Labour Flexibility and Insecurity: Towards an Alternative Strategy

In essence, the post-war European economy developed on the basis of a social concensus, which institutionalised five ‘labour rights’ in the context of an essentially corporatist model involving state regulation of social and economic affairs. These labour rights were: (i) Labour market security — state-guaranteed full employment. (ii) Income security — earnings protected by minimum wage machinery, wage indexation, independent unions and employer organisations incorporated politically and economically into the state, insurance-based social security and taxes to reduce (or check the growth of) income inequality. (iii) Employment security — with regulations on hiring and firing, pre-notification of redundancy, the imposition of costs on employers for ‘unfair dismissal’, and so on. (iv) Work security — through health and safety regulations, limits on working times, unsociable hours, and so on. (v) Job security — through the tolerance of demarcation practices and barriers to skill dilution, craft boundaries and job qualifications.