Documents precarious employment 1 841 results

"Terms such as 'Social Europe' and 'European Social Model' have long resided in the political and regulatory lexicon of European integration. But in recent years, and in spite of the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU social profile has entered a profound period of crisis. The ECJ judgments of Viking and Laval exemplify the unresolved tension between the EU's strong market imperatives and its fragile social aspirations while the ongoing economic crisis, while the various 'bail out' packages are producing a constant retrenchment of social rights. The status quo is one in which workers appear to shoulder most of the risks attendant on making and executing arrangements for the doing of work. Chapters in this book advocate a reversal of this trend in favour of fair mutualization, so as to disperse these risks and share them more equitably between employers, the state, and society at large."

"The initial aim of traineeships (or internships) is to ease the transition of young people from school to work by providing them with hands-on work experience. Although traineeships are intended to be educational experiences, employers have started to use trainees as a form of cheap or unpaid labour. Instead of including trainees within the scope of labour laws, they are regarded as non-employees, and traineeships are regulated by traineeship agreements. However, it is not clear whether the rights of trainees working in the framework of a traineeship agreement are sufficiently protected to exclude them from the scope of labour law and prevent their precariousness in the labour market. The aim of this article is to address this question. Taking European Union (EU) law (especially the Quality Framework for Traineeships) as a starting point and then considering the laws of Estonia, Finland, and France, it is argued that at EU level, as well as in Estonia and Finland, trainees working in the framework of a traineeship agreement are not sufficiently protected to prevent their precariousness in the labour market. Trainees working in the framework of a traineeship agreement are exposed to precariousness due to the special features of the agreement as well as their limited labour rights. However, the example of France shows that with more protective regulation of traineeships, the precariousness of trainees can be prevented even without including them within the scope of labour law. It is proposed that at EU level and/or in the other Member States (MS) under examination, more protective regulation of traineeships should be adopted in order to prevent the precariousness of trainees or, alternatively, their inclusion in the scope of labour law should be considered. "

"The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of false (bogus) self-employment and other precarious forms of employment in the ‘grey area' between genuine self-employment and subordinate employment in Sweden. Why has this area developed in a longer and shorter perspective? How does the use of disguised and ambiguous forms of employment affect workers, industrial relations and regular labour standards? Examples are given from the construction, road haulage and cleaning industries. The article indicates that work in the grey area has become more and more common in recent years, not only in the context of east-west labour migration, but also among Swedish workers. The author also discusses this development."

"So-called bogus – or false – self-employment has been increasingly highlighted as a problem within the European Union (EU), especially since the first eastern expansion in 2004. Although the concept is not fully clear in legal terms, a common denominator of most definitions is that bogus self-employment can be seen as ‘disguised employment', occurring when someone who has an employee status in practice is not classified as an employee, in order to hide the actual legal status and to avoid costs such as taxes and social security contributions. In the light of different welfare systems, industrial relations and EU legislation, this article discusses this issue, drawing empirically on findings from a project about precarious employment in twelve EU countries. Although there are some fairly strict definitions of the ‘employee concept' within the EU, the difficulties of identifying the employer leave the bogus self-employed in a legal limbo. No European Social Model has curtailed this problem, despite an expressed desire to address all aspects of precarious work. However, the inclusion of all ‘self-employed' workers within social insurance systems and workers with an employee status in practice seems possible also under existing EU regulations. It is rather a matter of goodwill and the resources to scrutinize the terms and conditions of employment."