Bell, Mark --- "The Principle of Non-Discrimination within the Fixed-Term Work Directive" [2011] ELECD 889; in Moreau, Marie-Ange (ed), "Before and After the Economic Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Before and After the Economic Crisis

Editor(s): Moreau, Marie-Ange

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809924

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: The Principle of Non-Discrimination within the Fixed-Term Work Directive

Author(s): Bell, Mark

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

10. The principle of non-
discrimination within the Fixed-
Term Work Directive
Mark Bell

Since the early 1980s, the European Union has been actively engaged in
a debate about how labour law should respond to the variety existing
amongst employment contracts. The archetype is traditionally regarded
as the individual who works full-time, on an open-ended contract and
who is directly engaged by the firm that provides employment. Reflecting
the assumption that this is the standard form of employment relation-
ship, the label `atypical' has been applied to those forms of employment
which deviate from the norm, such as part-time, temporary or agency
work. These forms of employment have tended to increase over time,1
hence making it more pressing for labour law to adapt to such contractual
diversity.
In relation to temporary employment contracts, the initial trajectory of
EU policy was to seek to limit their growth through close regulation of
the circumstances under which a fixed-term employment contract could
be created.2 Although this reflected the approach in some domestic labour
law systems at the time,3 it did not receive sufficient support within the
Member States and there followed a long period of stalemate. A break-
through first arrived in relation to part-time work (Directive 97/81).4
This was followed by Directive 1999/70 on fixed-term work5 and, after


1 In 2008, 18.2 per cent of workers in the EU were employed part-time, whilst

14 per cent were employed ...