Jul 10, 2026 · 25 min · 8 segments
Over the past two decades, European labour markets have undergone significant transformation, with a marked rise in non-standard forms of employment such as part-time and temporary work. While these…
Karel FricGuest
Mary McCaugheyHost
So Carol, can we start with the basics? What in fact do we mean by vulnerable workers? We know that we hear terms like precarious or non-standard work, but what are we talking about when we talk about vulnerable workers?
So we are talking about the qualities of the job itself, rather than about the background of the workers.
And when we talk about vulnerable work, we are looking at it as a multi-dimensional concept.
So it means that is a job that is either identified by income inadequacy or by insecure employment or by lack of workplace rights.
And this might sound a little bit cryptic, so I'll tell you a bit more in detail what it means.
So when we talk about inadequate income, we talk about people who earn less than 60% of median income in a given country.
When we talk about employment insecurity, here kicks in the involuntary part that you were talking about.
It is involuntary part-time work or involuntary temporary work or marginal part-time work, which is less than 15 hours a week.
And when we talk about the lack of workplace right, we cover concepts such as lack of control over working hours or atypical working time.
So again, these are workers who would prefer potentially to work more hours or who would prefer to work different hours from those.
And that is very important because, as you might have noticed, a lot of these parts of this definition of vulnerable work covers also non-standard employment.
And it is important to notice that not all non-standard employment is per definition vulnerable.
It is exactly when it is involuntary or when multiple risk factors overlap at the same time.
Yes, so it's for example, imagine a worker who is on a temporary employment, but also who is working only marginal part-time, so 10 hours a week.
Or someone who is on a zero-hour contract and has very low salary, or also when they have a very atypical job.
We really look and count how many vulnerable concepts are covered at the same time.
So Carol, can we start with the basics? What in fact do we mean by vulnerable workers? We know that we hear terms like precarious or non-standard work, but what are we talking about when we talk about vulnerable workers?
So we are talking about the qualities of the job itself, rather than about the background of the workers.
And when we talk about vulnerable work, we are looking at it as a multi-dimensional concept.
So it means that is a job that is either identified by income inadequacy or by insecure employment or by lack of workplace rights.
And this might sound a little bit cryptic, so I'll tell you a bit more in detail what it means.
So when we talk about inadequate income, we talk about people who earn less than 60% of median income in a given country.
When we talk about employment insecurity, here kicks in the involuntary part that you were talking about.
It is involuntary part-time work or involuntary temporary work or marginal part-time work, which is less than 15 hours a week.
And when we talk about the lack of workplace right, we cover concepts such as lack of control over working hours or atypical working time.
So again, these are workers who would prefer potentially to work more hours or who would prefer to work different hours from those.
And that is very important because, as you might have noticed, a lot of these parts of this definition of vulnerable work covers also non-standard employment.
And it is important to notice that not all non-standard employment is per definition vulnerable.
It is exactly when it is involuntary or when multiple risk factors overlap at the same time.
Yes, so it's for example, imagine a worker who is on a temporary employment, but also who is working only marginal part-time, so 10 hours a week.
Or someone who is on a zero-hour contract and has very low salary, or also when they have a very atypical job.
We really look and count how many vulnerable concepts are covered at the same time.
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