Pierre Baussand, the Head of the Eurofound Brussels office and a long standing expert of labour conditions, moderated the kick-off meeting of the #noprecariouswork project. His intervention aimed at: defining what is precarious work; assess which are the root causes of precariousness and understand what are the EU or national solutions to address these causes.
The main take-aways of the meeting, in his opinion, are the following:
- Precarious work is not a choice;
- The root causes of precariousness at work can be:
- The duration: duration of the work contract or the length of the working time; (repetitive use of fixed-term contracts or there might not be enough work/ working time to ensure an adequate level of remuneration);
- Violations to the principle of equal treatment in relation to education, training, skilling, work intensity, security in the work place, health and well-being;
- Level of remuneration: is the payment enough to ensure well-being?
- Lack of access to social protection – unemployment benefit, health and medical coverage and pension;
- Level of isolation and the ability to access interest;
- There might be weaknesses in the EU legislation which need to be addressed so that safety at work is ensured and working conditions are improving.
