Insecure work is any job that denies workers the stability they need for a good life and reduces their ability to control their own work situation. Insecure work has damaging consequences for them, their families and their communities.
Addressing insecure work requires a combination of measures, inlcuidng employment law, expanding the minimum code, institutional arrangements, regulation and establishing best practice. We are not suggesting we ‘turn back the clock to the 1950s’ and there are some desirable elements of flexibility we want to keep.
We want to put and end to insecure work where the variable and changing nature of a job suits the employer but not the worker, where the burden of adjustment falls on the worker, and the inequality of power disadvantages the person doing the work.
Forms of insecure work have been growing in both ‘good’ and ’bad’ economic conditions. As a society, however, we have a duty to ensure that whatever the state of the economy, New Zealand workers no longer suffer from the levels of insecurity they currently experience.
Download: Under Pressure – Executive Summary.