Flexibilitätsinstrumente am Arbeitsmarkt in der Covid-19-Krise

The potential for flexibility that individuals, companies and societies have determines the extent to which challenges, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, become overburdening crises. Defining flexibility as a potential avoids, on the one hand, a premature approval or rejection of flexibility as an analytical category and, on the other hand, directs attention to resources as the basis of potential for flexible adaptation. This article elucidates the pandemic-related challenges for employees and the emerging inequalities regarding social security and employment security. In contrast to insiders subject to social security contributions, who benefit from short-time or home office work, other persons are characterised by a lack of flexibility, including workers in less protected forms of employment, unemployed outsiders and younger people. From the perspective of educational, labour market and social policy, the challenge is to make proactive investments in resources that promote flexibility to the benefit of both sides of the labour market – employers and employees.