Access to social protection for self-employed and non-standard workers

Access to social protection for all workers is a key step towards a more fair and a more social Europe. However, the new ‘world of work’, generated by the Economy 4.0 and the related flexibilization of work, raises some challenges in this regard.

With this contribution we aim to address the main question of how to organize social protection for nonstandard workers and self-employed. What kind of adaptations are to be taken into consideration in existing schemes to accommodate these workers effectively? How to redesign the financing of the schemes? Which are the pitfalls when benefit schemes, such as unemployment, labour accidents and sickness are opened up to workers who do not enjoy a stable subordinated relationship with an employer? 

These and much more questions addressing the sometimes delicate approach of designing social protection around the specific needs of atypical workers will be addressed in this book.

The book has been structured around the four leading components that are addressed in the recent EU Recommendation (2019) on access to social protection: formal access, effective access, adequate protection and transparency. The publication has been designed in a manner to integrate the introductory discussion papers that initially were prepared for four mutual learning workshops, organized by the EU Commission, addressing each of these components of accessibility. 

With this publication we hope to provide a comprehensive policy framework that can be inspirational when countries decide to open their social security systems to the less traditional professional groups of non-standard work and self-employment.

Paul Schoukens is full professor of social law at the KU Leuven (Faculty of Law). He is heading the department of labour and social security law. Since 2015 he holds the Instituut Gak chair International and European Social Security Law at Tilburg University. Furthermore he is secretary-general of the European Institute of Social Security, academic director of the specialized Master programme Social Security in Europe and he is responsible within the Faculty of Law for student and staff mobility. He earned his doctorate with research on the impact of European Union law on the social protection of self-employed people and specialized further in the domain of atypical work in social security.

Charlotte Bruynseraede finished her master’s degree in law (KU Leuven) in 2020, majoring in social law. She is finalizing (2021) her LL.M. in transnational law (Universität Bremen with exchange stay at Universität Wien). She is currently involved as a nstudent researcher at the Institute of Social Law (KU Leuven), where she conducts research on the topic of access to social protection for nonstandard workers and self-employed persons.