In April 2016, CONECT Association has launched the report “Atypical Work in Romania from the outbreak of the Crisis. An overall perspective”, written by the sociologist and researcher Stefan Guga.

As a rough guide, the concept of atypical work covers both fixed-term contract or part-time work and temporary work through an agency or certain forms of self-employment. To what extent these forms of work are covered by employment rights or not and to what extent they diverge from the standard form varies from one institutional and historical context to another; from here, rises the need for careful monitoring and detailed research of economic, legal and social aspects of genuine atypical work. The monitoring and analysis of atypical work are not, however, easy tasks, not so much because of the diversity of the phenomenon but mainly due to the fact that traditional mechanisms of monitoring and regulation are designed for the typical work model. This determines the fact that, unlike typical work, the real amplitude and relevant characteristics of atypical work are reflected directly only partially, at most, in the official statistic data and in the formal institutional context that regards work relationships.

Consequently, the atypical work phenomenon implies two major problems, closely connected to one another: one of regulation, of developing mechanisms through which the applicability of principles materialized in the legal and institutional context of atypical work can be expanded to cover the multiple forms of atypical work: and another one of knowledge, of developing instruments through which a phenomenon as diverse and protean as the atypical work can be monitored, analysed, and explained systematically. The purpose of this report is not to develop proposals of regulations or new research instruments. Considering the absence of atypical work as a subject in governing agendas and public debates in Romania (see below), the report aims at presenting the overall situation of the atypical work phenomenon in the context of the economic, political, legal, and social changes that occurred in Romania during the last decade and, especially, during the last five years – period in which work relationships have been profoundly affected not only by the economic crisis but also by important legislative changes.

You can read the entire document about “Atypical Work in Romania from the outbreak of the Crisis. An overall perspective” here.