Reregulating for inclusive labour markets

The current system of employment and social protection is increasingly regarded as favouring insiders and providing inadequate protection for those engaged in care work, and for the increasing numbers employed under non-standard contracts or under complex employment relationships spanning organizational boundaries. There is pressure from the mainstream to deregulate or from social policy circles to focus on universal social protection, not dependent on employment status. This chapter argues for an approach which combines more universal social protection with increased obligations on employers to extend protection across a wider variety of employment statuses. This combined approach is necessary as social protection is not sustainable if employers pass on too many decommodification costs to the state. Furthermore, employment regulation serves multiple functions, not only income and social protection: eight functions of employment regulation are identified and reforms proposed to make the regulation more inclusive and to promote employer responsibility.