Future of Work conference, 9 October 2015 Budoucnost práce, 9. října 2015 Konferenz ‚Zukunft der Arbeit‘, 9. Oktober 2015, Prag

1. Kulatý stůl 2
Prekarizace práce a důstojná práce
Jan Drahokoupil
Senior Researcher
European Trade Union Institute
Konferenz ‚Zukunft der Arbeit‘, 9. Oktober 2015, Prag
To facilitate interpretation: slides in English, presentation in Czech.

2. Outline
● Some data on labour market developments:
Precariarization?
● Two mechanisms in more detail
● Outsourcing/value chain fragmentation [boundaries of the
firms]
● The ‘micro-transaction’ economy [nature of employment]
● Discussion: What response to these challenges?
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3. LABOUR MARKET
DEVELOPMENTS
Some data on trends
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4. ‘Atypical employment’ on the rise, but differences
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Source: ETUI Benchmarking Working Europe 2015 (available at www.etui.org)

5. Temporary/part time often not voluntary
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Source: ETUI Benchmarking Working Europe 2015 (available at www.etui.org)

6. Atypical employment contributing to a shortage of demand,
lower output and growing inequalities (ILO, 2015)
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0
5
10
15
20
25
permanent temporary part-time full-time employees self-employed
2010 2013 change 2010-2013, %
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC)
In-work risk of poverty, EU28

7. The role of labour market regulation?
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Source: Drahokoupil & Myant 2015 in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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Source: Drahokoupil & Myant 2015 in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

9. BOUNDARIES OF THE FIRM:
OUTSOURCING
Mechanism 1
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10. GVCs good for productivity, but lower wage share, feeding
inequality (ILO, 2015)
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11. A closer look at labour issues involved in subcontracting
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Available at www.etui.org
1. A bird-eye picture on
outsourcing/offshoring in Europe
2. Impact on working conditions
• WORKS project order-processing in
logistics and food, customer service in
public services, IT departments in health)
• Call centres in telecoms
• Public services
• Construction, meat processing, ship
building (posted work)
3. Establishing worker voice mechanism in
fragmented value chains
• Telecoms
• Parcel delivery
• Construction (posted work)
• Automotive (agency work)
• Metal (bargaining in MNCs)
panel on precariarization

12. Outsourcing/offshoring and working conditions:
Key mechanisms undermining job quality and pay
● Impact on existing worker representation structures and collective bargaining
institutions
● Moving jobs outside of the scope of existing firm-level institutions
(domestic outsourcing)
● A shift to different regulatory regimes (offshoring)
● Concession bargaining
● Employing migrant workers in fact similar avoidance effects to offshoring
(labour-market intermediaries)
● Institutions and TU strategies may influence outcomes
● Encompassing LM institutions (equal pay/conditions etc.), collective
bargaining, and ability to mobilize across production network key
● Targeted TU campaigns, sectoral bargaining
● International worker voice institutions (EWCs, EFAs)
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13. Outcomes country-specific: Crucial role of domestic
institutions in shaping also decisions
13
Source: Kirschner (2015, Figure 1) in Drahokoupil (2015)
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14. Outsourcing/offshoring and working conditions:
Key mechanisms 2
● Restructuring of the labour process to allow decoupling a
major factor (negatively) influencing job quality both in
sending companies and in outsourcing destinations
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Source: Drahokoupil (2015, Table 2), adapted from Gospel and Sako (2010)

15. What should be done?
● Institutions to cover firm and national boundaries lacking
● How to address company boundaries
● Agency work regulation (equal conditions), trade union strategy
● Subcontractor liability missing in CZ and Eastern Europe
● Sectoral level bargaining weak in CZ
● Transfer of undertakings provisions?
● Labour inspectorate capacity
● What else?
● How to address cross-border issues?
● EU level: tools to address these issues (e.g. agency work directive,
transfer of undertakings, I&C), but implementation poor in many countries,
yet make a difference in some (e.g. ToU in the UK)
● Some sectors call for entirely new institutions: e.g. Danaj & Sippola, 2015:
a European construction workers union
● What else?
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16. NATURE OF EMPLOYMENT:
THE ‘MICRO-TRANSACTION’
ECONOMY
Mechanism 2
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18. Beyond the ‘sharing economy’ misnomer
● In fact very few sharing models a success: renting and micro-
transactions dominant
● Much of success unfair competition: avoiding regulation and taxation
● Yet, importance not to be discarded: technology enables ‘gig economy’
which undermines standard employment
● Fiverr, Task rabbit, etc. not new models, but important that
customer does not have to go through yellow pages and barriers
for entry to providers very low
● Facilitating and enabling hollowing out middle/lower-middle jobs
● Social polarization, depressing demand, undermining local
economies
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19. What should be done?
● There is an easy fix for some things: Some regulatory avoidance
should be easy to address (technology there)
● E.g. Uber could be extremely efficient in collecting taxes from taxi
drivers & can be pressed by authorities
● Some institutions that may be ultimately not viable not essential social
value? (e.g. taxi licence fees)
● A need to adapt institutions such as health insurance, income
replacement, etc., to the ‘gig economy’
● Can trade unions play a role in the gig economy as e.g. insurance
providers?
● Do we need new regulations?
● A bigger challenge: hollowing out of middle-income jobs, labour market
polarization, inequality
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20. Finally, to wrap up
● Two trends discussed account for precariarization only partially
● Much thus not a new problem, but the old regulatory failure (e.g.
commercial contracts legislation in PL, Švarc system in CZ)
● But two important factors and likely to play a bigger role in the future
● Hence for discussion: how to tackle
1. (Cross-border) value chain fragmentation
2. ‘Gig’ economy undermining standard employment types
3. The bigger challenge of labour-market polarization
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