Summary and conclusions: MNCs, regulatory systems and employment rights

This final chapter offers a summary of the findings and arguments of previous chapters. It also attempts to locate the book within the wider empirical and theoretical debates around the concepts of globalization and the role of MNCs. There is no doubt that the fast-food industry is growing in significance not only in terms of sales but also in terms of employment. It could be argued that fast-food is also promoting a particular perspective on employment which is encouraging employment flexibility in its worst sense: insecure, low skilled, poorly paid work. In other words the opposite of a more positive form of flexibility where employees can develop skills, earn a good living and have a large degree of control over balancing the work and non-work aspects of their lives. In addition it is a form of work that provides little or no opportunity for employee voice and often takes place in a non-union environment. This situation is undoubtedly driven by the nature of the business itself, i.e. with labour costs forming a large proportion of the overall cost of the business, with the minimization of such costs becoming the paramount objective of management. In addition such chain operations are dominated by systems that in classic scientific management terms have no room for employees other than as simple and interchangeable units of production. The notion that employees should have democratic rights that would allow them to shape the system is generally a non-starter in this context without trade union and/or state intervention.