ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is to explore the dynamics and impact of supply chain capitalism upon job quality and work quality of parcel delivery workers in the UK. Muñoz de Bustillo’s focus is upon work quality and employment quality; however the chapter extends our understanding of the dynamics of job quality by focusing not only on directly employed workers, but also on dependent self-employed workers and the apparent extraction of parcel delivery workers from an employment relationship. The data presented in the chapter exposes the fiction of ‘self-employment’ in parcel delivery, promoting further consideration of contractual arrangements as a measure of job quality. It necessarily invokes the UK’s institutional support for dependent self-employment. The chapter consciously locates the job and work quality of parcel delivery workers as an outcome of not only contestation within the workplace but also of the dynamics of wider supply chain and sector pressures.
