...Definition of Contingent Workers “Contingent workers are those who do not have an implicit or explicit contract for ongoing employment. Persons who do not expect to continue in their jobs for personal reasons such as retirement or returning to school are not considered contingent workers, provided that they would have the option of continuing in the job were it not for these reasons” (The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Contingent worker are legally employees, but are not regular full-time employee of companies. They are also known as freelancers, independent professionals, temporary contract workers, independent contractors or consultants. Contingent workers are typically paid with no regard for wage standards and without benefits. There is a discussion about how the term contingent workers should be defined. The contingent workforce consists of many categories of workers, it may include those who are temporary workers and independent contractors, who are hired through staffing firms, or whose jobs are structured to last only for a limited time or until a completion of a project. Descriptions of common contingent workers categories by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) -Temporary employees or TEMPS generally work for temporary employment agencies or temporary staffing firms that place workers in companies for short-term assignments. They typically earn less than full-time employees and are less likely to receive benefits. -Contract Workers generally are self-employed...
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...How to Motivate a Part Time Employee Motivating an organizations employees is not amongst the easiest of tasks for a manager to accomplish. Even more challenging is motivating part-time employees whom are usually forgotten and ignored by the organization (Inman & Enz, 1995, p. 1). According to Statistics Canada, nearly 19% of the workforce constitutes of contingency workers who are not being utilized to their full potential (Statistics Canada, 2008). It is noticed that the number of contingency workers is almost one fifth of the workforce and the number is continuously growing year by year; thus it is important that companies start emphasizing on strategies to improve their part-time team. Ignoring these workers can cost many businesses to have an increase in employee turnovers, higher rate of absenteeism and higher retraining costs. The following section will analyze why part-time employees receive less attention and recognition than full-time employees and will suggest possible strategies to improve and motivate the part-time workforce. Part-time employees should without a doubt be considered as part of an organization’s valued assets. These types of employees contribute to the businesses overall objectives, help decrease wage outlays and fill in or replace work hours that full-time employees do not want to work. However, managers have created myths about part-time employees in which they view them as inferior, less hardworking, less competent, indifferent about product...
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...Walmart Saving Money by Cutting Benefits Walmart’s motto is “Save Money Live Better” and Walmart is cutting costs to save money by eliminating its health insurance coverage for part-time US employees that work less than 30 hours a week, starting in January 2015. The reasoning behind this is to control the rising healthcare costs and pressure from Wall Street to meet its bottom line. According to (TABUCHI, 2014) it affects about 30,000 employees, which is 5% of Walmart’s part-time workforce. I am currently employed at Walmart with a schedule of 32 hours and this does not affect me directly, but it if my hours were to decrease at the end of the year I might lose eligibility for healthcare benefits. The loss of hours currently affect some of my coworkers that are already currently working under 30 hrs. In 2011, Walmart claimed that it cut back his eligibility of health insurance coverage for their part-time employees who worked less than 24 hours a week, but in 2013, it moved it up to 30hrs or less. Some of the employees are unable to work full time including myself because of our college schedules or having children. In my opinion, it would be necessary for part time associates at Walmart to receive benefits to be able to meet their basic health care needs. Part time associates receive less pay then full time associates and cannot afford outside health insurance like United or Blue Cross. Most college students that are working would go for a period...
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...Viewpoint: “Unionized workers are justified in striking to defend their wages and benefits” Strike could be said to be a form of industrial action prompted by the refusal of employees to work. Strike actions usually occur as a reaction to employee grievances. Strikes became relevant during the Industrial Revolution, when public labour became important in factories and mines. According to Black and Silver, “Strikes are the ultimate action available to unions as a means of trying to win gains for its members in collective bargaining”. The popular idea that strikes are “unreasonable, costly and not well founded” is a fallacy. Unionized workers are justified to engage in strike activities in order to defend their wages and benefits because it is legal for aggrieved unionized workers to take strike action, strike action affirms workers’ support for the bargaining position, the increasingly hostile political and economic climate and also because it asserts some form of seriousness on the part of unionized workers in their bid to defend their struggles for better wages and employment benefits. Unionized workers are justified to engage in strike activities in order to defend their wages and benefits because it is legal for workers to go on strike. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) grants employees the right to strike and if a collective bargaining agreement does not contain a “no-strike” clause. Unionized workers usually resort to strikes only in severe situations when their grievances...
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...Chapter 1: Introduction to Employee Benefits Be able to describe the increase in the percentage of compensation devoted to employee benefits over time. Be able to explain what factors are responsible for this increase. Why does the percentage of your salary devoted to employee benefits matter to you? What are some of the public policy issues related to employee benefits, and what are the implications? What are some of the likely future trends in employee benefits that we discussed in class? Chapter 2: Employee Benefit Management and Planning What are some of the employer objectives when designing a benefit plan? How specific are these stated goals, and how easy are they to measure? How do employers determine who should receive benefits, and how do they decide what types of benefits to offer? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a market research approach? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using top management’s perception to design an employee benefit plan? What is the life-cycle approach’s main recognition? What is the work-life approach’s main recognition? What are some of the methods used by employers to control costs? How could self-funding control costs? What methods do employers use to communicate employee benefits information to employees? What factors influence the outsourcing of employee benefits? What is meant by outsourcing serving as a “buffer” function? Chapter 3: Social Security and Medicare Why does social insurance...
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...Concept of Compensation The literal meaning of compensation is to counter-balance. In the case of human resource management, Compensation is referred to as money and other benefits received by an employee for providing services to his employer. Money and benefit received may be in different forms-base compensation in money form and various benefits, which may be associate with employee, service to the employer receive or benefits, he enjoy lieu of such payment. Cascio has defined compensation as follows: “Compensation includes direct cash payment, indirect payment in the form of employee benefits and incentives to motivate employee to strive higher level of productivity”. Based on above description of compensation, we may identify its various components as follows: 1. Wage and salary. 2. Incentives. 3. Fringe Benefits. 4. Perquisites. COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT: Compensation management, also known as wage and salary administration, remuneration management, or reward management, is concerned with designing and implementing total compensation package. The traditional concept of wage and salary administration emphasized on only determination of wage and salary administration structure in organizational settings. However, over the passage of time, many more forms of compensation, as discussed earlier, entered the business field which necessitate to take wage and salary administration in comprehensive way with suitable change in its nomenclature . Bench has defined...
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...year's level (0.9%). Conversely, public demand shrank by 2.1% (due to a reduction in public works). According to the Cabinet Office's 2004 'Annual Report on Japanese economy and public finance/economic survey of Japan', Japan's economic growth in 2003 can be attributed to: i) increased private demand; ii) improvements in corporate financial positions through reduction of excessive debt and employment; and iii) the brisk performance of Japan's stronger industrial sectors, such as digital consumer electronics. Japan's economic recovery trend steadily pegged back the overall unemployment rate throughout 2003. It declined gradually from 5.5% in January 2003 to 4.9% in December 2003 (the average for 2003 was 5.3%), going below 5% for the first time in 29 months. Since May 2003, the...
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...universities UNISON members are employed in Gas, electricity and water companies Transport Job roles they represent in the public sector include, for example: • librarians • Human Resources, IT and finance workers • teaching assistants and early years nursery staff • secretaries • cleaners, caretakers and school meals supervisors • care workers, social workers and nurses. Trade union: an organisation that represents the mutual interests of employees across a range of issues. Voluntary sector: the part of the economy which is made up of for example charities and non-profit making organisations. Private sector: the part of the economy owned and run by individuals not by the government. Public sector: the part of the economy owned by government or its agents. Representation: to speak, act or present officially for another person. UNISON campaigns on a variety of issues relevant to its members. Currently, it is running the Migrant Workers Participation Project. This campaign focuses on the issues faced by migrant workers in the UK. Migrant workers are employees who have moved from overseas to the UK to find work. They form an important and growing part of the workforce in both the private sector and public sector. These workers are at particular risk of being exploited in the workplace. This may be due to lack of knowledge of their rights, their limited command of...
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...leave this world. Not all companies financially support their employees with fully funded retirement plans so it is left up to the individual to actively participate in saving for their future. When someone reaches retirement age, if the finances are there, they are usually only a fraction of what they were making as a full-time employee. This is when one hopes of having Social Security and Medicare benefits to supplement our retirement income for a more stable financial future. There are several reasons the Social Security Act was passed in August 1935. The elderly were living longer due to the availability of better health care, autonomy in workplaces to make jobs easier on individuals, and the modernization of our country’s water systems. Due to this increased longevity in the lives of the elderly, they were also more poverty stricken. An intention of the passage of the Social Security Act was to reduce the burden of loss of income to retired workers aged 65 or older. (Quadagno, 2008) It also included provisions for unemployment insurance, old age assistance and aid to dependent children. Benefits were to be paid based on the primary worker and was to be funded through payroll taxes deducted from the worker’s check. Social security numbers were set up in 1936 in order to track how much an individual paid into social security through their payroll taxes. (www.ssa.gov/history) In January 1937 the first FICA taxes were collected from worker’s paychecks. The payroll...
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...Retaining older workers is far more trouble than it’s worth As the population is aging, the debate raised from the statement above is increasingly important. Simply put, the issues that lie ahead are labour and skills shortage. According to the Canadian Conference Board, only 24% of Canadian employers have implemented retention strategies. Why is there so little interest in retaining older workers? I believe that proponents of the above statement either base their arguments on myths and stereotypes about older workers (55 – 64 age group) or do not fully understand the value that they bring to organizations. I believe that retaining older workers is worth the so-called trouble. While it seems reasonable to infer that older workers enjoy higher salaries due to their levels of seniority, studies have shown little evidence. According to a labour force Survey by Statistics Canada, there is a very small difference in salaries between age groups of 25-54 and 55-64. Most likely the difference is explained by the added value they bring to organizations rather than simply by seniority. Many people argue that older workers are less productive than the younger employees. However, older workers often outperform their younger counterparts as they possess more life and work experience and have spent a lifetime developing their skills. A good example are sale persons at a home hardware store. These older workers may have spent years renovating their second of even third house while the younger...
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...Rights for Part Time Employees A definition of what is known as a part time employer according to Daniels and Macdonald (2005, pg 92) “someone who works fewer hours than of what a company standard is which full time employers work. Part time workers have the same statutory right of their full time employees.” Growth in part time workers within companies as been evident within the European Union. In Europe part-time workers are significantly increasing according to Brewster and Hegewisch (1994, pg 173). “One in seven people in Europe are working part time and this as enabled employment growth in the last decade” therefore individuals gain benefits as there are more jobs. The reasons why individuals may prefer to work part time then full time may be because they may have other commitments such as balancing their work and home life which is known as work- life balance. Work life balance is where an individual can balance their social life and home life with their work life, all activities can be worked side by side. According to sparrow and cooper (2003) In Beardwell and Clayton (2007) work life balance concerns organisations that enable employees’ autonomy; this suggests that employees can split their work life with their other commitments outside of the workplace. Part time employees cannot be treated less favourably because they work less hours then the company standard even if they are not a part of the company’s day to day duties as long as that employee is employed...
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...Types of Contingent Workers. * Organization perspective of hiring contingent worker: * Benefits using contingent workers. * Practical ricks of contingent workers for organization. * Recruiting contingent workers. * Contingent Workforce Management. * Contingent worker perspective: * What are the benefits of being a Temporary employee? * The disadvantages of Temporary worker. * Can lead to Permanent Employment. * Gateway to Permanent Position. * Conclusion: Contingent Workforce: A contingent workforce is a provisional group of workers who work for an organization on a non-permanent basis, also known as freelancers, independent professionals, temporary contract workers, independent contractors or consultants. Types of Contingent Workers: There is much discussion in the literature about just how the term contingent worker should be defined. Following are descriptions of common contingent worker categories. Temporary employees: Temporary employees, or temps, generally work for temporary employment agencies that place workers in companies for short-term assignments. While most temporary employees earn less than their full-time counterparts and do not receive benefits, that has changed for some job specialties, particularly in the computer and information systems areas. Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc. and Kelly Services Inc. of Troy, Michigan, are two of the largest temporary agencies. Part-Time Employees: Part-time employees work fewer...
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...Local government The NHS GLOSSARY Trade union: an organisation that represents the mutual interests of employees across a range of issues. Voluntary sector: the part of the economy which is made up of for example charities and non-profit making organisations. Private sector: the part of the economy owned and run by individuals not by the government. Public sector: the part of the economy owned by government or its agents. Representation: to speak, act or present officially for another person. The voluntary sector UNISON members are employed in Schools, colleges and universities Gas, electricity and water companies Transport Job roles they represent in the public sector include, for example: • librarians • Human Resources, IT and finance workers • teaching assistants and early years nursery staff • secretaries • cleaners, caretakers and school meals supervisors • care workers, social workers and nurses. UNISON campaigns on a variety of issues relevant to its members. Currently, it is running the Migrant Workers Participation Project. This campaign focuses on the issues faced by migrant workers in the UK. Migrant workers are employees who have moved from overseas to the UK to find work. They form an important and growing part of the workforce in both the private sector and public sector. These workers are at particular risk of being exploited in the workplace. This may be due to lack of knowledge of their rights, their limited command of the English language and...
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...of the most ethical companies in the U.S. Due to recent changes in our governments healthcare system, there was a moment in 2013 that the company faced a dilemma that involved deciding whether or not to change their part-time employees health benefits. For years, Trader Joe’s has offered healthcare coverage to its part-time employees at reasonable prices while paying their part-time staff very generously compared to other grocery chains. On August 30th 2013, Trader Joe’s CEO, Dan Bane sent employees a confidential memo stating that the company would no longer be offering healthcare coverage for anyone working fewer than thirty hours a week. When the news was first announced, many thought Bane’s decision was heartless and many believed that there had to be a good reason for Bane’s decision; after all not too many companies in the U.S. offer health benefits to part-time employees. Immediately negative news hit article headlines, pointing out only one statement in the letter Bane wrote to all Trader Joe’s employees, “With low-wage workers eligible for tax subsidies to buy health insurance next year, the company has calculated that offering medical coverage to part-timers who work 18 hours or more is no longer worth the cost”. Of course Trader Joe’s part-time employees immediately became upset and started to question the companies ethical interests of what “doing the right thing” as Trader Joe’s has always been known for, really meant for them. For many years, Trader Joe’s...
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...4 Natural and cyclical unemployment ...............................................................................6 C. Introduction to Theories of Unemployment........................................... 7 D. Minimum Wages and Unemployment ................................................. 10 A simple minimum-wage model .................................................................................. 10 Minimum-wage effects on skilled and unskilled labor ..................................................... 11 E. Unemployment Insurance and the Length of Job Search .......................... 13 A simple model of job search ........................................................................................ 13 Unemployment benefits and search duration ................................................................. 15 Optimal search duration ............................................................................................. 17 F. Unions and Unemployment .............................................................. 18 An economy-wide labor union ..................................................................................... 18 A two-sector model of unions and unemployment .......................................................... 19 G. Sectoral Shifts and Unemployment...
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