Atypical work
Atypical work refers to employment relationships not conforming to the standard or ‘typical’ model of full-time, regular, open-ended employment with a single employer over a long time span. The latter in turn is defined as a socially secure, full-time job of unlimited duration, with standard working hours guaranteeing a regular income and, via social security systems geared towards wage earners, securing pension payments and protection against ill-health and unemployment. In terms of legal regulation, the debate focuses on the distinction between ‘typical’ and ‘atypical’ employment, which is the result of the disintegration of the standard employment relationship, and the emergence of new forms of work involving part-time, casual, fixed-term, self-employed, independent or homeworkers, to name but a few. There is an important gender dimension to the debate on atypical work as men are disproportionately represented in standard employment relationships and increasing numbers of women in the labour force work under ‘atypical conditions’.
At EU level, regulation of atypical work is currently taking two directions. One is an attempt to formulate a new legal concept of worker/employee, so that the legal category of ‘employment’ and the criterion of subordination should not be used as the crude instrument for making distinctions between workers. The Commission’s Communication on the Social Agenda of 2005 proposes to adopt a Green Paper which ‘will analyse current trends in new work patterns and the role of labour law in tackling these developments’ (COM(2005) 33 final, Brussels, 9 February 2005, p. 7).
A second direction is to focus attention on the issue of working time. The starting point is that workers with different work time schedules should not be a priori excluded from consideration when labour standards are in question. However, that is not to say that all should a priori benefit from the same labour standards. It is probable that different working time schedules imply different needs, and hence different standards may be applicable.
EC law on atypical workers reflects how the grounds for discrimination have been extended. The right to equal treatment of atypical workers, regardless of characteristics such as sex, race, age and disability highlights a new dimension of the equality principle in equality law. It requires equal treatment of workers as such, regardless of working hours, duration of employment, place of work or the nature of the employment relationship
Directive 97/81/EC (15 December 1997) on part-time work embodies the non-discrimination principle so that such workers have the right to equal treatment (see also Directive 1999/70/EC on fixed-term work, the Commission’s proposal of 20 March 2002 for a Directive on temporary agency work, and the ‘voluntary’ agreement between the EU social partners on telework, 23 May 2002, signed on 16 July 2002).
See also: casual worker; contract of employment; economically dependent worker; employee; fixed-term work; fragmentation of the labour force; part-time work; proof of employment; seasonal work; self-employed person; telework; temporary agency work; undeclared work.