"Ever since the 1970s, US governments have been rolling out free market policies and workfare programmes* in a smorgasbord of forms and schemes, all of which have consistently sought to de-entitle social welfare claimants by making them an available pool of biddable, very low-paid labour. Are the "day labor agencies" the most distasteful means of running workfare programs in the labor market? It is this question that French sociologist Sébastien Chauvin sets out to answer. For two years he immersed himself in the life of American day labourers in the Chicago area (Illinois) as a casual worker in light industry plants. From this side of the Pond, day labour agencies look not much different to Europe's temp agencies. In fact, they are nothing like, as they offer essentially unskilled work in light industry to marginalised groups: the black underclass (often ex-convicts) and undocumented immigrants (mostly Hispanic). The way these agencies and their customer firms operate offers an intriguing glimpse into the low-grade jobs and disempowerment they bring about. Heads they win: the day labour agencies. What jumps out from the pages of Sébastien Chauvin's book is the murky selection procedures they use for day labour hire: jobseekers fill in application forms that are neither looked at nor discussed with an agency official; their work skills and experience are disregarded in favour of innate characteristics, i.e., abilities assumed on the basis of gender, age, racial and other stereotypes. Also, agencies do not recruit applicants for specific jobs but operate a collective ticket system for hiring a random, arbitrarily-chosen number of workers who are at the absolute paternalistic whim of the dispatchers in charge of allocating them to customer firms after kicking their heels sometimes for up to several days in agency dispatching rooms. This unpaid but enforced waiting time tells dispatchers whether a day labourer can wait patiently, keep their dignity, and be a regular attender – all evidencing a genuine will to work. The way day labourers see it, getting to share in a ticket is also viewed as a favour, since many are called but few are chosen, and the agencies will take on workers regarded as unemployable by others. This makes them feel beholden to the dispatcher for the privilege of getting work, despite knowing full well how they are being exploited! Day labour agencies also act as a form of insurance by relieving customer firms of the responsibility for employing illegal immigrants or ex-convicts, since it is their job to check the civil status documents of hirees, including their social security card (mostly fake) or the criminal records of ex-offenders. In the shakiest of labour market positions, day labourers willingly connive in the agencies' and dispatchers' non-transparent selection and hiring procedures which let them bypass customer firms' HR departments which would never directly hire ex-convicts or undocumented migrants. Tails you lose: Who are the customer firms? Mostly subcontractors for the assembly and packaging of finished products. For them, this is a source of casual labour hireable at a minimum hourly wage and fireable almost daily depending on production needs. Day labourers clearly have none of the social benefit entitlements (pension plans, paid holidays, medical insurance, seniority based raises) enjoyed by those with a proper employment contract. At the same time, the long-awaited day job is devoid of meaning as day labourers normally know neither the name of the firm they will be working for, nor what their job there will be, nor how long it will last. Once on the factory floor, their status is no less marginal: they have no access to locker rooms or canteens, are supplied with no work clothing or personal protective equipment (gloves, helmets, masks). They may even be turned away at the factory gate if the agency has sent too many workers. At work, they are subject to degrading forms of multi-tasking and orders to always be busy even if there is nothing to do (no sitting, no talking to other team members even if the production line is slow, no idle hands). The author has done a remarkable front-line investigation to produce a general analysis of workfare and job insecurity as an employment relationship. — Marianne de Troyer "

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