TYPICAL WORKER

An employee who has one employer, works full time, year round on the employer's premises, enjoys statutory benefits and entitlements.

"Where regulation provides protections for standard workers, employers' desire for certain forms of flexibility (including disposability) may encourage the creation of jobs outside the regulated area, either in forms such as temporary work or self employment, which do not enjoy the same level of protection as standard work, or resort to the informal, unregulated sector."
(Dickens, L., Changing Contours of the Employment Relationship and New Modes of Labour Regulation, visited 2011-09-28)

The typical worker occupies a socially secure, full-time job of unlimited duration, with standard working hours that guarantee a regular income and, via social security systems, secure pension payments and protection against ill-health and unemployment.
(adapted from the European Industrial Relations Dictionary, Atypical Work, visited 2011-09-27)

Typical workers are defined according to three main characteristics:

1. They are employees (i.e. working for wages or salary and performing services or work for an employer);
2. They have acquired a permanent status (i.e. being lawfully retained in a position after the completion of a probationary period) and;
3. They occupy a full-time job (i.e. working the full number of scheduled hours determined for their occupational group).

This class of conventional workers is gradually being replaced by atypical workers to meet employers' needs for flexibility and competitiveness.