New Forms of Employment in Europe

The ''full-time job'' is no longer an option for many people seeking employment. It has been replaced by an ever-expanding plethora of ‘atypical’ employment relationships designed by employers to streamline their operations and/or take advantage of information communications technology. Numerous labour law issues arise, demanding urgent attention. How should law and policy best address these challenges? This incomparable and timely book explores this contentious topic in depth, presenting ten penetrating essays on aspects of the topic by leading European authorities followed by reports on new forms of employment in thirty-five European countries.

Full-scale analysis of new forms of employment, their characteristics, and their effects on working conditions and the labour market includes such issues as the following:

• – employment relationships with more than one employer;
• – discontinuous and/or intermittent work;
• – work based on networking arrangements;
• – labour pooling;
• – crowdworking and crowsourcing;
• – lack of worker representation;
• – rights for vulnerable migrant workers;
• – removal of wage and hours threshold;
• – false self-employment;
• – non-payment of ''small'' amounts (e.g., holiday pay);
• – portage salarial;
• – voucher-based work;
• – ICT-based mobile work;
• – organizations offering specific administrative services;
• – need for safety nets for workers; and
• – existing and potential monitoring and control mechanisms.

Relevant EU Directives and national legal frameworks regarding new forms of employment are fully discussed, with an emphasis on recent trends and proposed solutions.

This volume raises awareness of the problems generated by new emerging forms of employment and provides some answers and insights, including lessons to be learned from current developments. In particular, the authors’ bringing to light of issues that have not been sufficiently addressed so far under European law will be welcomed by labour law practitioners, company legal counsel, human resources professionals, and academics in the field.