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Non-standard employment

Non-standard employment is an umbrella term for different employment arrangements that deviate from standard employment. They include temporary employment; part-time and on-call work; temporary agency work and other multiparty employment relationships; as well as disguised employment and dependent self-employment. The most relevant of possible future developments of non-standard work, whatever their contractual form, are related to digitalisation.

Topic

Recent updates

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Job insecurity undermines democracy

Workers on non-permanent contracts and workers with no formal contract are less satisfied with the functioning of democracy in their country, as are workers experiencing job insecurity. They are less...

1 september 2023
Corporate news

Eurofound expert(s)

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Carlos Vacas‑Soriano

Carlos Vacas Soriano is a research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He works on topics related to wage and income inequalities, minimum wages, low pay, job quality...

Research manager,
Employment research unit
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Dragoș Adăscăliței

Dragoș Adăscăliței is a research officer in the Employment unit at Eurofound. His current research focuses on topics related to the future of work, including the impact of...

Research officer,
Employment research unit
Publications results (55)

Werken als zelfstandige in de EU: arbeidskwaliteit en ontwikkelingen in de sociale bescherming

Ensuring greater social protection for self-employed people has been the subject of much policy debate in recent years. In 2019, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed. Sudden reductions in income during the COVID-1

30 January 2024
Publication
Research report
Non-standard employment
Arbeidsomstandigheden en duurzaam werk
Employment status
Baankwaliteit
Social protection
Working conditions
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Maatschappelijke gevolgen van instabiliteit op de arbeidsmarkt

This report investigates the social groups whose attachment to the labour market may be unstable and who are most likely to have non-standard working arrangements, and the implications of such arrangements, and job insecurity, for workers’ well-being, social exclusion, trust, perception of fairness

29 August 2023
Publication
Research report
Social policies
Social inclusion
Non-standard employment
Sociale samenhang en convergentie bevorderen
Subjective well-being
Trust
Employment status
Goed functionerende en inclusieve arbeidsmarkten
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COVID-19: gevolgen voor de werkgelegenheid en het arbeidsleven

Disclaimer: Please note that this report was updated with revised data (specifically for Bulgaria) on 23 March 2021.Met dit verslag wordt beoogd de initiële impact van de COVID-19-crisis op de werkgelegenheid in Europa (tot en met het tweede kwartaal van 2020) te beoordelen, met inbegrip van de

11 March 2021
Publication
Research report
Sociale dialoog
Social policies
Social partners
Non-standard employment
Salaris en inkomen
Social protection
Arbeidstijd
Unemployment
Employment status
Werkgelegenheid en arbeidsmarkten
COVID-19
Labour market policies
Living conditions
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New forms of employment: 2020 update

Although standard employment (generally full-time and permanent) remains the dominant employment type across the EU, European labour markets are increasingly characterised by a variety of different forms. These new forms of employment involve new formal employment relationships or work patterns

15 December 2020
Publication
Research report
Employment and labour markets
New forms of employment
Non-standard employment
Platform work
Working conditions
Working conditions and sustainable work
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Working conditions in sectors

Megatrends, such as digitalisation, globalisation, demographic change and climate change, are transforming the world of work, with knock-on effects for working conditions and job quality. Against this background, this report examines working conditions and job quality from a sectoral perspective

05 November 2020
Publication
Research report
Employee representation
Employment structure
Health and well-being at work
Job quality
Non-standard employment
Skills and training
Small and medium-sized enterprises
Work organisation
Working conditions
Working conditions and sustainable work
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Labour market change: Trends and policy approaches towards flexibilisation

What have been the major trends and policy developments regarding the flexibilisation of employment in recent years? Eurofound’s work programme for 2017–2020 set out to document and capture these changes in the world of work. This flagship publication provides an overview of developments in Europe

16 April 2020
Publication
Flagship report
Platform work
Non-standard employment
Working time
Structural change
New forms of employment
Employment structure
Inclusive labour markets
Employment status
Employment relationship
Anticipating and managing the impact of change
Labour market policies
Employment and labour markets
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Casual work: Characteristics and implications

Casual work, both intermittent and on-call, contributes to labour market flexibility and is therefore increasingly used across Europe. In some countries, practices go beyond the use of casual employment contracts to include other types of contracts and forms of self-employment.

20 December 2019
Publication
Research report
Non-standard employment
New forms of employment
Social protection
Working time
Working conditions and sustainable work
Working conditions
Undeclared work
Employment relationship
Labour and social regulation

Labour market segmentation: Piloting new empirical and policy analyses

This report sets out to describe what labour market segmentation is and why it is problematic for the labour market and society, as well as disadvantaged groups. It takes a broad view of the term to examine the situation that arises when the divergence in working conditions between different groups

02 December 2019
Publication
Research report
Non-standard employment
Employment structure
Inclusive labour markets
Employment relationship
Minimum wage
Labour market policies
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Annual review of working life 2017

Annual review of working life 2017 is part of a series of annual reviews published by Eurofound and provides an overview of the latest developments in industrial relations and working conditions across the EU and Norway. The annual review collates information based on reports from Eurofound’s

22 October 2018
Publication
Research report
Social dialogue
Social partners
Non-standard employment
Working time
Working conditions and sustainable work
Working conditions
Employment status
Employment relationship
Health and well-being at work
Agreements
Collective bargaining
Industrial action
Industrial relations and social dialogue
Industrial relations

Employment and working conditions of selected types of platform work

Platform work is a form of employment that uses an online platform to match the supply of and demand for paid labour. In Europe, platform work is still small in scale but is rapidly developing. The types of work offered through platforms are ever-increasing, as are the challenges for existing

24 September 2018
Publication
Research report
Platform work
Non-standard employment
Working conditions
New forms of employment
Employment relationship
Digitalisation
Anticipating and managing the impact of change
Working conditions and sustainable work
Online resources results (249)

New law regulates temporary agency work

In October 2001, the Greek parliament passed a new law on employment services, which includes provisions regulating temporary agency work and the operation of temporary employment agencies. The new legislation for the first time lays down specific rules on the establishment, operation and

28 november 2001
Article
Labour law
Non-standard employment
Social partners
Labour and social regulation

Job losses and new rules on employment conditions in temporary work agencies

During October 2001, the Dutch temporary agency work market (Europe's largest) started to suffer as the economy entered difficulties, with agencies experiencing falls in profits and announcing job cuts. Meanwhile, the social partners within the Labour Foundation agreed a set of recommendations to

26 november 2001
Article
Non-standard employment
Social partners
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Unemployment begins to increase

Unemployment in France has begun to rise again since April 2001 ending, at least temporarily, a period of robust employment performance. The government has responded by launching various new employment-support initiatives. The extent of this reversal of the trend of the previous four years will

1 november 2001
Article
Unemployment
Non-standard employment
Working time
Employment and labour markets

Joint declaration agreed on temporary agency work

A joint declaration on temporary agency work [1] was signed on 8 October 2001 by Euro-CIETT- the European committee of the International Confederation of Temporary Work Businesses- and Uni-Europa- the European regional organisation of Union Network International (UNI), the international organisation

31 oktober 2001
Article
Non-standard employment
Labour and social regulation
Social dialogue
Labour law
Social partners
Employment and labour markets
Industrial relations and social dialogue

New regulations increase part-time work among older employees

Since 2000, new statutory provisions on part-time work for older employees (Altersteilzeit) have been in operation in Austria (TN0109184S [1]). These provisions were enacted in connection with a pension reform (AT0008228F [2]) which increased the age at which an early retirement pensions can be

29 oktober 2001
Article
Labour law
Ageing workforce
Non-standard employment
Working time
Employment and labour markets
Labour and social regulation

Precarious employment and gender inequality

'Precarious' employment is a major issue in Spain, which has the highest levels of temporary employment in Europe, at around a third of all employment in 2001. While both men and women are affected by temporary employment, it is women who experience it most. This feature reviews recent research into

25 oktober 2001
Article
Employment and labour markets
Non-standard employment
Gender equality

Fixed-term employment increases significantly

On 3 September 2001, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO) released a report on 'employment forms and working time' in Sweden since 1990 (Anställningsformer och arbetstider 2001 [1]). The report is based on the Swedish Labour Force Surveys (Arbetskraftsundersökningarna, AKU

10 oktober 2001
Article
Non-standard employment
Employment and labour markets

Redundancy legislation to be toughened

In June 2001, France's national assembly gave a second reading to the government's "social modernisation" bill, whose wide-ranging provisions include measures on redundancies. In a context of increasing disquiet about a wave of large-scale job losses, the latest version of the bill contains much

27 juli 2001
Article
Labour and social regulation
Non-standard employment
Skills and training
Employment and labour markets

Childminders to become employees

In early June 2001, some 3,000 Belgian childminders (the great majority of them women, but a few men too) held a protest march in Brussels to press for a proper social security status. More than a year before, the federal government had promised this group - who currently have no social security

27 juli 2001
Article
Social protection
Minimum wage
Non-standard employment
Working conditions
Social policies
Working conditions and sustainable work

Construction sector talks deadlocked over temporary agency work

In June 2001, negotiations in the Belgian construction sector over a new two-year collective agreement for 160,000 blue-collar workers, in line with the 2001-2 national intersectoral agreement, are deadlocked. The stumbling block is the question of lifting the current ban on temporary agency work in

27 juni 2001
Article
Non-standard employment
Blogs results (7)
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New forms of employment in Europe – How new is new?

Standard employment is not simply being replaced by non-standard work; employment is becoming more diverse, and policy must accordingly become more tailored. The last decade has seen much public and policy debate on the future of work. Standard employment – permanent, full-time and subject to labour

15 december 2020
Irene Mandl
Blog
Platform work
Non-standard employment
Working conditions
New forms of employment
Employment relationship
Teleworking
Employment and labour markets
Working conditions and sustainable work
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Economic downturns expose the vulnerability of a growing number of precarious workers

Up to the start of 2020, recent EU economic and labour market trends were often discussed in terms of the periods before and after the Great Recession. It now appears likely that, in the short- to medium-term, the repercussions of that economic crisis will be dwarfed by the unfolding impact of the

21 april 2020
Tina Weber
Blog
COVID-19
Non-standard employment
Employment status
Labour and social regulation
Employment and labour markets
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ICT-enabled flexible working – All plain sailing?

Imagine you’re at work and something happens: you have to leave to visit a client, you have to go home to let in the plumber, or you have to collect the kids from school as the football training has just been cancelled. If you’re lucky, your employer gives you the flexibility to do this. If you’re

14 mei 2019
Oscar Vargas Llave
Blog
Non-standard employment
Working conditions
New forms of employment
Inclusive labour markets
Digitalisation
Employment and labour markets
Anticipating and managing the impact of change
Working conditions and sustainable work
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Stamping out fraud in hiring practices across Europe

Research Manager Isabella Biletta looks at fraudulent practices in the contracting of work. Such practices involve the abuse of legitimate employment relationships with the aim of sidestepping labour and social regulations and with the effect of undermining workers’ rights and fair competition in

1 juni 2018
Isabella Biletta
Blog
Non-standard employment
Posted workers
Working conditions and sustainable work
Employment relationship
Fraudulent work
The many faces of self-employment In Europe

The many faces of self-employment in Europe

While the Europe 2020 strategy actively promotes entrepreneurial self-employment as a means to create good jobs, policy makers at national and EU level are actively looking at better social protection for self-employed workers. Understanding this paradox requires looking beyond the ‘self-employed’

26 oktober 2017
Mathijn Wilkens
Blog
Inequality
Job creation
Non-standard employment
Working conditions and sustainable work
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Employment shifts in Europe during the recovery: three little noticed trends

The EU has finally recovered all the net employment losses sustained since the global financial crisis. It has been a long and painful process. But there is at last growing evidence of positive momentum in EU labour markets, if not quite ‘animal spirits’. Many of those member states most affected by

26 juli 2017
John Hurley
Blog
Employment structure
Gender equality
Job creation
Employment and labour markets
Non-standard employment
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The rise of temporary contracts in Europe

More than one in 10 employees in the EU are employed on temporary contracts, but a majority of them would prefer a permanent contract. Temporary contracts help employers to manage their labour demand, but there are downsides for employees, such as job insecurity and lower pay.

19 februari 2016
Eurofound
Blog
Employment and labour markets
Non-standard employment
Pay and income
Working conditions and sustainable work
Working poor

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