direct labour

British  

noun

1. work that is an essential part of a production process or the provision of a service Compare indirect labour

2. workers who are part of an employer's own labour force rather than hired through a contractor, such as building workers employed by a local authority

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Example Sentences

These new industries, they argue, both need direct labour to develop them and create employment indirectly through the need for service and support.

From Nature

All of this would be made much easier through public ownership and, as John McDonnell recently suggested, publicly owned direct labour organisations, than under the yardsticks and value engineers of the volume builders.

From The Guardian

Six Construct said it had terminated the contracts of some sub-contractors as a result of Amnesty’s investigation, while Eversendai said it had stopped dealing with the two labour supply companies, had no intention of working with them in future, and would engage direct labour “wherever possible”.

From The Guardian

But Mr Osborne's direct Labour adversary, Ed Balls, recently admitted to shedding a tear or two at episodes of The Antiques Roadshow and the US comedy Modern Family.

From BBC

Mostly, however, says Ian Cooke, curator for political studies at the British Library, which is currently staging an intriguing exhibition on the history of the census, early opposition tended to focus on "fears about the government using the figures to direct labour, and the consequences of Britain's enemies finding out exactly what the country's population was".

From The Guardian