Converging social protection schemes for non-standard workers towards those in operation for regular employees, establishing a minimum standard of social protection for every worker irrespective of the nature of the employment, etc. The EU Commission is currently deliberating over ways to respond to recent developments in the labor market that have resulted in certain types of workers being left more exposed to poverty. From the EU Commission’s reflection on the issue came the comprehensive report by the European Social Policy Network (the EU Commission’s social policy expert network) that was produced in April 2016, and which summarizes the social protection conditions under which non-standard and independent workers are operating.
The report identifies four distinct ‘ clusters’ that encapsulate tie social status of independent workers across 35 countries namely:
- Cluster 1: ‘Full to High access’, made up of six countries (Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Serbia, and Slovenia), where the self-employed are required to be insured under all the insurance-based schemes discussed in the report;
- Cluster 2: ‘High to Medium access’, made up of eight countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Poland, Romania, and Sweden), where although salaried employees must be insured under one or more insurance-based schemes, the self-employed are not so required to be insured but can voluntarily opt into the scheme(s) concerned;
- Cluster 3: ‘Low to No access’, made up of 14 countries (Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Macedonia, Malta, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Turkey), where the self-employed cannot opt into one or more insurance-based schemes under which salaried employees are required to be covered;
- Cluster 4: ’Patchwork of Medium to Low access’, made up of seven countries (Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) that cater to specific situations and whereby workers can opt into certain schemes while being excluded from others.
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