Non-standard employment

In September 2012, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (destatis [1]) published a press release [2] on the findings of its 2010 survey on the structure of earnings in Germany. The representative survey takes place every four years. The 2010 survey was based on the earnings of 1.9 million employees

Over the course of spring 2012, all biennial collective agreements covering working life in Norway were renegotiated. The wage settlement round began in March 2012 with the so-called ‘trend-setting trades’, which are the industries most vulnerable to international competition.

In March 2012, the government presented a proposal for implementing EU Directive (2008/104/EC) [1] on temporary agency work into Norwegian law (Prop. 74 L (2011–2012) – in Norwegian) [2]. The proposal was expected to be adopted before the summer holidays. [1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ

In March 2011, the Employment Service of Slovenia (ZRSZ [1]), which is responsible for the unemployed and employment policy, temporarily stopped grants to the newly self-employed. It said that funds earmarked for this had dried up because there were too many applicants. However, at the end of August

In 2011, almost 13,360 foreigners registered with the body implementing employee insurance schemes (UWV), up from 9,756 in 2010. More than 60% of these workers originate from Bulgaria or Romania. Without a valid work permit, people from these countries may only work as self-employed individuals or

The EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007 coincided with a sharp growth in demand for workers in the Norwegian labour market. These workers mostly came from Eastern Europe, but this influx led to social dumping [1]; - the problem of poor pay and conditions, breaches of health and safety rules, and unfair

At the end of 2010, Poland had the highest proportion of workers in the European Union employed on fixed-term contracts. Statistics from Eurostat [1] show 27.7% of the country’s total number of employees have these contracts, while the EU27 average is 14%.Civil law contracts, which are not governed

There have been several attempts to highlight the conditions of precarious workers in Malta. Toni Zarb, Secretary General of the General Workers’ Union (GWU [1]), has raised the issue several times, as has the Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika (AD [2]), which said on 1 May 2011 that no serious