Dodgy labour market dichotomy: the repercussions of sneaky labour intermediaries on employees' constitutional rights

The flexibility inherent in temporary agency work allows employers to cut labour cost in a variety of ways. Recurring themes in the employment literature draw attention to the duality of the labour market rooted in type-of-contract segmentation. This duality in the labour market carries with it a number of undesirable consequences. Drawing on qualitative data from six case studies in Pakistan, this paper reports on an in-depth study of deceitful labour market intermediaries, through which employers attempt to bypass statutory obligations concerning workers' constitutional rights. A case study inquiry, based on qualitative interviews, suggested that the agencies were 'created' or 'arranged' to illustrate indirectness of employment relationship by misclassifying effectively permanent employees as 'agency workers'. The evidence points towards a growing trend for agencies to be, simply, a sham arrangement. This study broadens our comprehension about the nature of temporary agency employment and subsequent labour market duality in Pakistan, beyond the traditional functional model of legitimate labour market intermediaries. Precarious work in Pakistan, a large and growing economy, shares many features in common with the rest of the world. These findings offer useful policy and social implications for national and multinational companies.