I summarize you the global reality: there are more and more population in the world and less capacity to generate new employment. Factors as the continuous incorporation of the digital technology in the industrial and business structure and the aging of the population, have contributed to increase this situation in many developed countries. This problem of global sustainability of employment is starting to be a serious concern for organizations like the International labour Organization, who has placed it in the centre of its main analysis.
The need of considering this that specially exists in Spain, involves two levels of independent analysis:
a) The survival of work schedules which are not very conciliator with our personal life.
b) An excessive unemployment rate.
The Spanish Crisis has generated a huge massive drama for many families that has been exposed to very difficult and hard situations with the social cost that generated the complicate situation that for example, affects the children.
Nevertheless, we are in a situation that although we have not reach the bottom yet, we should make some important changes in our social and labour relationships model. Sometime ago I wrote a post about the importance that has reach the implementation of the part time contract in some countries around us in order to avoid the crisis impacts. Nevertheless, in our country the need of promoting this debate seems not to have left a mark, as much as it is needed in
The part time contract should become established in our working framework due to the following reasons I list:
- Allow to drive forward, with warranties, a truly conciliation of the working life with the personal life.
- Allow to expand/extend the hours of opening and on this way trying to be competitive with the big malls.
- Both the performance and the quality of the work is improved.
- Allows to create new job positions. On condition that there is an ambitious plan of tax incentives.
Nevertheless, there are some reasons why this working contract model may have its disadvantages:
- Impossibility of having a professional development similar to what a full time job offers.
- Incompatible with the great needs of money income in our pension system. If we work less hours, we would also pay the national insurance for less ours, therefore it limits the possibility of obtaining a satisfactory pension once our time for retirement arrives.
- The need that the life cost gets cheaper. The logic trend, at least in Spain, which is that things as housing, food and services as light or water, gets cheaper or at least maintain their price in the following years, once the deficit is controlled and the tax need (growth of VAT) becomes not so urgent.
Finally, being realistic, it should be noted that just a very few people think about the full evelopment of their professional carrier by having a part time job. Therefore, having in mind the seasonal or temporary factor of this job need, taking care of young children, combine it with studying development of personal projects, entrepreneurship, we can find common points with the administrations in order to promote this kind of contract, although it might be a situational factor without an strong reduction in our return as payers.
Finally here you have a very interesting article about this topic, work for all but work lees:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/05/18/economia/1337355683.html
If anyone has further information about the working flexibility and the promotion of the employment, I would be very happy to receive it.
Spanish Version available on the next link:
http://spainforemployment.com/2012/11/18/contra-el-paro-distribucion-racional-del-empleo/
Author: Fernando Fernández-Cavada – Twitter: fernandocavada1
Translation by Ines Rodriguez Corcobado- ines_corcobado@hotmail.com
