Readymade Meals, but at What Price? Production Organisation and Employment Conditions in a Peri-urban Agrifood Plant

Based on a study of a food processing plant, this article looks at the repercussions of just-in-time production on employees’ working and employment conditions, and on relations among workers. It does this by analysing the segmentation of the work group resulting from workforce flexibility. The study of the use of labour as an adjustment variable shows that this approach requires a pool of available workers to be created and refreshed. This process mobilises local employment intermediaries as well as the employees themselves to produce this temporal availability. The employment and working conditions underlying these just-in-time labour arrangements tend to increase gender, class and racial inequalities in employment.