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 Unit
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
COST meeting – Dynamics of Virtual Work – Athens 7 – 9 October 2013
European Foundation for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions
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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
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
environment and in the labour market
Eurofound aims to support policy making by:
Employers, EU policymakers, Governments, Trade
unions
Background information

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
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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 workers
Explore characteristics
Impact on working conditions?
Use of technology, EU27, 2000-2010
50%
45%
40%
42.0%
37.5%
37.2%
35%
30.2%
29.8%
30%
25%
27.0%
24.3%
23.0%
19.5%
20%
15%
8.4%
10%
11.5%
9.7%
5%
0%
2000 - EU27
IT
2005 - EU27
Use of Technology not relevant
Machinery
2010 - EU27
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
Methodology
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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
What is the focus on?
‘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
employer and
only one
employee
More than one
employee and
more than one
employer
Ad-hoc
contract
and/or
existing forms
of contract
Discontinuity
of work
provision
Intermittent
work
Nonconventional
fixed term
Self-employment
More than one
employee and only
one employer
Employment relationship
Employment relationship
WHERE? Non-conventional workplace (e.g. ‘around’, own-office, etc.)
Selfemployment
involving
networking
and
cooperation
between
workers
HOW? With the support of ICT (e.g. mobile phone, iPad, etc.)
“NEW” means….
 introduced from year 2000 onwards
 have been introduced before 2000
BUT become more frequently used - due to technological innovation, labour market
developments, or economic change - after that year
2000
2013
1990
NO
Started/introduced/appeared in the country
YES
First findings
ICT based, mobile work
Voucher system
10 new forms of work
and employment
27 out of 29
countries
No new forms in
Estonia, Malta
Clusters of new forms of 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
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•
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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
New forms of employment geographical overview
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 by target group and country
Employment
relationship
Employees
Labour
pooling
AT
BE
BG
CY
CZ
DE
DK
EL
ES
FI
FR
HR
HU
Employment terms
Employees and selfemployed
Employees
Job
sharing
X
X
Temporary resource
provision
Casu
al
work
ICT based, mobile
work
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Speci
Coop
fic
eratio
Crow
Vouc selfn
Portf
d
her empl
amon
olio
empl
syste oyme
g
work
oyme
m
nt
selfnt
statut
empl
e
oyed
X
X
X
X
Self-employed
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Networking
among selfemployed
Selfemployed
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
New forms of employment by target group and country
Employment
relationship
Employees
Labour
pooling
IE
IT
LT
LU
LV
NL
NO
PL
PT
RO
SE
SI
SK
UK
Employment terms
Employees and selfemployed
Employees
Job
sharing
Temporary resource
provision
X
X
Casu
al
work
ICT based, mobile
work
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Self-employed
Networking
among selfemployed
Selfemployed
Speci
Coop
fic
eratio
Crow
Vouc selfn
Portf
d
her empl
amon
olio
empl
syste oyme
g
work
oyme
m
nt
selfnt
statut
empl
e
oyed
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
New forms of employment by target group and country
Source: Eurofound Observatories
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Yellow – rather employees
Blue – rather self-employedYellow – rather employees
Orange – both employees and
self-employed
Blue – rather self-employed
Grey – not covered in the project
Orange – both employees and self-employed
Grey – not covered in the project
Focus on:
ICT based and mobile work
Crowd-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 selfemployed.
•
ICT based and mobile work
Source: Eurofound Observatories
Yellow: YES
Green: NO
14 countries
BE
CY
DK
FR
DE
GR
HU
LV
LT
NL
NO
PT
ES
SE
ICT based and mobile work
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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’
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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
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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.
Crowdemployment: definition
•
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
Source: Eurofound Observatories
Yellow: YES
Brown: NO
11 countries
BE
CY
CZ
DK
DE
GR
IT
LV
PT
ES
UK
BE
CY
CZ
DK
DE
GR
IT
LV
PT
ES
UK
Crowdemployment
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•
•
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
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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 UK
2) an individual (large) company running the platform for its
own purposes (e.g. LEGO CUUSOO in Denmark)
Crowdemployment
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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 conditions
Negative:
 DK and PT  high job insecurity
 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
 DE
Crowdemployment
•
Implications for working conditions
Positive:
 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 market
Negative:
 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
To conclude: next steps
Employment form
Labour pooling
Crowd employment
Mobile work
Country
BE
DE
CZ
FI
FR
HU
LT
LU
CZ
DE
DK
ES
LV
PT
UK
DK
FI
EL
LV
NL
NO
SE
SI
Type of analysis
Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation
Desk research, case study
Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation
Desk research, case study
Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation
Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation
Case study
Desk research, case study, analysis of instrument/regulation
Case study
Desk research, case study
Desk research, case study
Desk research, case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case study
(conclusion February 2014)
Case study
Case study
Thank you!
mcr@eurofound.europa.eu
Research team:
Irene Mandl – EC Unit
Maurizio Curtarelli – WCIR Unit
Oscar Vargas – WCIR Unit
European Working Conditions Survey
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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