Abstract
Citation: The outsourcing of newspaper distribution seems to be one of the sources of
precarious employment for newspaper distribution contractors and their employees.
Research Purpose: In an attempt to contribute to the debate on outsourcing, this paper
explored the effects of outsourcing newspaper distribution on the labour market experiences
of newspaper distribution contractors and their employees in Durban.
Motivation for the study: The labour market experiences of workers in precarious employment,
especially those in the lower echelon of newspaper distribution, are rarely known.
Research Design, approach and method: The study is a qualitative research which sought to
explore the experiences of newspaper distributors in Durban. In identifying the respondents
non-probability sampling was used to identify information-rich respondents for interview
sections. Also, the research used participant observation to deepen data from interviews.
Main Findings: The research finds that the respondents were exposed to precarious
employment conditions irrespective of whether they were contracted or not, seemingly
because of outsourcing of newspaper distribution in Durban...