“Better” part‐time jobs? A study of part‐time working in nursing and the police

Abstract

Part‐time working has been traditionally associated with poor quality, low skill jobs in the secondary labour market. Explores the expansion of part‐time work into skilled occupations using case studies in nursing and the police. Employees in both services have pay and conditions wholly pro‐rated with full‐time colleagues. However, despite a potentially strong bargaining position in relation to the employer, these part‐timers had not achieved complete equality with full time counterparts. Demonstrates a breaking of the mould of poor quality part‐time jobs showing that better jobs can be worked on a part‐time basis. Concludes, however, that full equality is unlikely to be achieved without strategic intervention at the workplace level.

Citation

Edwards, C.Y. and Robinson, O. (2001), "“Better” part‐time jobs? A study of part‐time working in nursing and the police", Employee Relations, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 438-454. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005898