LABOR FLEXIBILITY AND GENDER IN THE SERVICE SECTOR - A STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES IN LAW AND ACCOUNTING FIRMS

In seeking to increase the flexibility of their use of employee time, employers can pursue strategies based on the employment of casual and part-time workers (numerical flexibility) or strategies based on ad ho c variation of the working hours of permanent employees (working time flexibility). Patterns of flexibility strategies and their implication s are examined in the context of a highly feminised sector of work-cle rical and administrative employment in law and accounting firms. We co nsider whether, as is often assumed, working time flexibility strategi es are generally better for employees because they avoid the substitut ion of core, high quality jobs with the peripheral, relatively insecur e employment often associated with casualisation. Analysing data drawn from a survey of law and accounting firms, we argue that there are th ree distinct flexibility strategies adopted by employers, and that the choice of strategy is influenced by the size of the firm and the exte nt of feminisation. The quality of employment conditions associated wi th each strategy is investigated through an analysis of the determinan ts of training provision for clerical and administrative workers. Rath er than an expected simple linear relationship between increasing casu alisation and decreasing training provision, we find that firm size an d feminisation are implicated. Larger firms that tend to employ at lea st some men and use a combination of working time and numerical flexib ility strategies tend to provide more training than the small, more fu lly feminised firms that tend to opt for either casualisation or worki ng time flexibility strategies. This suggests that, from an employee p erspective, working time flexibility may not be as benevolent as is of ten thought.