Part-time work is a persistent trend on Europe’s labour markets and reflects the development of deregulation and flexibilisation. Part-time work is mostly grouped under atypical work and therefore automatically connected with precarious working and living conditions: low wages, a low level of social security and a high rate of involuntary work [43].
In labour market contexts, where these forms of employment differ significantly from the common social and legal setting, these assumptions are true. Adaptions to labour law regulations, such as in Austria, treat part-time work almost as equal to full-time work and thus challenge this connection.
Political decisions are needed to embed the increasing part-time arrangements into a modern labour market setting, in which flexibility is not only employer-driven but also flanked by reduced future risks. It is particularly difficult for political decision-makers to influence the quantitative development of atypical part-time work. On a qualitative level (social rights, labour law, wage issues), however, there is more potential for political influence in terms of “context governance” [37].
The following list constitutes an initial attempt to propose political measures which are essential to disconnect part-time work from precarious working and living conditions. These policy pointers could serve as a starting point for further discussion and promote further in-depth research. As mentioned in this article, it is difficult to define what makes work precarious. The following policy pointers are based on the categorisation of Brehmer and Seifert [26].
More employee-orientated flexibility
The common approach to work is changing. The boundaries between working time and private time are being blurred. Work as one element of a complex life framework is more often seen as a major impact on the quality of life.
“The practice of (…) flexibilisation strategies often does not overlap with the wishes and needs of workers, because the opportunities for participation are small and there is little room for planning the daily routine” [45].
Flexible working (time) arrangements are therefore increasingly gaining in favour. This trend will continue in the near future. This especially concerns those who face the task of combining family obligations with work duties. The increasing flexibility offers new potential for people to combine work and private spheres more sufficiently. Yet, as the German Trade Union (DGB) shows, the connection between these two spheres is not always promising [46]. The vague border between work, leisure, family and privacy is a major stress factor for employees. OECD studies point out the relationship between a successful work-life balance and family-friendly working time arrangements [47, 48]. Positive flexible arrangements are flexitime, working time accounts, trusted flexitime, opportunities for home-working, sabbaticals and different forms of leave.
The right to change from full-time to part-time and vice versa
This innovation from the Dutch labour market system should be at the core of modern labour markets with rising part-time work arrangements in Europe. It guarantees a better basis – especially for women – to combine childcare with professional plans.
Full inclusion in the social system and integration under labour law regulations
As mentioned in this article, in 2007, Austria made a big step towards the full integration of part-time work under social and labour law regulations. This should become European standard to avoid part-time marginalisation. The Netherlands has gone one step further and given these rights to marginally employed workers, too. Furthermore, the flexibilisation of working conditions and working time should always be connected with collective agreements and employee councils to reduce the risk of one-sided flexibility developments.
Breaking down traditional role models
Women — and this is a European phenomenon — dominate the part-time workforce. Therefore, it is crucial to break down traditional role models. In conservative welfare states such as Austria, women are usually associated with family and household issues while men are connected with job and career agendas. Highly-skilled workers and managers in part-time work are not socially-accepted enough and traditional family roles still tend to be attached to women. The still high gender pay gap reflects this issue. The Dutch case shows the potential to change this mind-set with its remarkably high part-time rate among men (23 %; Austria: 9 %).
Mandatory parental leave for men between two and six months as well as extra wage increases for womenFootnote 14 could help to challenge not only these role models but also the gender pay gap.
Expansion of childcare institutions
Women not only frequently prefer part-time work because of the aforementioned high amount of unpaid work but also because childcare institutions are insufficient, too expensive or both in most of Europe.
On the one hand, more public funding is required for day nurseries, for affordable and local kindergartens and for all-day schools. The exemplary child care system in Sweden is tax funded and has a maximum cost limit for parents to make child care affordable [50]. On the other hand, social partners and political decision makers have to encourage employers to support their employees who have children. In Germany, we see, for example, an expansionFootnote 15 of on-site childcare facilities, which not only helps parents to combine work and family issues more easily but also brings advantages for employers and companies.Footnote 16
Reduction in overtime, working time and non-permanent working contracts
Extra hours are an important flexibilisation tool for employers. A reduction in the high amount of overtime hours in Austria (about 350 million) [19] would have positive effects on the labour market. This working time reduction would offer a new distribution for work. New jobs could be generated and part-time workers could increase their working hours more easily. Through a higher rate of taxation, overtime hours should be made more unattractive for employers and always be counterbalanced by compensation time or payments.
Part-time employment functions, like overtime (where Austria is leading the way in Europe), as a flexi-tool for employers. A general reduction in working time, like in Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, would be sufficient and could help to create new jobs [53, 54].
As mentioned above, combinations of atypical working arrangements increase the risk of precarious working and living conditions. Part-time and/or non-permanent contracted workers should have a preferential right for applying for newly advertised vacancies within the same company.
Reducing the risks of future precarious conditions
As stated earlier, for most workers in countries where part-time work is socially and legally equal to full-time employment, working part-time does not automatically lead to a precarious situation. But in the case of unemployment or retirement, part-time work reveals its risks, especially in Austria with its strong connection between income and access to social services. For this reason, long-term part-time workers should benefit from higher severance payments as well as taxes for pension funds and unemployment benefits. To guarantee this, part-time workers should receive a plus on their pay-checks up to 10 %.Footnote 17 Once more the (state and strength of the) social dialogue is crucial: social partners could negotiate the actual amount of the extra payment as part of the wage rounds, depending on branches and their specific part-time distribution and renumeration. Such a step would help minimise social risks — for both voluntary and involuntary part-time workers — and reduce the flexi-advantage for employers to only hire part-time workers. Paying higher unemployment benefits for part-time workers, especially single parents, would reduce a plethora of social risks in this context, as would minimum wages. This issue should not only be discussed at a national level but, above all, on a European one.
Particularly when it comes to combined atypical working arrangements, such a bonus for special risk should be introduced. It could be paid as a lump sum on entry into the “risky” job or paid as a monthly wage add-on [40].