Det danske arbejdsmarked har vist sig succesfuldt på en række områder med lav arbejdsløshed, voksende beskæftigelse og høj jobmobilitet. Dette skyldes ikke mindst den såkaldt danske flexicuritymodel. Imidlertid udvikler fleksibiliteten på arbejdsmarkedet sig, og der er meget der tyder på, at hyre/fyre-fleksibiliteten ikke får samme dominerende position på fremtidens arbejdsmarked. Siden årtusindeskiftet har der i Danmark været en stigende brug af atypisk beskæftigelse. I artiklen undersøger vi, hvordan kontraktfleksibiliteten, dvs. atypisk beskæftigelse i henhold til de tre parametre: beskæftigelsesstatus, kontraktens varighed og timetal, har udviklet sig i Danmark, og hvilke konsekvenser det har for beskæftigedes adgang til flexicuritymodellen. Analytisk tager vi afsæt i flexicurity- og segmenteringslitteraturen og trækker på data fra Arbejdskraftundersøgelsen og en ny survey med svar fra 3.120 atypisk beskæftigede på kanten af arbejdsmarkedet. Afslutningsvis diskuteres, om flexicuritymodellen kan tilpasses den voksende kontraktfleksibilitet på fremtidens arbejdsmarked.
The regulatory setting and growing worker mobilization in the digital platform economy have recently attracted much political and academic attention. However, the perspective of platforms as employers and their role in regulating the online market are less researched. This article contributes with a fresh perspective on labour platforms as potential employers and their various strategies towards collective bargaining. Empirically, the article draws on in-depth case studies of three labour platforms operating in Denmark, but choosing very different strategies towards collective bargaining. The study identifies four factors impacting their choice of strategy: platform ownership, existing sector-level agreements, growth rates and customer base.
In: Ilsøe , A & Larsen , T P 2020 , ' The coronavirus crisis reveals blind spots in Nordic labour market data : A sociological perspective ' , Acta Sociologica , vol. 63 , no. 4 , pp. 447 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699320961817
The Nordic countries are renowned for their unique administrative register data that include various aspects of an individual's labour market activities. However, studies of government-led help packages and their effects during the coronavirus crisis in Denmark reveal that the labour market statistics used by government and academics have several blind spots when it comes to some of the most vulnerable groups in the labour market. There are strong signs that we underestimate the scope and depth of atypical work and even lack reliable data. We argue in this piece that the coronavirus crisis is an important lesson for labour market sociology that calls for methodological development.
In many European countries, marginal part-time, (solo-) self-employment and secondary jobs have been increasing since the last decades. The question about the provision of social protection and labour legislation for these types of employment is the starting point for a project entitled "Hybrid working arrangements in Europe", directed by the WSI. Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Denmark and Austria comprise the group of countries selected in order to investigate "hybrid work" in the context of different welfare state regimes. The following paper by Mikkel Mailand and Trine P. Larsen is one of the seven country studies giving a detailed description about labour law regulations and the national insurance systems for self-employed, secondary jobs and marginal part-time employment.
In recent years, we have seen a growing body of literature with a strong focus on labour market inequalities. In the Anglo-Saxon literature, concepts such as the working poor and bad jobs have been applied to jobs in, for example, the US to describe jobs with low pay and inferior working conditions (Kalleberg 2011; Klein & Rones 1989). In the UK and other parts of Europe, the concept of the precariat is often used to capture the employment situations characterized by fragmented and insecure employment and low income (Standing 2011). Also in Germany, the discussion on labour market inequalities has been revitalised. The emergence of mini jobs and various forms of bogus self-employment (Scheinselbständige), etc. have gained momentum in the political and academic debates as part of a larger trend of labour market dualization in line with some of the early works on labour market segmentation (Brady & Biegert 2017) (.)
In: Ilsøe , A , Larsen , T P & Rasmussen , S 2019 , ' Precarious Work in the Nordics : Introduction to The Theme of The Special Issue ' , Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies , vol. 9 , no. S6 , pp. 1-5 . https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.v9iS6.114688
In recent years, we have seen a growing body of literature with a strong focus on labour market inequalities. In the Anglo-Saxon literature, concepts such as the working poor and bad jobs have been applied to jobs in, for example, the US to describe jobs with low pay and inferior working conditions (Kalleberg 2011; Klein & Rones 1989). In the UK and other parts of Europe, the concept of the precariat is often used to capture the employment situations characterized by fragmented and insecure employment and low income (Standing 2011). Also in Germany, the discussion on labour market inequalities has been revitalised. The emergence of mini jobs and various forms of bogus self-employment (Scheinselbständige), etc. have gained momentum in the political and academic debates as part of a larger trend of labour market dualization in line with some of the early works on labour market segmentation (Brady & Biegert 2017) (.)
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014.FindingsThis analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work.Originality/valueThe living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014. Findings This analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work. Originality/value The living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels.
In: Jaehrling , K , Johnson , M , Larsen , T P , Refslund , B & Grimshaw , D 2018 , ' Tackling precarious work in public supply chains : A comparison of local government procurement policies in Denmark, Germany and the UK ' , Work, Employment and Society , vol. 32 , no. 3 , pp. 546– 563 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018758216
Through a cross-national comparative study of local government "best practice cases" of socially responsible procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK, this article critically examines the role of labour clauses in addressing issues of low wages and precarious work in public supply chains. It provides new insights on the negotiations and outcomes of labour clauses across different stages of the policy process, including implementation and monitoring. The analysis demonstrates the importance of pragmatic alliances of progressive local politicians, unions, and employers in ensuring that socially responsible procurement moves beyond rhetoric, along with supportive national and sectoral employment regimes. Labour clauses can compensate for weak systems of labour market regulation by setting higher standards for outsourced workers, while they play a complementary role in more regulated labour markets by levelling up wages and working conditions to prevailing collectively agreed standards.
This article examines nonstandard employment and precariousness in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway). Drawing on data from the Labour Force Survey from 1995 to 2015, the article investigates and compares recent developments of nonstandard employment in the countries and analyzes whether fixed-term contracts, temporary agency work, marginal part-time work and solo self-employment have precarious elements (measured as income or job insecurity). We conclude that nonstandard employment has remained rather stable in all four countries over time. However, although nonstandard employment seems to be largely integrated in the Nordic labor markets, it still entails precarious elements in certain countries in particular. Norway and Denmark stand out as having less insecure labor markets, while Finland and Sweden have more precariousness associated with nonstandard employment. We argue that these differences are explained by differences in the institutional contexts in the countries.
Abstract This article analyses the development of FinTech companies in relation to traditional banks in four countries: Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands and Sweden. Based on approaches drawn from the sociology of markets and field theory, we analyse and theorize about empirical data from secondary sources, official documents and 38 interviews with key actors. Whereas digital technologies have been commonly depicted as a source of disruption for established business models, suggesting that the rise of FinTech leads to competitive upheaval in the financial sector, more recent studies argue that such interpretations are exaggerated. Here, we propose the emergence of a 'coopetitive' market ecosystem that combines co-operative and competitive connections between incumbents and challengers who often share the same infrastructure. FinTech firms are shown to function as catalysts in the transformation towards this ecosystem shaped by coopetitive interdependence between the actors.
In: Refslund , B , Jaehrling , K , Johnson , M , Koukiadaki , A , Larsen , T P & Stiehm , C 2020 , ' Moving In and Out of the Shadow of European Case Law : the Dynamics of Public Procurement in the Post‐Post‐Rüffert Era ' , Journal of Common Market Studies , vol. 58 , no. 5 , pp. 1165-1181 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13023
Judicial Europeanization, particularly European case law and the Rüffert ruling, has created significant legal uncertainty in the use of labour clauses in public procurement, which may constrain national policymakers. However, national actors find ways to 'push back' against Europeanization in order to prioritize domestic policy goals. By analysing the long-term political dynamic surrounding public procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK since the implementation of the revised 2014 public procurement directive, we show how both national actors, and actors at subnational level, where much public procurement actually takes place, contest the Europeanization of public policies. Variation in the willingness and ability of actors to leverage the legal uncertainty to adopt labour clauses results in diverging policy trajectories, but also creates a room for policy innovation. This alters the ultimate outcome of the European regulatory agenda and results in a continued divergence of public policies across member states.