European Union countries should make it easier to hire and fire workers to boost economic growth, while offering better social security cushions, the European Commission will propose on Wednesday.
The EU executive's report on ways to raise employment and growth will promote a combination of flexibility and security, or "flexicurity", to help the European labour market meet challenges of Asian competition and an ageing society.
"The Commission will seek to combine four elements: flexible job contracts, active labour market policies, life-long learning and more social protection," EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla told a seminar, highlighting the report.
Denmark and other Scandinavian countries applied flexicurity successfully, which resulted in low unemployment rates, high productivity and fast labour mobility.
"But there are no one-size-fits-all solutions," said Spidla. EU leaders will discuss the proposal in December and could approve it as a general guideline, though labour regulations are not legislated at EU level.
The report calls for "a greater portability of rights" as workers move from one job to another. It said one of the steps towards greater flexibility was a wider choice of work contracts - part-time, fixed term and self employed, in addition to standard full-time permanent jobs. Countries should avoid labour market segmentation, where some workers enjoy a high degree of protection and others are denied it.
"It is usually woman, young people, migrants, older workers and those with disabilities who are likely to find themselves in precarious situations," the report said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.