the last one decade. The high adoption of this form of employment is because the growth of casual employment in Australia has benefited both employers and employees. In this research, it has been established that casualisation impacts employees and employers in retail and nursing sector almost in the same way. Several benefits have been drawn from retailers and nursing sector employers from casualisation including reduction of shortage of employees, reduction in cost of operation and increased productivity and competitions. Retail employees have also been impacted by casualisation in terms of flexibility and job participation. The 24-hour economy and seasonal demands requires more employees to serve the growing number of employees in departmental stores, supermarkets and malls. Therefore casualisation has become a great strategy for employers to address the employees’ shortage. On the other hand, casualisation also helps retailers cut cost of operations. In the current times economic fluctuations have made customer demands an on-and-off affair. It means at one time there are several customers requiring more products and sometimes there are only few customers. Due to fluctuations, retailers sometimes find it difficult to pay high salaries and benefits associated with permanent and full time workers. As such, casualisation becomes an ideal strategy for cutting costs in retail organization. The increasing population in Australia has led to growing number of unemployed people. However, casualisation has provide hope and come in to bridge the gap of unemployment. Casualisation has ensured many people get to participate in job market even if it is on part-time basis or on shift arrangements. Casualisation has also created flexibility among employees. Employment of casual basis means one work part-time and in some days does not report to their job places. The research found of that this is good for women, students, and aged people can now work in retails. Students can now work part time in retail or nursing organization and still attend classes as result of casualisation. Despite the positive impacts, casualisation does not escape negative impacts such as job dissatisfaction and employees turnover. Working casual basis has no benefits as permanent position. Less pay and short working lead to job satisfaction hence low performance. Employers are also affected by casualisation through employees’ turnover. Employees who are lowly remunerated and have shorter time to practice their profession are after sometimes become dissatisfied and hunt for job in other organization for position. The situation can make employers to frequently experience job turnover. Therefore, this paper concludes that while practicing casualisation in their organizations, employers must find strategies to reduce employees’ job dissatisfaction and turnovers. 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