Precarious employment

16.7.2015

Question for oral answer O-000091/2015
to the Commission
Rule 128
Thomas Händel, on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

The European Parliament has called for the EU to support Member States in carrying out necessary structural reforms, increasing labour market flexibility and putting in place the conditions for businesses to create jobs. In its EU Employment and Social Situation Quarterly Review of March 2015, the Commission acknowledged that the increase in the number of permanent and full-time contracts had outstripped the increase in temporary and part-time employment for a third consecutive quarter. However, it also recognised that in-work poverty persists. For 50 % of all job seekers, securing employment is not enough to lift them out of poverty, and nor does it raise productivity.

1. Could the Commission give a more detailed overview of the current situation of, and trends in, precarious forms of employment which could arise from various employment contracts?

2. What is the degree of implementation in the Member States of the EU labour directives related to this particular issue (Directives 97/81/EC on part-time work, 99/70/EC on fixed-term contracts, and 2008/104/EC on temporary agency work)?

3. What new measures and policies, if any, does the Commission envisage with a view to combating precarious employment, such as zero-hour contracts, bogus (false) self- employment, subcontracted and outsourced work, and undeclared, informal and irregular work, and which sectors, and categories of workers, are the most severely affected?

4. Taking into account the principle of subsidiarity, how will the Commission encourage cooperation between Member States in order to achieve the Europe 2020 employment targets (Article 156 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)? What could be the role of businesses and the social partners, at EU and national level, in this area?