Job quality in European employment policy: one step forward, two steps back?

Agnieszka Piasna, Brendan Burchell and Kirsten Sehnbruch

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU) employment policy. Using a set of complementary public policy theories, it examines how both political and conceptual factors contributed to the failure to achieve any significant progress in articulating job quality in the EU’s policy objectives and guidelines. Conceptual clarity in defining what job quality is (and what it is not), from whose perspective it should be considered, and which direction of change indicates improvement, are vital prerequisites for an effective integration of job quality into the EU’s employment strategy and into the elaboration of any successful social indicator. A constant political struggle between different stakeholders at EU level, and a need to reconcile the often-contradictory views of the social partners, has precluded the completion of this first step. Instead, attempts to include job quality into the policy formulation process were made without simultaneously adapting the overall narrative, which continued to give prominence to flexibility and deregulation. The outcome has been a rather cursory and inconsistent effort to implement policies and actions aimed at boosting job quality.

Keywords: European employment policy; European Employment Strategy; European Semester; flexicurity; Job quality; Pillar of Social Rights; quality of employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 N0 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2019-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in Transfer, 1, May, 2019, 25(2), pp. 165 - 180. ISSN: 1024-2589

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Journal Article: Job quality in European employment policy: one step forward, two steps back? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:102888

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