engleski

FLEXICURITY – WAY OUT OR WAY WITH TRAPS AND HURDLES?

In recent decades, the European labour market has been criticized for a lack of flexibility which is essential in the growing internationalisation of the economy and ever fluctuating labour demand. So, in this situation, state support for constraints on markets has weakened, resulting in a tendency towards liberalisation across the EU. Concerning employment regimes, the liberalizing tendency has been reflected in declining trade union membership, the decentralisation and erosion of collective bargaining, increasing inequality and „supply- side“ reforms directed at weakening employment protection and linking benefit entitlements to participation in the labour market. Terms like »flexible firm« and “flexibility-security nexus” have emerged. In this paper, the author analyses strategies of flexibility that firms use in their attempt to become and stay competitive in the market, but also stress the importance of social security in the context of flexibility. These two opposing demands, namely flexibility and security, could be achieved through the concept of flexicurity. The author explains the reasons for growing interest in flexicurity, especially on the part of the European Commission. After analyzing the components of flexicurity, the importance of social dialogue in the process of its implementation is stressed and explained. Despite its innovative character, the flexicurity approach is criticized for several reasons which at the same time represent the main obstacles in its implementation. In the concluding remarks the author poses a few questions: does flexicurity represent just a mask to cover essentially deregulatory drive which gives priority to the needs of employers over the interests of employees? Furthermore, does flexicurity need to be re-thought and adapted to newly emerging situations in the labour market or replaced with deregulation?

flexible labour market, social security, critical flexicurity

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