Millions of “vulnerable” people

Six million temporary workers in Spain; five million “vulnerable” workers, i.e. at risk of being laid off, in the UK; almost three million “fake” self-employed workers in Italy; six million people employed in Germany in so-called minijobs with a maximum salary of 400 euros per month; 80% of contracts in France for short-term work: just some of the figures expected to be contained in the Report drawn up by the CES (European Trades-Union Confederation), an umbrella organization representing 78 European confederations in 34 countries and 11 European sectorial federations with a total membership of over 60 million workers. The Report was compiled on the basis of a questionnaire on the situation of temporary or short-term work, submitted in 2006 (hence before the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU) to the members of its own committee for collective bargaining. A further source consulted by the Report was a study on short-term work drawn up by Ires-France. EXCESSIVE FLEXIBILITY. In the EU-25 (according to leaks from the Report published in recent days), 30 million workers (14.5% of the total workforce) were working with a temporary work contract in 2005: a significant increase over the 25 million (12.%) in 2000. There are currently an estimated 37 million temporary workers (compared with 32 million in 2005), a fifth of whom declare they are in this situation “not of their own choice”. “Alarming figures” – comment the researchers – that reveal “a Europe of precariousness”, since its employment rate of 31.4% is very far from reaching the Lisbon objectives (50%). Excessive flexibility – say the analysts – “prompts employers to consider their workforce an asset they can easily get rid of in situations of difficulty for the business”. Also insidious is “the trap of so-called bad jobs” . THE SITUATION IN EUROPE. In Slovakia the “labour code permits recourse to short-term contracts for a period of three years, but it also provides that, if sufficient justifications exist, this practice can also be extended for an indefinite period”, explains the Report; “in practice that means that the employer is given a blank cheque”. In Sweden short-term work is often combined with part-time or contract work. The main problem in Belgium is identified in so-called “fake” self-employed workers from Central and Eastern Europe, to whom employers have recourse to get round collective bargaining. As for Poland , temporary workers comprise 26% of the total, and a rapid growth of temporary work has been registered since 1999. Germany has a large number of “low paid workers”: 2.5 million of them “live on poverty wages” (below 50% of the average wage), despite the fact that 64% of them have a university degree or professional training”, says the Report, according to which Germany “has the lowest rate of vertical mobility (possibility to move to a better-paid job) in Europe”. Some 6 million people are employed in so-called minijobs : (maximum monthly income of 400 euros and no limits on working hours). Many contracts, in particular for youth, in Austria contain clauses that “turn wages into a kind of all-inclusive package, thus excluding the possibility of overtime”. Many of the 250,000 atypical workers (three-quarters of them women) are subject to a high risk of poverty. In Holland the percentage of flexible workers was reduced from the 10.3% in 1998 to 6.6% in 2003. Labour law limits short-term contracts to a maximum of three consecutive 36-month contracts. After that the contract becomes permanent. In contrast to other nations, note the researchers, in Holland the high rate of part-time workers is not synonymous with precariousness”. In the United Kingdom over 28% of employees receive low pay, and a high percentage of workers have limited access to essential social rights. GOOD PRACTICES. Promoting “good practices in employers” by offering tax incentives “to those who don’t have recourse to temporary work” and “stigmatising the lack of respect for or limitations in the application of the European social acquis (directive on short-term work)”: these are some of the “good practices” recommended by the Report. Equally important, warn the researchers, is the need to intervene in “areas not covered by labour law and collective bargaining”; ensure that everyone – workers and unemployed – have access to vocational training throughout life; and implement “a macroeconomic strategy (training activities and fiscal and monetary policies for support to demand and growth) with the objective of creating more jobs”.