3 - The Digitalisation of Work and the EU: Jurisprudential and Regulatory Responses in the Labour and Social Field

Summary

The European labour market is undergoing a process of radical change. While the standard contract of employment remains the predominant form of work organisation (often based on full-time work for one employer), its social importance has been declining. In addition to part-time, fixed-term, and agency work (the original ‘atypical’ contracts), new casual forms of employment have become more prevalent; these include zero-hours contracts, employee sharing, information communication technology (ICT)-based mobile work, voucher-based work, interim management, portfolio, crowd, and gig work. The data are revealing: half of all the new jobs created in the last ten years have been non-standard, with more than 25 per cent of the workforce of the twenty-seven European Union countries (EU-27) being engaged in casual and atypical forms of work at any given time.