(WPO1d) Work-Related Transitions, Precarity, and Struggles

This session explores precarity and transition related to employment. Tags: Work And Professions

Organizers: Vivian Shalla, University of Guelph, Tracey Adams, University of Western Ontario, Karen Hughes, University of Alberta

Presentations

Manlin Cai, University of British Columbia

Gender, transition to parenthood, and workplace authority in urban China

Despite the rise of women’s educational attainment and labour force participation, women lag far behind men in reaching positions of authority and leadership at work worldwide. Even when men and women possess comparable human capital, a consistent gender gap exists that favours men in workplace authority. The gendered disadvantages in the labour market are further distributed unevenly among women, with mothers often bearing the brunt. Research has revealed that motherhood typically leads to lower earnings for women. However, fewer studies have investigated how parenthood shapes gender disparities in access to authority at work. In light of this research gap, my study examines how transition to parenthood affects women’s and men’s workplace authority in urban China. Cultural understandings of fatherhood and motherhood differ: Paid work is treated as an integral part of fatherhood, whereas unpaid childcare work remains at the core of motherhood. The norms of motherhood are thus more at odds with authority positions that usually require individuals to devote to work above all other life commitments. Mothers and fathers may internalize these gendered understandings and respond at work accordingly by adjusting their work effort. Meanwhile, regardless of work performance, such gender norms can lead employers to deem mothers unfit for authority and leadership positions. These parenthood effects are likely to be particularly salient in China, where patriarchal values surrounding work and family remain entrenched. My research draws on nationally representative, longitudinal survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). I use all the six biennial waves of the CFPS from 2010 to 2020 that are currently available to obtain person-year observations. Given my interest in the effects of transition to parenthood, my analytic sample only includes respondents who transitioned to parenthood for the first time during the observation period. The sample is further restricted to respondents aged 18–49 in each wave who were employed in urban areas and tracked at least twice. I use fixed-effects linear probability models to estimate the effects of transition to parenthood on men’s and women’s likelihood of holding supervisory authority at work. The fixed-effects method estimates within-person effects and thus better addresses selectivity issues through accounting for person-specific invariant unobserved characteristics that may affect both transition to parenthood and workplace authority. I find that net of controls for human capital, family status, and job characteristics, transition to parenthood is associated with a decrease of 5.2% in women’s probability of holding supervisory authority. Results by work sectors further show that this penalty of motherhood in authority is insignificant for women working in the state sector but more salient for those working in the non-state sector (a decrease of 8.1%). By contrast, transition to fatherhood does not affect men’s probability of holding supervisory authority at work, regardless of the sector they work in. Overall, the findings reveal that parenthood widens the gender gap in workplace authority. Because access to authority positions is associated with more job benefits and greater control over organizational decisions, the differential effects of parenthood on workplace authority between men and women may well produce and perpetuate gender inequalities in other realms of work and family lives. Furthermore, transition to parenthood exacerbates the glass ceiling that prevents capable women from reaching leadership at work, which could, in turn, incur a tremendous loss to organizations and society.

Émile Baril, York University

Strikes and resistance movements by Sans-Papiers couriers in Paris' platform food delivery industry

There has been a drastic rise in food delivery services since the start of the pandemic. Platform food delivery workers have been scrutinized both by academia and the media. In France, undocumented riders, and their recent strikes and protests, have not received as much attention as other issues regarding platform labour such as misclassification, algorithmic control and surveillance. Building on interviews with riders and on work by critical urban studies, migration studies and science and technology studies, this chapter explores sans-papiers riders’ resistance to exploitation. In December 2023, the French parliament passed an immigration reform, making it harder for regular immigrants in France to bring over family members, access welfare benefits and access citizenship for children born in France to foreign parents. Urban labour platforms, especially food delivery platforms, have seen an over-representation of racialized immigrants working for them. Some protests and strikes by migrant riders against major food delivery platforms made headlines in the last couple of years. The first part of the paper will discuss strategies, limitations and spaces of resistance (digital and physical). Three cases will be featured: a) 2020 strikes at Frichti, b) 2021 strikes at Stuart and c) 2022 strikes at UberEats. Interviews with riders that resisted mass deactivation and disciplining methods will highlight how the platforms tried to take advantage of their precarious status before releasing them. The subletting of accounts, the complicit role of the state, the hypocrisy of employers and the interdependency with the ‘regularized’ are all deterrents to social mobilization and are important factors that can put undocumented couriers in hyper-precarious situations. The second section notes connections between traditional unions and grassroots movements and the role of the French state in creating and reproducing precariousness. Interviews with key actors from traditional unions and grassroots organizations will show their participation in the sans-papiers’ movements. Labour laws, misclassification and migration policies are at the center of migrant workers’ struggles. The paper concludes that there is a need for integrating migrant couriers’ perspective in the study of urban labour platforms. Food delivery platforms compete in urban markets for clients, restaurants and workers. Considering migrant workers’ perspective to platformized exploitation, through a case study of food delivery resistance in Paris, will help re-centering some of the on-going debates on global platforms toward the ‘bottom end’ of the labour markets. It also brings in the realities of migrant workers – and their capacity to self-organize in advanced capitalist countries – to top-down studies and reforms that often ignore hyper-precarious lives and unequal power relations within racial capitalism. As one rider mentioned to Le Media in the Summer of 2020: “If we – Paris’ sans-papier colony – decide to withdraw our labour from the food delivery industry, app-companies won’t be able to keep providing meals because most people don’t want to bike around the city for hours to deliver.”

Emily Hammond, University of Toronto

Dancing with Capitalism: Exploring the Lives of Students and their Experiences of Work

In Canada, the costs associated with a post-secondary education, such as tuition, books, and living expenses, are higher than ever before. Research suggests that the cost of post-secondary tuition alone has increased by approximately 40% over the past decade, and that Canada is amid a student debt crisis (OECD, 2015). This is particularly concerning considering the increasing rates of precarious, low-paid, and part-time employment opportunities available to young people. Despite limited secure prospects, work is a necessary part of obtaining a post-secondary education for many students. Currently, over half of undergraduate students in Canada are engaging in paid work while studying full-time (Maury, 2020). This paper provides an in-depth analysis of students’ first-hand experiences with work. In particular, I use mixed methods to better understand how students’ engagement in the workforce impacts them and their studies. Through a combination of both focus groups and in-depth individual interviews, I interviewed 62 students who are working while attending a university or college in the Greater Toronto Area. This sample size enabled me to capture the experiences of a range of students, including a broad spectrum of gender identification and students who are diverse by class, race, and citizenship status. Moreover, it allowed me to talk to students working in a vast array of jobs. Through this research, I answer three central questions: (1) How do students understand their experiences of work? (2) How do students manage the demands of both work and study? (3) How do students’ social locations shape their perception of, and experiences in the labour market? Findings of this research reveal that when individuals start to work, they also begin an adult relationship with capitalism. However, the type of relationship they have with the labour market varies; while some students are working due to deep financial needs, others are working for ‘fun’. As such, my findings show evidence that capitalism does not dance the same way with everyone (e.g. working at Lululemon for a discount versus working as a server to pay rent). Furthermore, students use many strategies to manage the competing demands of work, school, and their personal lives. These include working on the weekend, finding jobs that enable them to complete schoolwork on the job, working night shifts, picking courses that align with their work schedules, making sacrifices and prioritizing. While many students feel exasperated trying to uphold this lifestyle, attending school and living in the Greater Toronto Area necessitated it. Finally, central to this study are the identities of my participants. Students’ race, class, gender, ability, etc. and the intersection of these identities are significant to understanding their experiences entering and within the workplace. This study teases out the ways in which one’s social location can impact their experiences within the labour market, and provides an important basis through which the experiences of students can be better understood. This research provides critical insights on how students’ experiences of work affect their capacity to study and survive. It illuminates the way that students balance the responsibilities of work, schooling, and household. In this balance, students develop understandings of work and the broader economic system in which they find it. These experiences shape their understandings of their social and economic futures; it reflects how they come to understand paid labour. Student work is not merely transitory, it is formative.