Across the new EU member states the crisis has accelerated the rise of non-standard, or precarious, employment forms. The implications of this process are a dualized, or fragmented, labour market, where fixed-term contracts, part-time contracts, dependent self-employment, temporary agency work and casual work are becoming increasingly prevalent. This project addresses the role of established industrial relations institutions in addressing the changing labour market and, in particular, the growth of precarious work in the EU. Despite the importance of the phenomenon of precarious employment, little evidence is available on the strategies of social partners to address the rise of the dual labour market, in which the importance of precarious employment forms increases. To fill this gap, this project explores how the strategies of employers and trade unions across 10 EU Member States represent the interest of non-standard and vulnerable groups in precarious employment forms in the labour market; and how the needs of these groups are addressed in the process of collective bargaining and other initiatives by the social partners. The project engages in country-specific, sector-specific and comparative studies of the strategies and actions that the social partners have undertaken to:

1. address the rise of the dual labour market, and especially the growth of precarious work;
2. protect, represent and improve through collective bargaining and social dialogue the social rights of vulnerable employee groups in precarious employment;
3. adjust industrial relations structures and bargaining procedures to better reflect the character of the post-crisis dual labour market.

Researchers at CELSI: Marta Kahancová, Monika Martišková, Mária Sedláková, Tibor T. Meszmann