Socialno delo, Vol. 48 (2009), Issue 4
ARTICLES
The Negative Side of Flexible Employment: Fixed-term Employment in Service Sector and the Occurrence of Poverty within the Employed Population - 199, (Abstract)
Reconciliation of Family and Work: Between Legislation Support and Everyday Life - 215, (Abstract)
ABSTRACTS
Abstracts
Simona Smolej
The Negative Side of Flexible Employment: Fixed-term Employment in Service Sector and the Occurrence of Poverty within the Employed Population
The process of flexibilisation of labour market creates new risks for employment as well as new forms of poverty. With flexible employment new forms and practices of employment develop, which decreases unemployment rate, but on the other hand diminishes the quality of employment. Very low on the qualitative scale is the precarious employment as exemplified by shop assistants, employed for a fixed term. Many employments in the services that are mostly done by women (e. g. household assistance) are classifiable as risky employments. The most important question, in this context is how to preserve or improve quality of employments and enhance the security of labour. Also very important is to identify the forms of employments that assure harmonious economic and social progress. When dealing with integration of flexibility and security of employment, the concept that hold great currency in Europe is “flexicurity”. It is also mentioned in Slovenian reforms.
Keywords: flexibility of labour, precariousness, the working poor, flexicurity, shop assistants.
Simona Smolej, M.A., is a Senior Researcher at the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia. Contact: Social Protection Institute, Rimska 8,
1000 Ljubljana, phone +386 1 2000258, simona.smolej(a)guest.arnes.si.
Vesna Leskošek
Employment Possibilities of Young People
Young people in Slovenia are one of the groups that are most exposed to the changes in labour market. Together with over 50 years old people, long-term unemployed and physically or mentally handicapped, they have the highest rate of registered unemployment. Unemployment is particularly high among those that enter labour market for the first time. It is a broad and lasting problem and is recognised as such by the EU and by the state. Despite the fact that the state wants to reduce the problem mostly with an “active employment policy”, analyses show that the policy is not efficient enough because it neglects the complexity of the problem. Also overlooked are the changing natures of both youth and labour – both have been subjected to extended and fundamental changes in recent decades. The consequences are especially dramatic for young people with low level of education, no support networks and weak access to resources. They can easily become excluded from the labour market (and consequently form participation in the society) for a considerable time. In the article we explore changes in the area of youth, the meanings of exclusion, and changes in labour market. We compare the “active employment policy” measures with our findings.
Keywords: youth, unemployment, inclusion, equal opportunities, risks.
Dr. Vesna Leskošek is a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana. Her fields of interest are social inequalities, gender and youth. Contact: Faculty of Social Work, phone +386 40 286715, vesna.leskosek(a)fsd.uni-lj.si.
Tjaša Žakelj, Alenka Švab
Reconciliation of Family and Work: Between Legislation Support and Everyday Life
The article analyses the main characteristics of Slovenian legislation in the field of family policy and the equal opportunities policy that encompass the problem of reconciliation of the demands of family life and workplace, and the everyday strategies that are used by parents with small children to negotiate between them. Analysis reveals that the reconciliation in question is conceptualized as a problem of “the use of time” and its allocation, as a problem of inequality between men and women, and also as a problem of recognizing family needs on the part of employers. The participation of women with small children in labour, which indicates the double work of mothers, is higher in Slovenia than in other states of the European Union. Young fathers have indeed taken a greater share in domestic labour and care, but there are still gender differences in reconciliation strategies. While fathers do not submit their work to family demands, the organization and coordination of both spheres remains a woman’s everyday task. Although mothers consider part time job an ideal opportunity for combining family and work, they avoid it under the assumption that they are, with a help of relatives (mainly grandparents), still able to negotiate between the needs of their families and the demands of their workplace.
Keywords: family life, work, family policy, family work.
Tjaša Žakelj, M.S., is a Research Assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. In research, she focuses on sociology of families, theories of fatherhood, discourses on parental roles in divorce proceedings, and internet dating. Contact: Faculty of social sciences, phone +386 1 5805258, tjasa.zakelj(a)fdv.uni-lj.si.
Dr. Alenka Švab is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska, and the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Her field of interests encompasses gender studies, sociology of families and intimacy, family policy, everyday life, ethics of care, gay and lesbian studies, and sexuality studies. Contact: phone +386 41 486342, alenka.svab(a)fdv.uni-lj.si.
Jelena Juvan
Reconciliation of Work and Family Demands in the Military
The reconciliation of work and family demands is not a novel concept and has been present since people started being employed outside their homes. It became more acute in the second half of the twentieth century, when women first entered labour market. In spite of all the changes, the family is still believed to be an exclusively female domain, and women’s engagements in the family have a primacy. Women are still expected to be faithful to their families in the first place; men are expected the opposite. Military organization is a traditional “male” organization. The gender dimension of the discussed topic is thus very strong and should not be ignored. It becomes even more apparent when reconciliation of demands from “male” military organization and “female” family is an issue. Both institutions must find a way of cohabitation in order to avoid a conflict that can be useful to neither of them.
Keywords: gender division of labour, greedy institutions, military profession, military family.
Dr. Jelena Juvan is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Defence Research Centre of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Her doctoral thesis was about military families and the reconciliation of work and family demands in the military. Her fields of interest include war and religion, peace operations, human dimension in the military, military families. Contact: Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, jelena.juvan(a)fdv.uni-lj.si.