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This explorative study aims to investigate work precariousness (WP) among EU27-based economically dependent solo self-employed, i.e. those with no employees and usually relying on just one client.

Univariate and multivariate analyses of European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) (2015) and Eurostat data.

The analyses yielded Disempowerment, intended as lack of job autonomy and money-induced Vulnerability as the dimensions of WP. Disempowerment was found positively influenced by workers' threat of losing the job and negatively by the enjoyment from being their own boss. Vulnerability was negatively influenced by workers' age, perceived easiness to find new customers, household's financial well-being as well as the country's employment rate.

The study represents pioneer exploration of the phenomenon's dimensionality and main determinants.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of precarious and low-quality jobs with the study of toilet attendants, an ideal typical case of low-wage manual service workers who are excluded from secure wages, decent working conditions, and employment protection.

An extensive survey with standardized questionnaires (n=107) and in-depth interviews (n=10) of toilet attendants in Belgian towns, mostly Brussels and Ghent. Results are compared to the work quality of low-skilled workers, and the within-group position of necessity workers is analysed.

Toilet attendants definitely occupy “bad jobs”, measured by the higher prevalence of informal and false self-employed statuses, more intense work-life conflicts and verbal aggression from clients, and a lower job satisfaction. In all these respects, they perform worse than other low-skilled workers. Concurrently, there is a strong within-group divide between necessity workers and those who see the job as an opportunity. Despite a similar job content, necessity workers less often earn a decent wage, suffer more from customer aggression, lack social support and pleasure from work. Mechanisms related to self-selection and the absence of intrinsic rewards explain these in-group differences.

This contribution indicates, first, that job insecurity spills over into poor working conditions, work-life conflicts, and customer aggression. Furthermore, it documents that jobs are not necessarily bad in themselves, but become problematic when taken up by people with too few choices and too pressing socio-economic needs. Problems of sub-standard jobs are not merely job problems but problems of workers in a certain position.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between the culture in one of the majority national trade unions in Spain and the difficulties in accomplishing the desired changes and innovations.

A total of 15 focus groups comprised of trade union leaders were conducted. Transcriptions of the groups were analyzed from a grounded theory approach

The presence of an “inconclusive dialectic” structure (thesis‐antithesis‐no synthesis) in the leaders' rhetoric was identified. From a dialectic perspective of organizational change, this can be interpreted as a factor slowing change within the organization.

The study reflects the role played by organizational culture in maintaining this inertia and in the delay of the reduction of divergence between internal and external dimensions implied in the working and survival of trade union organizations. The results of the study reflect the need to introduce changes in the trade union's language and to redefine some of the terms in the discourse. New standards for the evaluation of the efficiency of trade unions as a whole, teams and their members are also necessary. This redefinition implies proposals able to synthesize tensions between the ideological and instrumental and between activism and professionalism.

In order to face workers' demands in the current framework of labor relations, there is general consensus on the need for change and development in trade union organizations. There are numerous factors involved that have been analyzed and some initiatives have been implemented from different levels with unclear success. Although literature on organizational development gives culture a central role, in the case of trade unions this dimension has been neglected.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse gender differences in job quality during the first years of the economic crisis in Spain.

The paper uses microdata from the Quality of Working Life Survey. A representative sample of 5,381 and 4,925 Spanish employees (men and women) in 2008 and 2010, and a two-stage structural equation modelling (SEM) are empirically tested.

The study revealed three main results. First, the improvement in job quality was more favourable to men than it was to women. Second, the gender differences in the explanation of job quality increased considerably in favour of men. Third, this increase in gender-related job inequality in favour of men is explained by a worsening of 4 of the 5 explanatory dimensions thereof: intrinsic job quality; work organisation and workplace relationships; working conditions, work intensity and health and safety at work; and extrinsic rewards. Only inequality in the work-life balance dimension remained stable.

The availability of more detailed microdata for other countries and new statistical methods for analysing causal relationships, particularly SEM-PLS, would allow new approaches to be taken.

Public policy measures required to fight against gender inequalities are discussed.

The paper contributes to enrich the understanding of the multidimensional and gender-related determinants of job quality and, in particular, of studying the effects of the first years of the economic crisis.

The purpose of this paper was to establish whether precariousness of life as determined by temporary employment contributed to anxiety and depression and whether its consequences on daily life were differentiated in relation to gender.

A structural equation analysis of anxiety and depression with aspects of precariousness of life as model predictors was explored with t‐test and correlation analyses used to explore gender differences in the study variables.

The structural equation model produced strong evidence to suggest that precariousness of life was a significant predictor of both anxiety and depression. Women reported significantly higher scores than men on distrust toward the professional future and the emotional consequences on everyday life, anxiety and depression. As hypothesized, the negative consequences of temporary work in personal and family life appear more evident in women.

The results suggest that organizations should promote training courses on coping strategies to prevent the negative impact of precariousness of life aspects on anxiety and depression.

This study provides evidence supporting that temporary employment contributes to health consequences, which apply differently by gender. The study broadens understanding of temporary work management especially in regards to its health impact on female temporary workers. Furthermore, the Precariousness of Life Inventory has demonstrated an ability to tap into the latent factors of precariousness of life, revealing important gender differences and an ability to contribute to anxiety and depression.

The chapter elaborates a critical theoretical narrative about the political economy of European capitalism. It illustrates how precariousness has been exacerbated by the impact of the global financial crisis and the emergence of a new system of European governance. Theoretical accounts in the sociology of work and labor studies have demonstrated the complexity of the outcomes and widely discussed the role of national labor market institutions and employment policies and practices, political ideology, and cultural frameworks impinging upon precarious work as a multidimensional concept. The chapter’s core concern is to illustrate how shifts in power resources, and particularly the weakening and deinstitutionalization of organized labor relative to capital, has acted as a central social condition that has brought about precariousness during the years leading up to and following the 2007–2008 crisis. In so doing, the chapter aims to overcome the existing theoretical accounts of precariousness which have often been limited by one or another variant of “methodological nationalism,” thereby exploring the transnational apparatuses that are emerging across national economies to date, and which impinge upon the structures and experiences that workers exhibit in an age of growing marketization.