Aliki Mouriki
2.3. Implications for welfare regimes
Traditional social protection systems build around the male breadwinner model of full time,
uninterrupted employment until retirement are no longer relevant for increasing segments of the
workforce. As many scholars observe, the “standard employment contract” can no longer remain a
reference point for the European welfare states. 8
As labour markets become more flexible, the social protection systems need to adjust rapidly to
the new socio-economic realities and provide support for safe transitions between employment and
non-employment. If people have confidence that the welfare institutions will ensure them income
security, they might be more willing to take risks in their working lives and accept temporary changes
in their employment status. Social protection systems need also to provide a safety net for the more
vulnerable segments of the workforce, especially the long-term unemployed and the growing number
of the working poor.
Certain forms of flexicurity arrangements have a negative impact on social rights, the level of
income and, ultimately, the financial sustainability of the social security systems. Casual or discontinu-
ous employment patterns in particular (especially on-call work, very short hours’ work, involuntary
part-time work and protracted fixed-term contracts) are closely linked to in-work poverty. Whilst
the expansion of new forms of self-employment and the transition from employee status to self-
employment, as Visser (2005) has pointed out, may produce a ‘regulation gap’ with regard to pensions
and social security coverage, with exclusionary consequences due to under-insurance in the future.
The continuous growth of unstable incomes and low pay, but also of the non-employed active
population, not only increase social inequalities and threaten social cohesion, but they also erode
the long-term viability of social protection systems, already burdened by demographic ageing and
budgetary constraints. As the link between paid employment and social rights is becoming weaker,
the capability of social protection systems to compensate for the totality of employment and social
security rights that were formerly ensured through participation in employment is also diminishing
(Auer, 2008). 9
8 See, amongst others, Viebrock & Clasen, 2009
9 Deeply concerned by these developments, some scholars and policy makers go as far as suggesting a radical de-linking
between employment relationships and social rights. See for example Supiot’s proposal for social drawing rights men-
tioned in Auer, 2008.
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