At the start of their presentation, the authors of the study expanded on the current developments of new forms of labour. Both the Member States and the social partners want to react to the changing working environment. This wish, however, often significantly diverges, leading to the most diverse excesses of new forms of labour within the Member States as a result. According to the study, however, the open-ended full time standard employment contract is still the “normal form” of employment. This open-ended full time standard employment contract is strongly regulated in most Member States. This in turn leads to the trend of new forms of labour. Short-term employment contracts, part-time work, contract work, self employment etc. clearly contribute to the fragmentation of the labour market and also present the social security systems with ever increasing challenges. The Labour and Social Insurance Law originally only applied to open-ended full time standard employment contracts; hence the new forms of labour frequently do not come under the protective screen of the Labour and Social Insurance Law.

The study shows that the Member States are very slow in reacting to new employment conditions. Hence this not only results de facto, but also de jure in unequal treatment. The terms frequently used are so-called “outsiders” and “insiders”. Insiders have all the rights; outsiders do not.

One fact is clearly exposed by the study: countries with strong and reliable social partners react much better to new forms of work and social partner agreements are also reflected in legal regulations. This also contributes to the development of the Labour Law - unfortunately, however, only at a national - and not at EU level. It remains now to be seen what the Employment Committee does with this more than 300 pages strong study. One can only hope that it doesn’t gather dust in a drawer somewhere, but that it will be used for future initiatives of the Committee.