Casualisation at Work: A Guide for Trade Union Reps, by Nerys Owen, edited by Stephanie Peck (Labour Research Department, £9.45)

THIS latest publication by the Labour Research Department is a well-researched and essential resource for anyone wanting to know more about the alarming rise of casualisation in the workplace, the myriad forms this takes and how to fight back against it.

As regular stories in the Morning Star about Sports Direct and other unscrupulous employers demonstrate, they will stop at nothing to shift employment risk from the business to the employee, reduce wages and undermine terms and conditions.

Workers are forced to navigate their way through a complex array of false self-employment arrangements, employment agencies, umbrella companies and zero-hours contracts, all designed to leave them worse off and improve employer profits.

Successive governments have connived in the undermining of collective bargaining and the erosion of employment and trade union rights since the 1980s as they pursue "workplace flexibility" and focus on individual rather than collective employment rights.

Casualisation leads inexorably to significant financial insecurity, with people finding it almost impossible to budget and landlords even refusing to offer tenancies to people on zero-hours contracts.

It has a negative impact on workers' health as stress levels rise, undermines safety in the workplace as workers are reluctant to stick their heads over the parapet, and erodes training and career development.

The booklet highlights the vital work being undertaken by Ucatt, UCU and a host of other unions to tackle the manifest abuses in this area, where the recession and its aftermath have provided a golden opportunity for employers to super-exploit workers and further undermine employment rights.

And, as the explosion of umbrella companies in the construction sector demonstrates, as soon as one door closes, new forms of exploitation emerge.

Many younger workers, or those about to enter the labour force, will be unaware just how pernicious these practises are, how much has been lost as trade union numbers and influence have declined or how to protect their rights.

A future Labour government must be pushed to reform employment law and provide all workers the same employment rights, with the artificial legislative split between "worker" and "employer" ended.

And Labour need to be pressed to promote genuine labour market reform and accept the fundamental role of trade unions in reducing exploitation. As successfully argued by Keith Ewing and John Hendy in their excellent pamphlet Reconstruction After the Crisis: A Manifesto for Collective Bargaining, this will reduce inequality, strengthen the employee "voice," raise wages and provide a robust mechanism for improving terms and conditions - including tackling exploitative employment practices.

This booklet is an essential read for union activists or anyone wanting to negotiate the casualisation minefield.

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