Awarding Contracts: The Impact on Employment

As was mentioned above, work is now broken down into chunks, with projects frequently coming up for renewal. Contracts tend to be won by the large IT companies and large contracts can often have more than one company in play. One ICT professional, a systems designer, relates, “Many (contracts) ... are won by consortiums where big IT companies are competing with each other and (at the same time) being partners ... they are partners, they are competing ....” This view is supported by another professional, a network engineer, who said that “ The contract I am working on now provides services for XX and another company is providing a similar service . we are now . reallocating work . (the other ICT company)

is taking bits and we are giving them bits.” In this environment, those engaged on external assignment projects find they are working closely with a direct competitor, but at the same time must be conscious of the need to safeguard their own company’s industrial secrets. ICT professionals continually find themselves in a contradictory relationship with others in the industry. They must work closely and cooperatively with other professionals employed by other companies and yet they must also view those workers as a threat. The collective nature of labour identified by Marx in his theory of alienation is therefore constantly undermined by competitive nature of that labour, thus impacting the dignity of work.