Flexibility and security: an asymmetrical relationship?
3.3. Managing change and social risks
Among the most prominent new social risks is the sustainability of the social protection and wel-
fare systems, and labour market segmentation. The increasing number of precarious jobs in the EU
economies, not only deprives a large segment of the workforce form basic employment and social
security rights, but it puts into jeopardy the viability of the social security systems, as well as social
cohesion. Lower incomes and unstable employment (e.g. fixed-term contracts, on-call labour, small
part-time jobs, etc.) are associated with a higher incidence of poverty. This in turn is translated into
an increase in social spending.
Social protection systems play a central role in addressing the short and long-term risks associ-
ated with precarious employment and unemployment. They not only provide a (varying) degree of
compensation for the loss or reduction in income, they also (or at least, they are meant to) help in-
dividuals and families maintain a socially acceptable standard of living, regardless of labour market
participation, 14 through various schemes of a minimum guaranteed income. The degree of security
and the benefits provided, however, vary significantly, depending on the welfare regime. Inclusive
welfare regimes, like those prevailing in the Scandinavian countries, are more effective in reducing
the level of insecurity and vulnerability of precarious workers and the unemployed, compared to the
other types of welfare regimes. By contrast, the liberal market employment regime emerges as the
most polarized, in terms of cumulative disadvantage for those trapped in insecure and poor quality
jobs, whilst in the Southern European dualist employment regimes, informal family networks assume
a significant share of the welfare duties of a residual welfare state (see Diagram 4).
Diagram 4: Employment welfare regimes
|
Type of welfare regime |
Forms of employment |
Level and form of social |
|
inclusive regime |
- Scandinavian (social |
high degree of institutionalized |
|
liberal “market” regime |
- Anglo-Saxon |
minimal protection |
|
dualist employment regimes |
- continental (corporatist) - Southern European (Mediterranean) |
insurance- based, employment- sub-protective (importance of |
Source: Paugam & Zhou, 2007
14 This is termed decommodification (Esping-Andersen in Eurofound, 2007).
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