Europe’s Precariat
Labour contracts without health and social insurance. Involuntary part-time. Fixed-term and agency jobs.
December 2017
Labour contracts without health and social insurance. Involuntary part-time. Fixed-term and agency jobs. Across the continent, millions of Europeans must deal with insecure and low-paid employment, though the economy, overall, is doing better than at any point in the last decade.
In the eurozone alone, more than five and a half million people found new jobs since the end of 2012. But four out of five are part-time or fixed-term and largely low-paid, according to Eurostat.
The majority of those affected want something else, namely permanent, full-time positions, the European Commission notes in its latest report on the EU labour market.
Europe’s job boom is mostly of “low quality”, concludes Merrill Lynch, the wealth management division of Bank of America. This is bad news for most.
“All these uncertain forms of work are extremely expensive for both the affected and the society,” warns Olivier Blanchard, until 2015 the long-serving chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.
But why has the “precarisation of labour”, as sociologists call it, reached this scale? And what must be done to stop it?
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Publications
Governments in Eastern and Western Europe fight about child benefits in a cold war
Ugebrevet, Denmark
29 December 2017
Arbeitsmarkt: Europas neue Reservearmee
Der Tagesspiegel, Germany
29 December 2017
Prekariusze z domina. Dlaczego polski rynek pracy to tykająca bomba?
Newsweek Poland, Poland
29 December 2017
Bakom den europeiska jobbexplosionen
Dagens Arbete, Sweden
29 December 2017
Norvegia, le politiche da copiare sul lavoro
Il Fatto Quotidiano, Italy
29 December 2017
The big lie of the labour reforms – part II: The myth of the German miracle
EfSyn, Greece
29 December 2017
Labour reforms, the big lie of the eurocrisis
EfSyn, Greece
29 December 2017
Hold-up social : comment le droit du travail a été démantelé en Europe, sans aucun bénéfice sur l’emploi et les gens
Basta!, France, Basta!
13 December 2017
Comment le cimentier Lafarge a demandé et obtenu le démantèlement du droit du travail en Grèce
Basta!, France, Basta!
22 November 2017
Zerschlagenes Recht
der Freitag, Germany
22 November 2017
Dorf ohne Mütter
taz, Germany
17 November 2017
How Romania became an EU workers’ rights “guinea pig”
EUobserver, Belgium
23 October 2017
How Romania sold out its workers to foreign investors for IMF and EU cash
The Black Sea, Romania
23 October 2017
«Η Γερμανία συχνά κινείται εκτός ευρωπαϊκής συναίνεσης»
EfSyn, Greece
17 October 2017
El aumento de la precariedad laboral cambia el discurso de la Unión Europea
infoLibre, Spain
15 October 2017
Como o aumento da precariedade está a mudar o discurso da UE
Público, Portugal
8 October 2017
Where have all the mothers gone?
The Black Sea, Romania
4 October 2017
Mit prekarizacije: namesto gospodarskega razcveta slabša delovna mesta
Pod Crto, Slovenia
2 October 2017
Four out of five jobs in the EU are precarious jobs
Ugebrevet, Denmark
2 October 2017
Sjefen hans er en app
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
29 September 2017
Interview with Tomasz Misiak, co-owner of one of Poland’s biggest temporary work agencies
Newsweek Romania, Romania
28 September 2017
Dieci anni di riforme: l’Europa del lavoro precario è in ginocchio
Il Fatto Quotidiano, Italy
28 September 2017
De stille tårenes land
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
27 September 2017
Det er håp for unge grekere. Bare ikke i Hellas
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
26 September 2017
«Mange vil heller jobbe 70 timer i uka enn 37,5»
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
25 September 2017
«Να επαναφέρουμε τις ανισότητες σε βάρος των εργαζομένων»
EfSyn, Greece
24 September 2017
Kald krig om Agnieszkas barnetrygd
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
23 September 2017
Selv om Tommy er fast ansatt, har han ikke rett til lønn mellom oppdragene: - Vi kan tvinges til lydighet
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
22 September 2017
Å være eller ikke være i EØS - det er spørsmålet i arbeidslivet
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
20 September 2017
Pier Carlo Padoan: Italiens Finanzminister fordert eine europäische Arbeitslosenversicherung
Der Tagesspiegel, Germany
13 September 2017
Die Flexibilisierungslüge
Falter, Austria
11 September 2017
Wer geliefert ist: Arbeiter bei Foodora und Amazon kämpfen für bessere Arbeit
Der Tagesspiegel, Germany
8 September 2017