Incessant Struggle to be Heard: A Study of Temporary Agency and Platform Workers’ Voice

Triangular workers are vulnerable to unfavourable employment relations practices particularly in developing economic contexts characterised by a high rate of un/under-employment and poverty. Theoretically framed on Hirschman’s exit, voice, and loyalty (EVL) theory and drawing on the triangular work literature, our study compares the voice regimes in physically and digitally mediated triangular work in a developing context. Based on a qualitative study of temporary agency and platform workers in Nigeria, we demonstrate that triangular workers are in a constant struggle to voice their grievances, more so for platform workers than for temporary agency workers. Workers’ individual considerations, organisation structural, and external societal influences drive or impede triangular workers’ voice. However, triangular workers respond to voice restriction with loyalty or exit depending on the degree of their career commitment, and availability of alternative opportunity. Our study extends the voice and EVL theory by conceptualising an initial EVL-led framework of triangular workers’ voice. It offers avenues for future research and presents practical implications for practitioners.