독일의 비정규고용의 실태와 노동법제의 평가

As the ‘flexibility’ has been stressed in the labour market policy since 1990s, precarious employment has increased in Germany. Particularly, the atypical employments such as fixed-term contract and temporary agency work have been reassessed as a bridge between unemployment and employment and legal regulations concerning those have been loosened. In 2001, the new law on the part-time and fixed-term work allowed employers to hire fixed-term contract workers without justifiable reasons up to 24 months and introduced the equal treatment principle between fixed-term contract workers and comparable workers with indefinite contract. In 2002, many restrictions on temporary agency work such as assignment period and prohibition to synchronise assignment and duration of employment contract were abolished. However, it should be noted that the actual effects on the employment and working conditions caused by those policy look very skeptical. Many researches show that atypical employments do not much result in permanent and regular employments and employment conditions of those are precarious. Additionally, more and more young, women or elderly workers cannot find other jobs than precarious work. In this context, social concerns on precarious employments are recently increasing in Germany and trade unions are interested in protecting employment conditions and representing precarious workers. As regards regulating precarious employment, not only labour laws but also industrial relations have played an important role. Especially in Germany, works councils have power to engage in the management policy on employment and labour contract. This is one reason the regular and permanent employment is still the standard although legal regulations have been loosened for recent decades in Germany. Besides, equal treatment principle between precarious workers and comparable regular workers was introduced as a way of regulating the abuse of atypical employment. Nevertheless, labour laws allow employers and trade unions to deviate from the equal treatment principle by collective agreements. There arise arguments about this kind of collective agreement would legitimate discriminating working conditions of precarious workers. Since 2003, for example, collective agreements on temporary agency workers allow employers lower wage schemes of temporary agency workers than those of comparable regular workers. Consequently, industrial relations as well as labour laws are essential for securing equal treatment principle and protecting precarious workers.