Normalarbeitsverhältnis und Sozialversicherungen : eine überholte Verbindung? (Regular employment relationship and social insurances : an outdated connection?)

"The article analyses the change in the securing of subsistence and biographical perspectives of working people as it manifests itself in the radical change in employment relationships and social security. In connecting the regular employment relationship and social insurances, an industrial employment model has been constructed in Germany since the end of the Second World War which has tended to standardise the terms and conditions of employment and the income level for the majority of workers and provided them with a safeguard of their standard of living, continuity of employment and security in planning, but has at the same time excluded some of the workers, in particular the unskilled and women. This employment model no longer 'matches' the demand for equality of the sexes or the demands for flexibility and the individualised lifestyles of post-industrial society. In addition to this the stability of employment policy and social policy has turned into a reciprocal destabilisation in view of the crisis in regular em-ployment relationships and social insurance; for numerous workers today neither the standard of living and employment continuity are safeguarded nor do they have biographical planning options. In the course of these changes an overlap area has developed between employment-related social security and social assistance, which opens up new risks for those insured. In this way the demarcation of the social insurances loses legitimation; a reform of social security must also reflect the future of gainful employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))