ABSTRACT
Labour market flexibility is considered an important factor in offering the best conditions for economic growth and competitiveness in society. This no doubt makes sense in so far as it provides the employers with labour according to their needs and demands. Flexible and cost effective production presupposes a flexible supply of labour. Labour market flexibility, however, does not always correspond to workers’ needs for stable employment and sufficient income. The standard employment relationship at one time ‘incorporated a degree of regularity and durability in employment relationships, protected workers from socially unacceptable practices and working conditions, established rights and obligations, and provided a core of social stability to underpin economic growth’ (Rodgers 1989:1). In this sense some of the costs of the flexible employment of labour are paid by the workers, their families and, in the case of welfare state intervention and compensational schemes, by the tax payers or members of social insurance systems. The price of labour market flexibility is also wastage of productive potential through unemployment and underemployment, as well as a segmented labour market and labour market marginalisation.
