Abstract:
Employment intermediaries, and contract companies, are commonly believed to
undermine the power of labor unions, by fracturing the collectivism that characterizes
unions. However, the article examines the effects of intermediary employment on trade
unions operations, strength and growth in Kenya. These may also serve as a barrier in the
workplace – protecting the regular workers from fluctuations in labor demand. The analyses
are based on staff unions of public universities in Kenya using descriptive statistics. The
major findings reported were: Negative relationship between unionization and the use of
employment intermediaries for staffing reasons, highly unionized establishments tend to
have the lowest use of intermediaries and contractors for reasons that may replace regular
workers, suggesting that unions are able to influence how employers use employment
intermediaries, The enforcement of the implementation of the labour laws will be
weakened with the use of intermediaries and contractors unlike in case of strong
unionization, weak employer employee relationship and control in the case of
intermediaries and contractors, low growth of institutions and planning in terms of human
resource and research. The findings are discussed in relation to the regulated labor market
in Kenya.
