Precarious Job Security: The Case of Self-employed Workers in Argentina?s Public Administration (1995-2010)

LORENA POBLETE

Londres,

Conferencia; British Sociological Association Annual Conference: ?Giving sociology a voice?; 2011

British Sociological Association

The last twenty years have seen an increase in the participation of independent workers in most national labour markets. Many of these independent workers can be considered ?dependent self-employed workers?. They are formally self-employed; however, since they depend economically on a contractor, their working conditions are similar to those of wage employees. These workers do not have an employment contract, but rather supply labour to their employer via a private or commercial contract. Because this hybrid category of dependent self-employment has characteristics of both wage employment and self-employment, problems inherent to workers in this category are limited job security and restricted access to the social security system. However, when this category of workers works in public administration, like in Argentina since 1995, we observed that some risks associated to this status disappears. Beside the legal status, labour practices inertia defines a new kind of job security. The goal of this paper is to analyse the emergency of this new kind of job security. We will analyse qualitative data produced during the last teen years, to understand how labour practices can redefine the limits of a legal labour status.