Multi-Ethnic Workforces in the Food
Manufacturing Sector
Benjamin Hopkins
Darlithydd mewn Rheoli Adnoddau Dynol/Lecturer in Human Resource Management
Ysgol Rheolaeth a Busnes/School of Management and Business
Prifysgol Aberystwyth/Aberystwyth University
beh@aber.ac.uk
Overview
•Context
•Methodology
•Why migrants are taking these jobs
•Informal Hierarchies
•Managers
•UK workers
•Migrant Workers
•Discussion
Context
Skills
•Large proportion of food processing roles are very low skilled
•Short induction, little further skills training required
•Difficulties in career progression
•Flattening of formal hierarchies
Contractual Status
•Temporary work used in food processing eg Norkies in Burton
•Increased power of consolidated supermarkets
•Food processors using agency workers
Informal Hierarchies
•Low skilled jobs require very little training
•No hierarchy under line leader position
•Smith (1994) – in the absence of formal hierarchies,
informal hierarchies will form
•Can be based on factors such as contractual status
•BUT a further consequence of short training
requirement is that it attracts migrant workers who can
be shown jobs
•How do informal hierarchies form in this diverse
workforce?
Methodology
•5 Case Study Companies
•ChocCo
•BeerCo
•ReadyCo
•SpiceCo
•TurkeyCo
•88 interviews
•Observational data
Why are migrants taking these jobs?
•Context of A8 expansion
•Get a job through an agency
•Avoiding interview in English
•Can get work quickly
•Have downgraded on arrival in the UK
•But can still get higher wages than in home country
•Stepping stone into UK labour market
•Aiming to improve English language skills
•Also to get qualifications recognised by UK employers
•Can then move into jobs that better suit their skill set
Only problem is with English. I have master of economy my degree,
and I work still go up, up, up, up, but I am lazy because I’m too tired
to go to college and learn English. My wife is learning in college.
Me, I would like but I am too lazy, but I know I must because for me
is better.
Polish Line Leader, ReadyCo
Informal Hierarchies
•Official Differing Treatment for Agency Workers
•Length of contract
•Wages
•Benefits – even apples…
•PPE
•Coincidence of ethnicity and agency status
Informal Hierarchies
•Unofficial Differing Treatment
•Allow permanent workers to manage temporary staff
•Different tasks eg racking at ReadyCo
•Groups formed at breaktime eg canteen tables
•Differing managerial views to agency and migrant workers
•Investigate views of
•UK managers
•UK workers
•Migrant/immigrant workers
Managers
Managers
Have differing views of:
UK workers
EU migrants (mainly agency)
Middle Eastern/Asian immigrants (mainly agency)
Managers
UK workers seen as:
Less affected by language barrier
Able to take on more tasks eg deliveries as they can
speak English
Able to train newcomers, so informally taking on some
roles of managers
Standards improved by incoming EU migrants,
particularly by those from the A8 countries
Four and five years ago people from the agency were drug addicts
who didn't want to work, but now you get someone from the
agency and they will be really good. All the Poles have made quite
a lot of difference, they are really highly motivated, because they
have come here to earn money. I think they have moved the
benchmark up of what agencies can offer, because all the
indigenous English people have had to step up a bit as well. So in
the past the people you got coming in were just pathetic, but now
whoever you get in from an agency are generally quite good.
British Manager, SpiceCo
Managers
EU migrants seen as:
Hard working
Prepared to work longer hours
Despite initial reservations
Criticisms:
From A8 managers
Language barrier
I was a supervisor at the time when we first started getting
Portuguese people in, and I got twenty-seven in, and I was
dreading it with the language barrier. They told me I was getting
these Portuguese people in and I came through the door and I was
a bit apprehensive, but after a couple of days I thought “How
superb”. You had to tell them to go to break. It was not “I have not
been for my tea break” or “When can I swap?” They didn’t
complain about anything and I had to tell them to go to break, and
I had to tell them to go home, and I found that such a culture
shock.
British Operations Manager, TurkeyCo
Having an all Polish team everyone said “How are you going to
do?” but they are brilliant…It has just been good, they are a really
good team.
British Manager, ReadyCo
I am not racist or anything, I am half-caste myself, my mum is
white and my dad is Pakistani, but these Polish people that work
here, a lot of them speak very good English, but a lot of them have
just come over and they are learning. They have got jobs here but
when you explain to them something after 10 hours you get pissed
off because they don't understand.
British Manager, ReadyCo
It is the same with Scotland, turnips and swedes and parsnips are
all the same thing there, they call them neeps or something. Here
we have a turnip, a swede and a parsnip. Once they understand
that they are three different components that do different things
we are fine.
British Manager, ReadyCo
Now we have a lot of Polish people here, and three years ago they
came here very energetic, the Polish people want to work because
they know they get a chance and they have to do everything the
best that they can. Now they come very lazy people because they
are coming because of their family or they are coming because of
somebody else and they know that if they lose this job they can
find another job, and they don't care about the job now.
Polish Manager, ReadyCo
Managers
Middle Eastern/Asian immigrants seen as:
More distant
Severe language issues, can only take on tasks that
can be visibly shown
Cultural differences
I’m not racist in any way or anything, but you know when its busy
and I walk down from the car park, I walk in and not one person’s
speaking English, I feel uncomfortable when I come into work. And
so that’s how it makes you feel. And I’ve spoken to a couple of our
guys who’ve been here a long time, and they say when they go into
the changing area, again, you know, only jokingly, and they don’t
mean nothing by it but they’ll say “God, its like we’re on holiday. Its
like we’re in Mecca. There’s people praying and all sorts on the
floor”. They’re not doing it in a nasty way, its just I feel
uncomfortable. I don’t feel as I’m in England.
British Manager, ChocCo
UK Workers
UK Workers
• Resentment of taking low skill or temporary
jobs
• See migrant/immigrant workers as competitors
• As with managers, have differing views of
different groups of migrant workers
• Language difficulties with A8 migrants
We should be more entitled to the jobs before the Polish and this
lot…The British people feel let down because of people coming in
and taking their jobs who can't talk English. People have generally
thought ‘I can't get a job and they [migrant workers] come and go
to an agency and go straight into a job’. I think if you put a
questionnaire out to the Brits here about what you think the worst
issue is they will say all these immigrants taking our jobs… I used to
read in the papers they are all coming in taking our jobs, but until I
came here I didn't know. Where I used to work there was no
immigrants at all. I mean Poles, not coloured people. If you didn't
talk English you wouldn't get through the door.
British Worker, ChocCo
If they are coming over I think they should know the English, it is
only fair…I am not taking sides but if you can't understand
someone, it is hard work isn't it?...You can get through on the
basics, but sometimes when they look at you, you say “Can you do
that?” and they go “Huh”? But that is the way it is going now, and
Mr Blair let them all in didn't he?
British Worker, SpiceCo
UK Workers
• As with managers, feel further distanced from
Middle Eastern/Asian migrants
• More severe language difficulties seen as
impairing ability to do the job
• Coupled with cultural differences, so do not
form friendship groups
What is happening with our line, everybody seems to be like, how
can I say, there are different races coming on all the time. There is
not a constant. I think if you want to keep a line busy and working
more efficient you want the same people.
British Worker, ChocCo
When I first started here I thought I was at [local airport], there
were so many different people here. I didn't know the country was
in such a bad state…If I had an Indian who talks Indian and he tells
me I come from [local city] and I'm British, I joke and I say you all
look the same to me.
British Worker, ChocCo
Migrant Workers
Migrant Workers
• Use agencies to avoid job interviews, but
receive poorer treatment than permanent
(mainly British) workers
• Formal eg wages, job security
• Informal eg differing tasks
• But hierarchies are also formed within these
groups, although managers may see them as
homogenous
There have been a few fights in my area… The biggest difference
that I have seen is between Polish and Pakistanis and Indians.
There is a big, big difference because the Polish are just not used to
it. In Poland, from what I know from speaking to them, you don't
get many Asians or Pakistanis in Poland. When they come over
suddenly there are loads, and they have never really encountered
it… The Polish see the Pakistanis and the Indians as quite lazy.
Some of them are, but I have had to tell them a lot of the time that
you can't generalise. You can't do it, you can't be racist, and a lot
of them are. A lot of them are actually racist, and you talk to them
about it and they will say “That Pakistani whatever” and they will
refer to them like that.
British Manager, ReadyCo
In this factory there are Polish people and they sit together, and I
sit alone because I am different.
Lithuanian Agency Worker, SpiceCo
The only racial issues we have are between groups of the same
nationality who see differences within their own nationality that
we don’t see. A Portuguese person from mainland Portugal and a
Portuguese person from East Timor or Madeira will see differences
in their own identity, and that can cause conflict. They have a
hierarchy that we don’t see.
British HR Manager, TurkeyCo
Sometimes some people, and not with Portuguese and Angola,
maybe some with Cape Vertian and Angolan, but that is not me
because I don’t like going fighting and conflicting, I like to win
money, that is my purity. But some people they don’t grow up you
know, in their minds, so they keep fighting every time they go to
discos. They drink their mind so they fight...Two weekends ago,
three girls beat one and then the police went there. The three girls
work here and they beat one that works here, they are all
Portuguese. Three Cape Vertian girls against one Portuguese girl,
so they beat the girl.
Portuguese Temporary Worker, TurkeyCo
Informal Hierarchies
•Firms create differences between staff
•But informal hierarchies are also formed
•Coincidence of contractual status and ethnicity
•Informal hierarchies within groups
•Questions
•Comments
beh@aber.ac.uk