ABSTRACT
To varying degrees of determination and effectiveness, labour unions throughout the world have recognized the importance of adapting organizational strategies and structures to meet the changing nature of the external environment in which workers are employed. The accelerated rate of technological change in the workplace, industry sector decline or relocation, and foreign market competition and integration are among the numerous environmental forces which have greatly impacted labour unions in the past decade and will continue to do so into the twenty first century. However, in recent years there has been a significant trend in the industrialized market economies of the world toward a substantial restructuring of employment contracts in the workplace. In particular, a growing number of organizations in Europe, North America and the developed economies within Asia have increased their reliance upon ‘contingent’ or ‘temporary’ workers claiming the need for greater ‘flexibility’ in the scheduling and utilization of human resources. Even more pronounced has been the accelerated growth of employment opportunities for workers on ‘part-time’ or ‘key-time’ work schedules which often involve less than 25 hours of paid employment per week (Belous, 1989; deNeubourg, 1985; ILO, 1989; Leighton, 1991). Within such countries as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States, where part-time employment data is available, the percentage of workers employed on part-time work schedules is approximately 18 to 25 percent of the total workforce (Belous, 1989; de Neubourg, 1985; ILO, 1989). In fact, there is substantial labour market data to argue that the rate of growth of part-time employment opportunities clearly exceeds the development rate of permanent full-time jobs (e.g. Delsen, 1993; de Neubourg, 1985; ILO, 1989; Leighton, 1991).
