Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / In the South African employment context, temporary employment service (hereinafter referred as TES), also known as labour broking, is regulated by the Labour Relations Act.1 Under the previous LRA (prior 2014 legislative amendments), employees of TES have been challenged in respect of exercising their labour law rights and that subjected them to exploitation. Such exploitation called for the government of South Africa to effect some amendments on the LRA with a view to protect TES employees. This was done through Labour Relations amendment Act no 06 of 2014, which came into force in August 2014. The relationship in TES involved three parties, such as, client, labour broker and an employee. A labour broker entered into a commercial contract with a client, in terms of which the former would provide employees to the client. An employment contract will then be entered into between labour broker and an employee. The duration of employment contract would mostly be determined by as long as the client requires services of a placed employee. No employment contract was entered into between an employee and the client. This is despite the fact that a client had directly enjoyed services of the employee.

The construction industry is an important player in the economy of South Africa and therefore job satisfaction and existence of job insecurity of employees in this sector needs to be researched (Thwala & Monese 2008:2). This study comprises a literature review and an empirical study on job satisfaction and job insecurity and its prevalence in an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company in South Africa. This study provides insight on whether employment status, that is, contract versus permanent, has any impact on levels of job satisfaction and job insecurity of construction employees. Quantitative research, using the survey method, was used for the empirical portion of the study. All employees of the EPC company were surveyed and included workers permanently employed as well as employees employed through labour brokers, that is those on contract. The EPC company in this study employs staff in various categories, such as section managers, engineers, project managers and site employees. The total population included 145 employees of whom 41 were permanent employees and 104 were employed through labour brokers. The response rate was 39 per cent. Conclusions emanating from the research questions identified marginal differences in the reported levels of job satisfaction and job insecurity for both permanent and contract employees. Contract employees reported slightly higher job satisfaction and job insecurity levels when compared to permanently employed counterparts. The value of this study lies in the fact that no research has been conducted on job satisfaction and job insecurity and its prevalence in the EPC sector in South Africa. This study provided insight into whether employment status - contract versus permanent - had an impact on the reported levels of job satisfaction and job insecurity of employees at an EPC company.