WP 1 - The first part-time economy in the world. Does it work?



The First Part-TIME Economy in the World
Does it Work?

I have not treated part-time jobs as an example of either external or internal flexibility. In
the Netherlands most part-time workers are on permanent employment contracts and as a
rule the number of hours worked by part-time workers are fixed. Hence, part-time workers
do not face the uncertainty of continued or reduced earnings of temporary workers or
workers with variable hours contracts. Part-time work is in no way comparable to short-time
work or ‘Kurzarbeit’. This does not mean that part-time employment does not also introduce
an additional element of flexibility. For employers part-time jobs may fit in a strategy of
creating secondary workers as a buffer around the core, much the same as atypical
employment. The alternative view is to see part-time jobs as part of a strategy of ‘optimal
staffing’, especially in industries where business hours and working hours deviate (Tijdens
1998). For workers part-time work allows an element of combining different priorities and
constraints.

There exists a well-established view of part-time jobs as sub-standard jobs (Mückenberger
1985; Rodgers and Rodgers 1989; Hinrichs 1990; Meulders, Plasman and Plasman 1994).
Explicitly or implicitly, full-time jobs are taken as the norm by which to assess part-time
jobs and the welfare of workers is evaluated only on the basis of occupational status or
earnings (Ellingsaeter 1992). Often the conclusion is drawn that part-time jobs are
problematic because of inferior rights, entitlements, earnings or status, insufficient social
security or pension coverage. In sum, part-time jobs are dismissed as secondary or marginal
jobs. Against this view Pahl (1984), Hakim (1991), Blossfeld and Hakim (1997) and Tijdens
(1997, 1999b) have developed an alternative approach in which they differentiate between
types of part-time jobs, take account of gender roles and position in the household, and
allow for different work orientations and preferences of men and women (Hakim 1999). A
distinction is made between ‘retention’ part-time jobs (usually weekly hours of little shorter
than normal), ‘half time jobs (around 15-29 hours a week), and marginal work which
involves very few hours (Hakim 1995; Tilly 1991).

If we apply this division to the Dutch labour market, we find that in 1995 retention part-time
jobs (of between 30 and 35 hours) involve seven per cent of all employees (see Table 4).
Among men the percentage is four per cent, among women twelve. Marginal part-time jobs
of less than twelve hours per week involve 17 per cent of female employees, against six per
cent of male employees. It is in this group of small part-time jobs that the overlap with
external flexibility is particularly strong (44% has a flexible job). In other words, the term
‘marginal’ or ‘secondary’ jobs, seen from the perspective of firms or workers, is entirely
appropriate in this case.

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