Regulatory reforms and other policies are needed to improve the quality of non-standard jobs, according to a new report from the International Labour Organisation.

The report, ‘Non-standard employment around the world: Understanding challenges, shaping prospects’, highlights the policies needed to improve the quality of non-standard jobs. The report finds that there has been a rise in non-standard forms of employment globally, including increases in temporary work, part-time work, temporary agency work and subcontracting, dependent self-employment and disguised employment relationships.

“Non-standard forms of employment are not new, but they have become a more widespread feature of contemporary labour market,” Deborah Greenfield, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy, said. “We need to make sure that all jobs provide workers with adequate and stable earnings, protection from occupational hazards, social protection and the right to organize and bargain collectively, and that employees know the identity of their employer.”

The ILO states that non-standard jobs can provide access to the labour market. In addition, while they can provide some flexibility to workers and employers, the report cautions that non-standard form of employment is often associated with greater insecurities for workers. In countries where this is widespread, workers risk cycling between non-standard jobs and unemployment. Workers in temporary jobs can face wage penalties of up to 30% compared with standard workers performing similar jobs.

In some cases, particularly where contractual arrangements have blurred the employment relationship, there is evidence that workers have difficulty exercising their fundamental rights at work, or gaining access to social security benefits and on-the-job training. Injury rates are also higher among workers in Non-standard forms of employment.

According to the ILO, non-standard forms of employment can have important and underappreciated consequences for businesses.

“Short-term cost and flexibility gains from using non-standard forms of employment may be outweighed by longer-term productivity losses. There is evidence that firms that use non-standard forms of employment more, tend to underinvest in training, both for temporary and permanent employees, as well as in productivity-enhancing technologies and innovation,” Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the unit that produced the report, said. “Short-term cost and flexibility gains from using non-standard forms of employment may be outweighed by longer-term productivity losses.”

 “Widespread use of non-standard forms of employment may reinforce labour market segmentation and lead to greater volatility in employment, with consequences for economic stability,” Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the conditions of work and employment branch, said. “Research shows that temporary and on-call workers have more difficulty getting access to credit and housing, leading to delays in starting a family.”

The report identified key trends in non-standard forms of employment. In industrialised countries, the diversification of part-time work into “very short hours” or “on-call” work, including “zero-hours” contracts (with no guaranteed minimum hours), has parallels with casual work in developing countries. In the UK, 2.5% of employees were on zero-hours contracts at the end of 2015. Meanwhile, 10% of the workforce in the US have irregular and on-call work schedules, with the lowest-income workers the most affected.

In Bangladesh and India, nearly two-thirds of wage employment is casual; in Mali and Zimbabwe, one of three employees is casual. In Australia, where casual employment is a specific employment category, one out of four employees is casual.

Asian countries have witnessed the growth of various forms of dispatched, agency, subcontracted or outsourced work. In Indian manufacturing, contract labour reached 34.7% in 2011–12, up from negligible levels in the early 1970s.

Although non-standard forms of employment have become more widespread, the report found there are important divergences in the use of non-standard forms of employment among firms, even within the same country and industry. Among private-sector firms in over 150 countries, more than half of enterprises did not use temporary labour, whereas around 7% used it intensively (with more than half of their workforce on temporary contracts).

The report advances four policy recommendations to improve the quality of non-standard jobs including plugging regulatory gaps, strengthening collective bargaining, strengthening social protection by eliminating or lowering thresholds on minimum hours, and instituting employment and social policies that support job creation and that accommodate workers’ needs not only for training, but also for family responsibilities such as childcare and elder care.