This article seeks to show, taking the example of delivery drivers, how inter-firm relations affect worker precarity. It is based on an in-depth field study carried out in the Paris region and backed up by the statistical analysis of national surveys. It focuses in particular on the role played by firms’ dependence in the precarity of work and employment, considering that both dependence and precarity should be considered ubiquitous. It then seeks to measure this dependence and highlight the factors that may increase it as the relative size of the firms, the chain of dependence and the position of firms in this chain. In this way, it sets out to show why the contractual status of employees can no longer provide job security in the context of unbalanced subcontracting relationships.
AlbertiGBessaLHardyK, et al. (2018) In, against and beyond precarity: work in insecure times. Work, Employment and Society32(3): 447–457.
2.
BaudryB (1992) Contrat, autorité et confiance. La relation de sous-traitance est-elle assimilable à la relation d’emploi?Revue Économique43(5): 871–894.
BourdieuP (1997) Contre-feux. Grenoble: Liber Raisons d’agir.
7.
CasaleG (2011) The employment relationship: A comparative overview. Oxford; Portland, OR: Hart Pub.; Geneva: International Labour Office.
8.
CastelR (2003) From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. London; New York: Routledge.
9.
CélérierSRiesco-SanzARolleP (2016) Une indépendance équivoque: les nouveaux statuts des indépendants espagnols et français. Revue Française de Socio-Économie2(17): 21–41.
10.
ColleRCorbett-EtcheversIDefélixC, et al. (2017) Innovation et qualité de vie au travail: les entreprises libérées tiennent-elles leurs promesses?Management & Avenir93(3): 161–183.
DallasMPonteSSturgeonT (2017) A Typology of Power in Global Value Chains. Working Paper in Business and Politics No. 92, Copenhagen Business School.
13.
DoellgastVGreerI (2007) Vertical disintegration and the disorganization of German industrial relations. British Journal of Industrial Relations45(1): 55–76.
14.
EmersonR (1962) Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review27(1): 31–41.
15.
EmmeneggerPHäusermannSPalierB, et al. (2012) The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. New York: Oxford University Press.
16.
Eurofound (2016) Exploring the Fraudulent Contracting of Work in the European Union. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
FeenstraRHansonG (1996) Globalisation, outsourcing, and wage inequality. American Economic Review86: 240–245.
19.
FleckerJMeilP (2010) Organisational restructuring and emerging service value chains: Implications for work and employment. Work, Employment & Society24(4): 680–698.
20.
FreedlandM (2016) The contract of employment and the paradoxes of precarity. Oxford legal studies research paper 37. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2794877 (accessed 1 January 2021).
GallieDFelsteadAGreenF, et al. (2017) The hidden face of job insecurity. Work, Employment and Society31(1): 36–53.
23.
GereffiGKorzeniewiczM (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. Westport, CT: Praeger.
24.
GereffiGHumphreyJSturgeonT (2005) The governance of global value chains. Review of International Political Economy12(1): 78–104.
25.
GrandL (1997) Les relations de sous-traitance dans le secteur du transport routier de marchandises. PHD Thesis, Université Lumière-Lyon, Lyon.
26.
LamyA (2019) Des travailleurs sous pression: dégradation de l’emploi et segmentation du métier de livreur. Master’s Thesis, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette.
27.
MacKenzieR (2000) Subcontracting and the reregulation of the employment relationship: a case study from the telecommunications industry. Work, Employment and Society14(4): 707–726.
MarchesnayM (1979) La dépendance des firmes individuelles: un essai d’analyse et d’application dans leurs relations d’échange avec les groupes. Economie et Sociétés: Sciences de Gestion1: 697–736.
30.
MooreSNewsomeK (2018) Paying for free delivery: dependent self-employment, a measure of precarity in parcel delivery. Work, Employment and Society32(3): 475–492.
31.
NeilsonBRositerN (2008) Precarity as a political concept or Fordism as exception. Theory, Culture and Society25(7–8): 51–72.
32.
OECD (2002) Impact on Transport Infrastructure Investments on Regional Development. Paris: OECD.
33.
ParkMKangJ (2017) Job satisfaction of non-standard workers in Korea: focusing on non-standard workers’ internal and external heterogeneity. Work, Employment and Society3(4): 605–623.
34.
PaugamS (2007) Le salarié de la précarité. Paris: PUF.
35.
PerraudinCPetitHThevenotN, et al. (2014) Inter-firm dependency and employment inequalities: theoretical hypotheses and empirical tests on French subcontracting relationships. Review of Radical Political Economics46(2): 199–220.
Rème-HarnayP (2019) Amazon: révolution dans la messagerie. Revue Transport Infrastructure Mobilité515: 29–34.
38.
Rème-HarnayP (2020) Comment les plateformes numériques accroissent la dépendance dans les relations de sous-traitance: le cas de la livraison à vélo. Revue Française de Socio-économie25(2): 175–198.
39.
Rème-HarnayPCruzCDablancL (2014) La sous-traitance de la messagerie urbaine: logiques économiques et rapports de dépendance. Socioéconomie du Travail3: 1473–1512.
40.
SchorJAttwood-CharlesWCansoyM, et al. (2020) Dependence and precarity in the platform economy. Theory and Society49(5): 833–861.
41.
TaylorPNewsomeKRainieA (2013) Putting labour in its place: GVC and labour process analysis. Competition and Change17(1): 1–5.
42.
Thébaud-MonyA (2000) L’industrie nucléaire: sous-traitance et servitude. Paris: INSERM.
43.
WilliamsCLapeyreF (2017) Dependent self-employment: trends, challenges and policy responses in the EU. International Labour Organization working paper 228. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
44.
WilliamsonOE (1991) Comparative economic organization: the analysis of discrete structural alternatives. Administrative Science Quarterly36: 269–296.
