The profound precariousness of work through temporary work agency
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Ph.D. student Mihaela-Emilia MARICA
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Abstrac t
The increa se i n the n umber of atypica l work co ntracts in the field of industry
relati onships, as pa rt of a major Eu ropean tre nd towa rds ga ining more flexibilit y in th e
labo ur mark et, is significa nt an d cann ot be o verlook ed in most member coun tries of th e
Europea n Union. This finding is co rrobora ted b y the recent surveys condu cted a cross
Europe, th at reveal the prevalen ce of these flexibl e wa ys of organi zing w ork, o ver th e
archet ypal template of the in dividual w ork contrac t. How ever, this range of atypic al
contra ctual arrangemen ts and the great numbe r of versio ns and subc ategories they inclu de,
are d escribing a number of negativ e features t hat see m to ch aracterize the se new forms of
employmen t. Since the field of atypica l employment is complex and we ca nnot ana lyse the
incid ence of these negati ve effects for all the atypi cal methods of employment , in the
followi ng article we wi ll limit ourselv es to explore t he pressing issues rel ated to the syst em
of tempo rary work throug h work agen cies. As we shall see, all a spects of the salary field , of
healt h an d safety at work and the level of inse curity and instabili ty of labour through
temporary work agency revea ls a strong cha racter associat ed with this k ind of precario us
employmen t.
Keywords: employment ; te mporary agenc y work ; precari ous work ; atypical
work er.
JEL Cla ssification: K31
1. Preliminary conside rations
The increase in the number of atypical work contracts in the field of
industry relationships, as part of a major European trend towards gaining more
flexibility in the labour market, is significant and cannot be overlooked in most
member countries of the European Union. This finding is corroborated by the
recent surveys conducted across Europe, that reveal the prevalence of these flexible
ways of organizing work, over the archetypal template of the individual work
contract. A multitude of factors are actually involved in this increasingly
predominant phenomenon of flexible work arrangements. From the major current
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This article was submitted to 6th International Conference “Perspectives of Business Law in the
Third M illennium”, 25 -26 November 2016, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies,
Bucharest, Romania.
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Mihaela-Emilia Marica - Doctoral School of Law, Bucharest University of Economic Studies,
avocatmihaelamarica@yahoo.com.