Flexicurity, a Strategy of the European Social Policy

• Author: Radu Razvan Popescu, PhD
• Position: Senior Lecturer - The National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest
• Pages: 209-219

Page 209

1. Preliminary Ideas

In these European Union documents, as well as in others, such as those coming from E.C.D.O., a number of new concepts are used, which are insufficiently clarified either by the doctrine or by the legal regulation practice.

The labour relation. Frequently in these documents, but also in a number of directives, the syntagm "labour contract or labour relation" is used in association; according to this syntagm, a person works either under a labour contract or on the basis of a labour relation. It is thus obvious that the syntagm does not only refer to the employee exclusively, who has a labour relation under a labour contract, but also to other workers who are in a labour relationship, on other legal grounds than the labour contract, such as, for instance, public servants, members of the military, members of cooperation, agricultures, etc. However one cannot speak of a labour relation in the case of the independent worker or in the case of those who exercise an independent profession, such as lawyers, notaries etc.Page 210

Standard contractual model - the model based on the individual indeterminate term full-time labour contract.

It is significant to note that, during the debate regarding the Green Book, the informal meeting of January 2007 of the EU Member States employment and social affairs ministers strongly emphasized that the cornerstone of labour relations in the European Union continues to be the indeterminate term full-time labour contract, even if other types of contracts may be used, which are more flexible and which may meet workers' needs or answer to other specific situations.

In the Commission's Communication regarding the end of the debates generated by the October 2007 Green Book, interviewees' different opinions are noted. Significant about this is the fact that the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Member States emphasized that workers' labour stability and security is only provided by the standard labour contract.

The fragmented labour market, a syntagm launched in 2003 in the report submitted to the European Council by the European working group for the workforce (the Wim Kok group), which distinguishes between two levels of the labour market: that of the "integrated" workers ("insiders"), having a permanent activity in the enterprise, based on an indeterminate term full-time individual labour contract (standard contract), and that of the "excluded" workers ("outsiders"), made up of unemployed people, people who have left the labour market and people who are in poor working conditions or in the informal sector. The latter category of people find themselves in a "grey" area, where employment fundamental rights or social protection can be considerably reduced, triggering a state of insecurity regarding the prospect of finding a workplace, with serious implications over crucial options in their private lives (to have a dwelling, to found a family etc.).

In the circumstances of a fragmented labour market, it was noted that the practice of resorting to other forms of employment than the usual could further develop, encouraging atypical contracts and disguised work, unless measures were taken to adjust classical (standard) labour contracts in order to enhance flexibility, both from the workers' and from the employers' points of view. In this respect, the suggestion was to assess the flexibility level of the standard contracts at least regarding the terms of notice, the individual and collective dismissal costs and procedure, and the definition of abusive dismissal, respectively.

Another suggestion was to identify, together with the social partners, those solutions for the "integrated" workers, as well as the "excluded" ones, to be able toPage 211successfully deal with the transition from one status to another (from "integrated" to "excluded" and the other way round), through ongoing learning, in order for them to maintain their training level or to acquire new competences, by means of promoting active policies on the labour market which help the unemployed, and the inactive persons, to find work, by setting supple rules in the field of social security for people who change their workplace or who temporary leave the labour market.

This report contains the conception, which the European Union structured previously, of the need to have common flexicurity principles which, according to the June 2007 Communication of the Commission, could lead to more and better workplaces through flexibility and security.

Before this Communication, the European Union had already adopted, in July 2005, the Integrated Guidelines for development and workforce for the years 2005- 2008, which required the adjustment of the employment legislation in order to simultaneously promote flexibility and security and to reduce the labour market fragmentation.

In the Commission's Communication on the result of the public consultations regarding the Green Book, it is precisely stated that no agreement has been reached regarding the implementation of the concepts of "integrated" or "excluded" workers within the fragmented labour market framework.

The traditional model of employment law aimed to alleviate the economic and social inequalities inherent in the labour relations and ensured appropriate protection to employees. This model was based on the following hypotheses:

- a permanent full-time job;

- the labour relation under employment law, focusing on the indeterminate term individual labour contract;

- the employer alone was held responsible for meeting the obligations which any employer has in relation with his/her employees.

The traditional model of employment law met, according to the Commission, to different extents, in different states, the requirements of the labour market, until...