LABOUR SEGMENTATION AND EMPLOYMENT DIVERSITY IN THE ICT SERVICE SECTOR IN PORTUGAL

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an overview of the main ongoing employment changes taking place in Portugal and particular emphasis is given to the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. However, due to its heterogeneous composition, both intensive and low-knowledge services are addressed in this sector, ranging from ICT companies in general to call centres in particular. Starting with a brief revision of both optimistic and critical approaches to the new service-based economy, the paper seeks to contribute to this theoretical debate through the analysis of a very singular context, the Portuguese one, based on the results of a research project. The main argument points out that employment changes in the ICT sector are associated with labour segmentation and growing differences in work and employment conditions, including gender inequalities.

Keywords:

• Portugal
• employment
• gender
• inequalities
• call centres
• ICT sector

Notes

¹This is the project known as Flexible forms of employment: risks and opportunities, financially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Project 33042/99), developed by researchers from SOCIUS (Research Centre in Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Organisations), School of Management and Economics (ISEG), Lisbon.

²For further developments on these theoretical perspectives, cf. Kovács (2002) or Wajcman (2004).

³The high proportion of self-employed individuals (isolated, without employees) suggests a high incidence of precarious employment relations in Portugal (indeed, this situation frequently masks a subordinate employment relationship), rather than a particular and strong orientation of Portuguese workers towards entrepreneurship.

⁴The share of the total workforce in agriculture is much lower in the EU25 (5 percent). In the secondary sector, the average is 41 percent for the EU25 (E.C. 2006).

⁵The inclusion of the call centre services in our survey might explain the higher percentages of women in our survey (45 percent of total respondents – Table 1).

⁶According to Diário Económico, Special Issue of 26 March 2003.

⁷In fact, many call centres today are much more than mere inbound centres; besides the telephone and the simple computer with its basic computer devices, sophisticated information and communication technologies are also to be found (ACD, Automated Call Distribution System) and, frequently, the contact with the customers is established by the agents.

⁸According to ICEP, the national body for the promotion of foreign investment in Portugal (Ministry of Economy), Diário Económico, Special Issue of 26 March 2003.

⁹The occupations covered by the survey were as follows: call centre agent, telecommunications engineer, operations director, project manager, electronics engineer, technology consultant, computer technician, computer systems engineer, investment consultant, communications consultant, graphic designer, database developer, programmer and marketing management auditor.

¹⁰When the official statistical data are analysed, women also outnumber men in intellectual and scientific occupations. This fact stems, above all, from some of the country's historical and social singularities: the widespread access to higher education in the 1960s and the mobilisation of males, around that time, for the colonial war. In this way, women came to occupy the functions and professions (Amâncio and Ávila 1995; Perista and Silva 2004). The strong presence of women in these fields should also be considered in the light of Portugal's peripheral status, with its low level of R&D and its traditional methods for the organisation of work and production. On the other hand, in countries that are technologically and scientifically more highly developed, social performances and stereotypes account for the fact that men, above all, are concentrated in the higher-status and better-paid occupations (e.g., Ferreira 1993).

¹¹This expression is quoted from the article by Peter Bain and Phil Taylor (2000). In this article, the authors develop their critique of Fernie and Metcalf's (1998) argument by highlighting the different forms of employee resistance towards electronic surveillance. Indeed, according to the latter authors, the exercise of management control in call centres is far more intensive than the ‘tyranny’ practised on traditional assembly lines.

¹²According to Stephen J. Frenkel et al. (1998), there is an underlying principle of conflict in the management of call centres, which stems from the contradiction between the standardisation of processes and the customisation of products/services.

¹³Among the call centre agents, working time is evenly balanced between men and women: in both cases, around 60 percent spend 25 hours (or less) per week at work. These figures, concerning the working time in call centres, are significantly different from those found in national statistics (total labour force), as part-time work is relatively low in Portugal, and more women tend to work under this regime. According to data provided by the Employment Survey, in 2005, in Portugal, about 16 percent of women and 7 percent of men were working part-time (INE 2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ilona Kovács

Ilona Kovács is a full Professor of Sociology of Work at the School of Economics and Management, Technical University of Lisbon, and a researcher at the Research Centre in Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Organisations (SOCIUS). She has published books and articles on several issues in the field of the new technologies and organisational models; technical-organisational changes and new skills and training needs; new models of production; the transformation of work and employment in the information society; and flexible forms of employment

Sara Falcão Casaca

Sara Falcão Casaca is an Assistant Professor of Sociology of Work at the School of Economics and Management, Technical University of Lisbon, and a researcher at SOCIUS (Research Centre in Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Organisations). Her main areas of research are work and employment flexibility; gender relations in the labour market; and the work-life balance. She has also published some articles and chapters in books on these matters