Part-time employment in EU Member States

17.7.2018

Question for written answer E-003958-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Dubravka Šuica (PPE)

In 2017, a total of 43 million people worked part time in the European Union. This is equal to every fifth person out of the total number of the employed people in the EU.

According to Eurostat research, part-time employment appears much more frequently in western and northern EU Member States, which have more flexible labour markets.

On the other hand, in southern and south-eastern EU Member States, there is a much lower portion of part-time employees within the total number of employed people. The problem which arises in southern and south-eastern EU Member States is that people are forced into part-time employment. For example, this percentage amounts to 70% in Greece, 62% in Italy and 58.7% in Bulgaria. This leads to the conclusion that full-time employment is inaccessible, therefore people must agree to part-time employment, which means insecure employment and possible existential problems. There are numerous cases in which people are employed and paid as part-time employees, but they work full-time.

What measures does the Commission propose in order to harmonise part-time employment in Member States legislation in order to avoid the system being abused at the workers’ expense, which is the case in certain southern and south-eastern EU Member States?