Low cost and high efficiencies are probably the most common of strategies used in large businesses today. This requires, however, optimum levels of commitment and performance from the employees coupled with an excellent taste for change. The transition from the use of Mondi employees to labour broker employees is a change process that impacts on a company's most valuable asset - their employees. It is with this in mind that the researcher conducted a case study aimed at identifying the impact of using labour broker employees in the waste handling operations on the morale of the affected employees. The researcher found it essential to evaluate the impact of this change on operational costs and efficiencies of the section. The three research questions that were outlined to meet the above aims were: (1) Does the use of labour broker employees in the waste paper handling part of the recycling operations impact positively or negatively on the morale of the Mondi waste paper handling operators? (2) Does the use of labour broker employees in the waste paper handling part of the recycling operations reduce the operational costs in that section? (3) Does the use of labour broker employees in the waste paper handling part of the recycling operations decrease or increase the operational efficiencies in that section? The initiative to use labour broker employees in the waste paper handling operations was not set up as an experiment. It was already in motion and the researcher opted to study it. Direct observation and unstructured interviews were used to answer research question (1). It was found that the change had completely demotivated the Mondi waste handling operators. Their morale levels dropped to particularly low levels as they felt disliked, not part of a team and unappreciated for their efforts and past service. The impacts of this low morale were hidden due to the plant being under utilised against its design capacity. They also had a prevailing sense of insecurity and uncertainty regarding their jobs, which made them uneasy. Factors associated with operational costs and efficiency was measured before (2004) and after the initiative (2005) to establish the impact of using labour broker employees on them. Direct observations and a quantitative analysis of data from the company's finance and technical departments were used to answer research questions (2) and (3). It was noted that there was a decrease in the operational costs due to the lower rate of pay of the labour broker employees and them doing overtime. The use of labour broker employees resulted in no significant improvement on the operational efficiencies. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2006.

This thesis examines the qualitative transformation taking place within the processes of transnationalisation of labour markets that drive a substantive increase in the segmentation and fragmentation of migrant labour. The thesis argues that by either focusing on the agential elements or strictly structural constraints, conventional perspectives on the role of intermediaries in processes of international migration lack a comprehensive transnational theorisation of labour markets. A focus on the transnationalisation of labour markets through the role of cross-border farm labour contractors aims to address these limitations by analysing the complex nature of processes of transnationalisation in the provision of migrant labour in Californian agriculture. A transnational labour market approach is developed to show how three regimes of segmentation-fragmentation operate at the Federal (nation-state) and state (regional) levels and also at a local level through the actions of farm labour contractors in the organisation of movement and workplace practices along formal and informal lines. The core argument of this thesis is that the tensions between fragmentation and segmentation within the process of transnationalisation of labour markets between Mexico and the United States conflate in everyday precarity for migrant workers. Everyday precarity involves not only the conditions under which migrant workers perform their activities in the workplace, but also extends beyond to include aspects of their everyday lives in a transnational fashion. Farm labour contractors play an important role in organising and coordinating flexibility in fragmented agricultural labour markets. Through their position at the heart of the tensions of the interplay between the three regimes, farm labour contractors gain power over the labour process, thereby contributing to further fragmentation. This power is linked to the migration and protection policies established by nation-states at the first regime of segmentation-fragmentation, and is also shaped by the regional (Californian) labour legislation at the second regime of segmentation-fragmentation. The thesis concludes that a transnational theorisation of labour markets, which places intermediaries such as farm labour contractors within the tensions of processes of transnationalisation that account for not only segmentation but also fragmentation, is required to fully understand everyday precarity beyond national boundaries. Therefore, farm labour contractors are key channels of transnationalisation by contributing to further fragmentation at the local level in already highly segmented labour markets.