Aliki Mouriki
years, the Danish labour market policy has gradually increased measures of social discipline at the
expense of social integration, suggesting a systematic shift in labour market policy away from welfare
to ‘workfare’.
Labour market reforms in Spain, have so far had limited success in addressing high levels of
unemployment and extensive labour market segmentation. During the 1980s, reforms of a restric-
tive system of dismissal protection increased flexibility at the margins through liberalising fixed-term
contracts and temporary work agencies, although regulations concerning core jobs remained virtu-
ally unchanged (Viebrock & Clasen, 2009). As a result of these reforms, employment growth was
restricted to the “outsiders” and transitions from fixed-term or part-time to open-ended or full time
contracts remained difficult, thus increasing labour market segmentation (ibid.). Subsequently, in
2006, Spain reduced to some extent the asymmetry between open-ended and fixed-term contracts
(the only EU country to do so), as a result of the pressure exerted by the large numbers of temporary
and unemployed workers on the Spanish government to reduce the protection of the open-ended
contracts (Boeri, 2009). Nonetheless, the share of temporary employment in Spain remains extremely
high, particularly amongst the younger age group aged 15-24 years, where 2 out of 3 of total youth
employment are in a temporary job. Moreover, temporary workers, that constitute 34% of the total
workforce, have few prospects of improvement: only 4.5% have their contract transformed into an
open-ended one, whilst 82.6% of fixed-term contracts are renewed as such (ibid.).
In a context of relatively high dismissal costs and rigid permanent contracts, Spanish employ-
ers have been using temporary contracts as instruments to introduce flexibility in the labour force.
They thus ended up relying heavily on temporary employment in order to adjust to fluctuations
in demand. They are, however, now becoming increasingly aware that this increasing segmentation
between permanent and temporary workers “hinders workers’ occupational training, their motivation, and in
sum the competitiveness of the fi rm and the quality of its products” (leader of the employers’ confederation
CEOE, mentioned in Royo, 2007).
The significant labour market reforms in Greece during the 1990-2005 period, eventually had lim-
ited success in boosting firms’ competitiveness and improving labour market performance. The new
overtime regulations introduced in 2000 actually increased rigidities for companies, as job creation
was given priority over enhanced flexibility. At the same time, the encouragement of part-time work
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