New forms of employment and work First results from a Eurofound EU-28 (+ Norway) research project

New forms of employment and work

First results from a Eurofound EU-28 (+ Norway) research project

Maurizio Curtarelli Research Officer

Working Conditions and Industrial Relations UnitEuropean Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

COST meeting – Dynamics of Virtual Work – Athens 7 – 9 October 2013

• A decentralised agency of the European Commission

• Governing Board - composed of representatives of the national social partners, national governments and the European Commission

• Generates policy-relevant research and knowledge contributing to improving the quality of work and life in Europe, through: Comparative research and analysis of

developments affecting living and working conditions

Monitoring of trends in the working environment and in the labour market

• Eurofound aims to support policy making by: Employers, EU policymakers, Governments, Trade unions

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/

Project 7 'New forms of employment' in Eurofound's Annual work programme 2013

Objective (1st stage): mapping existing information on new forms of employment and work in the EU28 and Norway and related working conditions

Objective (2nd stage): Getting rich, in-depth information on a number of these new forms of employment in the countries where they have been reported

Background information

Previous research at Eurofound• On-going changes and transformations in the way we

work• European Working Conditions Survey:

Flexible forms of work: ‘very atypical’ contractual arrangements (e.g. short-term contracts, short-time part time, zero-hours contracts, non-written arrangements)

Increasing use of ICT among workersExplore characteristics

Impact on working conditions?

Background information

Use of technology, EU27, 2000-2010

30.2%

37.5%

42.0%

37.2%

29.8%27.0%

24.3% 23.0%

19.5%

8.4%9.7%

11.5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2000 - EU27 2005 - EU27 2010 - EU27

IT Use of Technology not relevant Machinery IT and machinery

Share of workers using ICT, 2010

E-nomads, EU27, 2010

Electronic nomads - workers who:

• do not have their employer’s premises (or own premises - self-employed) as main place of work.

& • use ICT (computers, internet, e-mails) at

least most of their time.

E-nomads, 2010

NEO (Network of Employment Observatories) to report information (questionnaire) on all the existing ‘new’ forms of employment at national level

CAR (comparative analytical report) + literature review + case studies

considering the economic, labour market and institutional heterogeneity in Europe

Project explorative in nature No strict definition of ‘new forms of employment’ is

provided

Methodology

‘New’ forms of employment include:

work relationship between employers and employees which differ from the established and ‘standard’ ones

or forms of work which represent a different ‘concept’ of

working, involving a different relationship between the individual and the work

or involving a different relationship between individuals

working together

What is the focus on?

More than one employee and only one employer

More than one employer and only one employee

More than one employee and more than one employer

Discontinuity of work

provision

Intermittent work

Non- conventional

fixed term

Self-employment involving networking and cooperation between workers

WHERE? Non-conventional workplace (e.g. ‘around’, own-office, etc.)

HOW? With the support of ICT (e.g. mobile phone, iPad, etc.)

Em

ployment relationship

Em

ploy

men

t rel

atio

nshi

p

Sel

f-em

ploy

men

t

Ad-hoc contractand/or

existing forms of contract

What is the focus on?

2000 2013

NO YES

Started/introduced/appeared in the country

introduced from year 2000 onwards

“NEW” means….

have been introduced before 2000BUT become more frequently used - due to technological innovation, labour market developments, or economic change - after that year

1990

First findings

Dependent

employment relationship Self-employment

27 out of 29 countries

No new forms in Estonia, Malta

Labour pooling

Job-sharing

Crowd-employment

Temp resource

provision

ICT based, mobile work Cooperation between self-

employed

Casual work

Portfolio workSpecific self-

employment statuteVoucher system

10 new forms of work and employment

• Labour pooling: an individual worker is jointly hired by a group of employers and works on a rotating basis in the different companies

• Job sharing: a single employer hires a group of workers to jointly fill a specific job on a rotating basis to conduct the same task within the same company

• Temporary resource provision: refers to situations in which a worker is hired for a temporary period of time by an employer, often to conduct a specific project

• Voucher systems: refer to employment situations based on vouchers or cheques the orderer of a service can acquire from a third party (generally a governmental authority) to use as payment

Clusters of new forms of employment

• specific self-employment statute: combines elements of traditional dependent employment and self-employment, for example as regards autonomy of the work provision or social protection

• portfolio work: refers to situations in which a self-employed works for a large number of clients, and provides just small jobs for each of them

• casual, intermittent or discontinuous work: an employment contract not obliging the employer to regularly providing the worker with work, but offering the flexibility of calling them in on demand

• new forms of cooperation between self-employed: have been found in a number of countries, going beyond traditional business partner relationships

Clusters of new forms of employment

Labour pooling: 10 countries Job sharing: 8 countries Temporary resource provision: 9 countries Casual work: 10 countries ICT based, mobile work: 14 countries Portfolio work: 10 countries Voucher system: 7 countries Specific self-employment statute: 4 countries Crowd-employment: 10 countries Cooperation among self-employed: 9 countries

New forms of employment geographical overview

Employment relationship Employment terms

Networking among self-employed

Employees Employees Employees and self-employed Self-employed Self-

employed

Labour pooling

Job sharing

Temporary resource provision

Casual

work

ICT based, mobile work

Portfolio

work

Voucher

system

Specific

self-employme

nt statut

e

Crowd

employme

nt

Cooperatio

n amon

g self-employed

AT X X X XBE X X X X XBG XCY X X XCZ X X X XDE X X X X XDK X X XEL X X X X X X XES X X X XFI XFR X X X X X XHR HU X X X X X X X

New forms of employment by target group and country

Employment relationship Employment terms

Networking among self-employed

Employees Employees Employees and self-employed Self-employed Self-

employed

Labour pooling

Job sharing

Temporary resource provision

Casual

work

ICT based, mobile work

Portfolio

work

Voucher

system

Specific

self-employme

nt statut

e

Crowd

employme

nt

Cooperatio

n amon

g self-employed

IE X XIT X X X X X X LT X X X X XLU XLV X X X XNL X X X NO X X XPL XPT X X XRO XSE X X X XSI X XSK XUK X X X X X

New forms of employment by target group and country

New forms of employment by target group and country

• Yellow – rather employees • Blue – rather self-employed• Orange – both employees and self-employed• Grey – not covered in the project

Yellow – rather employees

Blue – rather self-employed

Orange – both employees and self-employed

Grey – not covered in the project

Sour

ce: E

urof

ound

Obs

erva

torie

s

Focus on:

ICT based and mobile workCrowd-employment

ICT based and mobile work: definition

• mobile work is intended as work that is mainly conducted outside of the employer’s or client’s premises, with strong dependency on ICT (for example, mobile phone, IPad), going beyond already established work elements like visiting clients, patients, working on construction sites, making deliveries, truck drivers etc.

• it applies to both, dependent employees and self-employed.

ICT based and mobile workSo

urce

: Eur

ofou

nd O

bser

vato

ries

BECYDKFRDEGRHULVLTNLNOPTESSE

Yellow: YESGreen: NO

14 countries

• In FR, HU employees• In BE, CY, DK, SP, LT, PT self-employed• In DE, GR, LV, NL, NO, SE both

For employees, it is a variation of teleworking with no fixed ‘other location’

Relatively new in national debate, in NL and BE embedded in the concept ‘new world of work’

Relatively new in most of the countries, which results in no specific regulation

Exception: HU, since 1 January 2013 regulations concerning ‘outworkers’ included in the labour code

ICT based and mobile work

Implications for working conditions

Negative: work intensification, less personal interaction and active involvement (including representation) more isolation and less access to support/assistance from colleagues and superiors, lower social standards, bore out due to repetitive tasks, blurring boundaries work/private life

Positive: higher level of autonomy and hence flexibility; better work-life balance, new forms of collaboration, including better communication and access to information

ICT based and mobile work

Implications for the labour market• In Sweden, big change in the way of production, consumption

and the way of working. • Increasing dependence on IT for organising work reduced

importance of the traditional physical work place. • It resulted in skilling, new working practices and

organisational efficiency gains, strengthening the overall competitiveness and contributing to growth.

• The danger is, however, that employers and employees cannot adapt to the accelerating technological developments and consequently fall behind.

ICT based and mobile work

• Employment form taking advantage of an online platform allowing organisations or individuals to access an indefinite and unknown group of other organisations or individuals via the internet to solve specific problems or deliver specific services or products in exchange for payment (Green and Barnes, 2013)

Crowdemployment: definition

Crowdemployment

BECYCZDKDEGRITLVPTESUK

BECYCZDKDEGRITLVPTESUK

Yellow: YESBrown: NO

11 countries

Sour

ce: E

urof

ound

Obs

erva

torie

s

• New form of organising outsourcing and based on individual tasks/projects rather than on a continuous employment relationship

• A larger task is divided up in smaller subtasks to be conducted remotely, resulting in a kind of global division of tasks

• Jobs or tasks are published on brokering platforms by the organisation (company or public body) or individual (in many cases for a fee), and the potential suppliers (organisations or individuals) submit their proposals which are then evaluated by the awarding organisation/individual who subsequently chooses the proposal that best fits their objectives.

Crowdemployment

Platforms organised by: 1) an independent body matching supply and demand of

services or products • Boblr orInnoCentive in Denmark, • www.adtriboo.com in Spain (+28 more), • www.doulitsa.com in Greece, • www.redefreelancer.net in Portugal, • www.peopleperhour.com, www.freelancer.com or

www.translatorstown.com in the UK2) an individual (large) company running the platform for its

own purposes (e.g. LEGO CUUSOO in Denmark)

Crowdemployment

• DE two different concepts of crowd-employment• Cloud working outsourcing of IT services resulting in

the joint use of data and platforms to lower IT costs and improve the quality of IT services.

• Cloud sourcing a virtual platform providing access to global expert knowledge and collaborative execution of tasks - promoted by business organisations due to its assumed innovation potentials

Crowdemployment

Implications for working conditionsNegative: DK and PT high job insecurity DE national stakeholders expect a worsening of working

conditions and representation of cloud workers and a fragmentation of pay

LV lack of social protection, open-ended working time, a risk of health damage due to irregular life regimes and a lack of access to HR measures such as training, mentoring or coaching

SP fears that workers might be exploited: due to the high competition among the workers prices paid for the service provision tend to be low

Crowdemployment

• Implications for working conditionsPositive: DK, LV, SP, PT increased level of autonomy, better possibilities to

combine multiple jobs (and hence the possibility to select interesting challenges) and better work-life balance

• Implications for labour marketNegative: DE job cuts in the IT sector result from cloud working and cloud

sourcing as these services are outsourced and delocated to other countries.

Positive: DK, SP good access to work opportunities for freelancers

enriching their CVs and hence employability and career development

Crowdemployment

Employment form Country Type of analysis

Labour pooling

BE Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulationDE Desk research, case studyCZ Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulationFI Desk research, case studyFR Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulationHU Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulationLT Case studyLU Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation

Crowd employment

CZ Case studyDE Desk research, case studyDK Desk research, case studyES Desk research, case studyLV Case studyPT Case studyUK Case study

Mobile work

DK Case studyFI Case studyEL Case studyLV Case studyNL Case studyNO Case studySE Case studySI Case study

To conclude: next steps

(conclusion February 2014)

Thank [email protected]

Research team:Irene Mandl – EC Unit

Maurizio Curtarelli – WCIR UnitOscar Vargas – WCIR Unit

European Working Conditions Survey• Objective is assessing and quantifying working conditions of both

employees and the self employed across Europe • 5th round (2010) covering 34 countries: EU27 + NO + ACC3 + IPA3

Between 1000 and 4000 interviews per country (total about 44,000)

• Stratified random sample of households Registers or random route Stratifying by region and degree of urbanisation

• Face-to-face approach (except for Sweden and Norway) and interview (CAPI and PAPI)

• Screening for workers Employees and self-employed (15+) (LFS definition) Randomly selecting one worker per household using first

birthday rule