Recent years have witnessed rapid and profound changes in the world of work, both with regard to work organization and work content. New forms of work organization, such as outsourcing and subcontracting, are increasingly common. This tendency has contributed to the emergence of economically dependent work which represents a form of work that falls within a ‘grey zone' between subordinate work and self-employment. Different terms have been developed to describe and categorize this group of workers - those most frequently used being "
economically dependent workers" or "
parasubordinate workers."
In legal terms,
economically dependent workers are self-employed. Their defining characteristic is that, like self-employed workers, they work at their own risk and are not subordinate to an employer. However, they are "economically dependent" in the sense that they are more or less exclusively reliant on one client enterprise.
Economically dependent workers are currently included in the self-employed category.
The concept of
economically dependent worker is, at present, open and only partly defined, as the precise type of work involved cannot be identified. Economically dependent employment is closely connected with the practices (new and not so new) of outsourcing and subcontracting used by companies. These practices serve as organizational models which involve the use of forms of horizontal integration – through commercial contracts – between the various activities that are part and parcel of a business activity. It is where companies have made this organizational choice that we find the jobs and sectors where economically dependent employment is most common.
Research shows that the growth of outsourcing practices is accompanied by an increase in types of self-employment where, although the workers are officially considered to be self-employed, the conditions for carrying out their activities are in many cases similar to those of employees.
At present, no systematic, exhaustive comparative or national data are available on the production activities and sectors employing
economically dependent workers.
However, a recent EIRO study shows that economically dependent work is most widespread in the service sector:
- Hotels and catering establishments
- Media (press, radio and television and publishing)
- Education and training
- Incumbent telecommunications carrier (ICT)
- Marketing, telemarketing, advertising
- Entertainment
- Administration and book-keeping
- Social services
But this type of worker is also found in more traditional sectors such as transport, building construction and home working.
The following factors are used by European Union Member States to define an
economically dependent worker:
- Absence of subordination
- Situation of economic dependence
- Work performed personally
- Continuity and coordination of work
- Income (all or the greater part thereof) received from one principal client
- Social security (pension)
- Procedural rules
- Trade union
- Collective bargaining rights
Research conducted by the ILO concluded that, although in most of the countries surveyed there is no legal intermediate category between subordinate employment and self-employment, dependency within independence does exist and is very widespread.
(adapted from European commission. Employment, Social Affairs and Equal opportunities,
Parasubordination Report, visited 2006-09-15)
