"Getting by" in time and space: Fragmented work in local authorities

Manual work in British local authorities has been substantially restructure d since the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in 1988. The central argument of the paper is that CCT has led to an increasing fra gmentation of work, employment, and labor markets. Drawing primarily upon i nterviews with cleaning and catering employees in three case study councils , I demonstrate that labor forces are now highly diversified as wage and ot her divisions have emerged among groups of workers both between and within different local labor markets. The employment experiences of individual wor kers also have become fragmented. Not only is job tenure limited to the len gth of a contract, but also private contractors frequently seek to alter em ployees' terms and conditions of work during the life of the contract itsel f. Additionally, many cleaning and catering workers must now combine multip le part-time, frequently insecure jobs in an attempt to obtain a living wag e. Extending the work of Mingione, the paper stresses the complexity of res tructuring within what have long been low-wage, low-status, and highly gend er-segregated sectors of employment.