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The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has finally agreed that regulatory reforms and other policies are needed to improve the quality of non-standard jobs.
According to a new ILO report, non-standard forms of employment, which include casualisation and contract employment prevalent in Nigeria are often associated with greater decent work deficits.
The global body lamented that non- standard jobs including casualisation need to be discouraged as it’s often associated with insecurity.
A new ILO report, “Non-standard employment around the world: Understanding challenges, shaping prospects”, highlights the policies needed to improve the quality of non-standard jobs.
The report finds that there has been a rise in Non-Standard Forms of Employment (NSFE) globally, including increases in temporary work, part-time work, temporary agency work and sub-contracting, dependent self-employment and disguised employment relationships.
“Non-standard forms of employment are not new, but they have become a more widespread feature of contemporary labour markets. We need to make sure that all jobs provide workers with adequate and stable earnings, protection from occupational hazards, social protection and the right to organize and bargain collectively,” said Deborah Greenfield, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy, “and that employees know the identity of their employer.”
Non-standard jobs can provide access to the labour market.
In addition, while they can provide some flexibility to workers and employers, the report cautions that NSFE is often associated with greater insecurities for workers.
It said that in countries where NSFE are widespread, workers risk cycling between non-standard jobs and unemployment. Workers in temporary jobs can face wage penalties of up to 30 per cent compared with standard workers performing similar jobs.
“In some cases, particularly where contractual arrangements have blurred the employment relationship, there is evidence that workers have difficulty exercising their fundamental rights at work, or gaining access to social security benefits and on-the-job training. Injury rates are also higher among workers in NSFE”, the report said.
The ILO also opined that NSFE can have important and underappreciated consequences for businesses. “Short-term cost and flexibility gains from using NSFE may be outweighed by longer-term productivity losses. There is evidence that firms that use NSFE more, tend to underinvest in training, both for temporary and permanent employees, as well as in productivity-enhancing technologies and innovation,” said Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the unit that produced the report.
He added, “Short-term cost and flexibility gains from using NSFE may be outweighed by longer-term productivity losses.
“Widespread use of NSFE may reinforce labour market segmentation and lead to greater volatility in employment, with consequences for economic stability. Research shows that temporary and on-call workers have more difficulty getting access to credit and housing, leading to delays in starting a family.”
The report also identified key trends in NSFE. For example, in industrialized countries, the diversification of part-time work into “very short hours” or “on-call” work, including “zero-hours” contracts (with no guaranteed minimum hours), has parallels with casual work in developing countries.
It noted that in the UK, 2.5 per cent of employees were on zero-hours contracts at the end of 2015, while ten per cent of the workforce in the US have irregular and on-call work schedules, with the lowest-income workers the most affected.
It stated further. “In Bangladesh and India, nearly two-thirds of wage employment is casual; in Mali and Zimbabwe, one of three employees is casual. In Australia, where casual employment is a specific employment category, one out of four employees is casual.
“Asian countries have witnessed the growth of various forms of dispatched, agency, sub contracted or outsourced work. In Indian manufacturing, contract labour reached 34.7 per cent in 2011–12, up from negligible levels in the early 1970s.”
The global labour body said though NSFE has become more widespread, the report found there are important divergences in the use of NSFE among firms, even within the same country and industry.
Among private-sector firms in over 150 countries, it discovered that more than half of enterprises did not use temporary labour, whereas around 7 per cent used it intensively (with more than half of their workforce on temporary contracts).
The ILO report however advances policy recommendations to improve the quality of non-standard jobs:
First, plugging regulatory gaps – including policies that ensure equal treatment among workers regardless of their contractual arrangement; policies establishing minimum guaranteed hours and limiting the variability of working schedules; legislation and enforcement to address employment misclassification; restricting some uses of non-standard employment to address abuse, and assigning obligations and responsibilities in employment arrangements that involve multiple parties.
Second, strengthening collective bargaining – including by building the capacity of unions to represent workers in NSFE and extending collective agreements to cover all workers in a sector or occupational category. In addition, all workers must have access to freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.