The Changing Employment Relationship and the Implications for Quality Part-time Work

The development of high quality part-time work is being challenged by two developments in the organisation of work and employment. Within existing part-time job areas there is an increasing pressure for work to be organised to meet the needs of employers to reduce costs and increase work intensity and to match the time preferences of consumers for the provision of services. This approach promotes a fragmented and variable pattern of part-time working that is at odds with the need to reconcile the demands of work and family life. At the same time, changes taking place in the organisation of full-time work are creating barriers to the spread of part-time work across the occupational spectrum. Drawing on case study and some survey-based evidence from the United Kingdom, this paper argues that there is evidence of a move away from a standard time-based approach towards a more results-based approach to ‘full-time’ employment in many areas, particularly in higher-level jobs. This undermining of the time-based numeraire creates a barrier to the development of quality part-time jobs.