Non-standard employment

The Social and Economic Council (SER [1]) issued its first recommendations on the position of the self-employed person [2] in September 2010. SER identified a 33% increase in the number of self-employed workers over the past decade: at over 675,000 people this amounted to around 9% of the national

In June 2010, the European Commission (Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities) issued a report, in the form of an occasional paper (742Kb PDF) [1], on short-time working arrangements as a response to

The Hungarian Labour Code was introduced on 1 June 1992. Since then it has had about 50 amendments. However, there have been no fundamental, structural changes to mirror the economic, political and social reforms of the last decades.

The number of self-employed workers, mostly female outworkers with no contract, is growing in Bulgaria. The latest study by the Society for Development and Homebased Production and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (CITUB [1]) surveyed 500 homeworkers in 10 cities. Of these

In March 2010, self-employed workers without staff (/zelfstandigen zonder personeel/, ZZP) – known as ZZP’ers – secured a seat on the Social and Economic Council (Sociaal-Economische Raad, SER [1]). The government’s permanent advisory body, which includes employee and employer representatives as

In the Czech Republic, as part of the generally binding labour law amendment, effective from 1 October 2004, the use of temporary agency employment replaced the so-called temporary assignment of employees to work for another employer. Under the current labour legislation, the employer – that is, the

In a Joint Declaration (43Kb PDF) [1] on 28 May 2008, in response to the proposed directive on working conditions for temporary agency workers, the European sectoral social partners for temporary agency work [2] made reference to their joint work programme 2008–2009. This programme committed them to

The Union of Metalworkers (IF Metall [1]) estimates that the agreement on temporary layoffs has saved 1,200 jobs, based on a survey conducted among the 60,000 members who work in companies which have signed the agreement. According to the agreement – which is a new feature in Swedish industrial