Self-employment as employment policy. Domestic work's regulation in France and in Argentina

POBLETE, LORENA; DEVETTER, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER

Warwick

Congreso; Work, Employment & Society Conference; 2013

British Sociological Association

For several decades, in many countries, the promotion of self-employment has become central in employment policy. First, this occurs as a result of a generalization of flexible labour relations´ regime which seems necessary for a globalized production system. Second, because the impossibility to reduce unemployment with public employment growth of job creation in the private sector, the state delegates to the individuals the responsibility to create their own jobs. In Latin America, an additional factor is the need to formalize many labour relations. At the same time, promoted by ILO, decent work becomes, at least discursively, a priority objective of national employment policies. In this context, a new legislation on domestic work under self-employment status was created in Argentina (1998) and in France (2008). The aim of this paper is to analyse comparatively both national regulations, emphasizing in common elements and the specificity of national employment policies, and the economic and political conjuncture. The main purpose is to understand how these new regulations contributes to improve the working conditions of domestic workers. As part of a study of employment policies, this research will focus on the analysis of the labour regulation, including laws ans parliamentary debates.