Page 69 - ASEAN-EU Dialogue 2018: Regional and Inter-Regional Economic Cooperation: Identifying Priorities for ASEAN and the EU

recommend some policy reforms with respect to “working time”, “wage and labour costs”,
“employment protection legislation” and “social security benefits” (Berg and Kucera, 2008).

Alternatively, other economists view employment protection as an important labour market
policy to ensure decent working conditions for all workers. A number of international
organisations, such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have made
recommendations to its member countries to establish appropriate labour market policies and
action plans to protect the rights of workers. These recommendations are known as the “ILO
Standards” (Berg and Kucera, 2008).

Thus, a most crucial challenge in the European labour market is to strike an effective balance
in the relationship between labour market flexibility and employment security. On the one hand,
policymakers need to ensure that the labour market is business-friendly by making it more
flexible. On the other, there is an urgency not to destroy the existing high standard of
employment security in the region. This is a fundamental paradox in labour market dynamics.
As a result of this paradox, there is a rise of ‘non-standard’ labour in Europe. More precisely,
during an economic crisis, European employers may face a difficulty to decrease the wage level
of workers. This is mainly because strong wage-setting mechanisms, such as the employment
protection laws, will resist any negative change in wages. In response to this, European
employers may try to increase the usage of part-time workers who are not protected by
employment protection laws. It means that the presence of non-standard workers has played
the role of a “cushion” during economic crisis in the region (Muffels, 2008).

At the same time, there has also been a tremendous change in work values across Europe.
Current trends in demographic, cultural, economic and legal environments have had an impact
on many aspects of employee recruitment and retention strategies globally (Idris, 2014; Vaiman
et al., 2012). Specifically, the quest for work-life balance, considered nowadays as a basic
requirement by an increasingly enlightened workforce, has contributed to the demand for
flexible working practices (Smith et al., 2011). Although monetary factors such as salary, bonus,
and allowance are still important, non-monetary benefits including flexible working are
increasingly being used as a tool in managing employee turnover. More significantly, Arvanitis
(2005) argues that monetary benefits are not sustainable drivers of job motivation and
commitment since social value shifts have resulted in a greater concern for work-life balance
among the younger generations.

Consequently, there has been a decline in permanent, full-time employment within the region.
The standard career pattern in European countries is shifting toward a more diverse working
experience with a richer variety of the non-standard work forms, such as flextime and flexplace,
part-time employment, temporary employment and labour-sharing. In the 1980s, only ten
percent of European workers were employed as part-time employees. By the 2000s, this figure
had increased to around twenty percent. With such a rapid increase in the number of workers
engaged in non-standard employment in recent decades, currently a fundamental question in
the European labour market is how to provide sufficient protection to this category of workers
(Muffels, 2008).

In the Nordic countries, part-time employment is a manifestation of ‘flexicurity’ (a
combination of flexibility and security) which allows women more options depending on the
stage of their life-cycle without having to opt for career breaks (Kinoshita and Guo, 2015, p.16).
The flexibility in work arrangements allows women to juggle their work and family
responsibilities. The Nordic model of female labour supply which emphasises on work-life

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