Trend of transient workers

The trend towards engaging in temporary or part-time work is part of the new employment trend that has given rise to the transient worker. A transient worker is described as someone who moves frequently between jobs and locations, often without a fixed home and without a specific business or location.

The transient worker is also known as a peripatetic worker, and is characterised by their mobility and lack of long-term employment at one specific place or job.

This development can be blamed on the movement away from permanent or full-time employment, and to some extent, to the emergence of contract employment. For the most part, a transient worker is known to be unskilled. This category of worker is usually offered short-term work and is paid poor wages. Where there is an established minimum wage, most employers tend to ignore this, and hence transient workers are victims of exploitation. These workers are exposed to hazards and risk in the often-dangerous jobs which they are required to do.

There are several reasons why transient workers are not treated fairly and are offered work that is often substandard, which requires them to work in deplorable conditions without the necessary safety protective equipment. Some employers tend to exploit the fact that this category of worker is often desperate for employment and, moreover, for temporary or short-term employment.

Transient workers are generally found in metropolitan countries. Individuals who are so classified fall in the category of migrant workers who, because they are undocumented, are forced to seek underground employment. Many of those who have entered and resided in the United States of America are, in the year 2025, the target and victims of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.

It may not be fair to state that all transient workers are unskilled workers, as many of today’s immigrant workers include skilled and professional persons who are in search of better employment opportunities and a better life. It is therefore not uncommon for such persons to work for low rates because they cannot get full-time employment; due to their undocumented status.

Citizens of third world countries, including small island developing states, the African continent, Asia, Central, South and Latin America, are amongst those who journey into the US, Canada and Europe, in search of a better life. The new wave of immigration policies that have been put in place, by the European nations, Britain, US and Canada, are meant in the first instance to control the movement of people; and more importantly, to protect the available jobs for the citizens of these countries.

With the establishment of the free movement of labour in the English-speaking Caribbean under the Treaty of Chaguaramas, it would seem that this measure with its controls regarding the movement of categories of skilled and professional labour was designed to reduce the incidence of transient labour across the region.

Trade unionists would be concerned that, apart from their being paid low and unlivable wages, the presence of transient workers can lead to a reduction in the level of wage to be paid for completing a particular job or task. There is the greater concern of poor and sometimes overcrowded living conditions in which these transient workers live, the inhumane treatment they experience, discrimination they face, and the denial of both workers’ and human rights.

Dennis De Peiza is a labour and employee relations consultant with Regional Management Services Inc.