Sourcing in or sourcing out? Diverging migrant labour regimes and use of temporary labour in the Dutch and Austrian food industries

This article contributes to a better understanding of industrial relations dynamics driving cross-country differences in the expansion and containment of precarious migrant labour, by investigating the role of industrial relations actors, labour market regulations and collective bargaining specifically. It compares the differential reliance on temporary and migrant labour in the food (and meat) sectors in the Netherlands and Austria, two countries with a strong corporatist industrial relations tradition. The analysis draws on desk research and interviews with trade union representatives, inspectors, employers, works councillors and migrant workers. The findings highlight the importance of regulations regarding flexible employment, the strength of sectoral industrial relations institutions and collective bargaining, and enforcement mechanisms at the workplace to explain different outcomes for migrant workers: namely, a sectoral migrant labour regime that enables an extensive and exploitative use of temporary migrant labour in the Dutch food sector but a limited one in the Austrian food sector.