Workers on the Border between Employment and Self-employment∗

Abstract

The number of workers on the border between self-employment and employment strongly increased across Europe over the last decade. This paper investigates whether and in what respect these workers differ from employees and self-employed and analyses whether these work relationships are a stepping stone to more stable employment in the short-run using Italian data. Depending on the data source the "para-subordinates" represent between 1.8% and 5.3% of the Italian labour force. Since most of them work only for one company and are strongly integrated into the firm of the contract partner, we argue that labour and social security l aw discriminates against these workers who are in fact very close to employees. We find that they are not low qualified workers, but young, highly educated professionals. At the same time these contracts are not a port of entry into the labour market nor do we find that they are a vehicle to more stable jobs. However, they are a possibility for women to work part-time.

Hybrid Areas of Work Between Employment and Self-Employment: Emerging Challenges and Future Research Directions

“…In terms of sectors, they can be found in areas with many high-skilled professionals as well as in low-skilled jobs: from civil engineering, journalism and ICT, to care homes, agriculture and construction (Eichhorst et al, 2013). As regards their composition, women are increasingly involved in these work arrangements, as well as young people and migrant workers (both among those starting micro-businesses and those hired on a solo self-employed contract because of a lack of other options, possibly related to their migrant status) (Mills and Blossfeld, 2005;Muehlberger and Pasqua, 2009;Galgóczi et al, 2012;Bozzon and Murgia, 2020). Moreover, the solo selfemployed are variously distributed within the European Union (see Figures 1, 2).…”

Dimensions of Precariousness in an Emerging Sector of Self‐Employment: A Study of Self‐Employed Nurses

“…However, professional entrepreneurs may be just as marginalized and precarious as nonprofessional entrepreneurs (McKeown, 2005). Professional contractors can remain dependent upon organizations and subject to changing organizational expectations, without access to the protections and resources afforded to employed workers (Fenwick, 2004;Muehlberger and Pasqua, 2009). As well, not all professionals are strongly networked, as Barley and Kunda (2004) demonstrated in their study of independent information technology professionals.…”

The ‘grey area’ of employment relations in the Polish videogame industry

“…The majority of studies about dependent self-employment focus on an investigation of work in the construction industry (Thörnquist, 2015) or financial and ICT services workers (Muehlberger, 2007). Nonetheless, research on dependent self-employment presents a clear understanding of characteristics of this phenomenon, which can be broadly defined through workers’ economic dependence on one contractor and their subordination to an employer (Eurofound, 2013; Muehlberger and Pasqua, 2009; Thörnquist, 2015; Williams and Horodnic, 2018).…”

“…The economic dependence of workers in dependent self-employment indicates that they bear an entrepreneurial risk of the business operation, as their economic wellbeing often depends on one contractor (Muehlberger and Pasqua, 2009: 202). Consequently, dependent self-employed workers accept the entrepreneurial risk, while they do not receive the benefits of taking entrepreneurial opportunities as if they were ‘genuinely’ self-employed (Eurofound, 2013).…”