ABSTRACT
In European countries, workers and their families are the two pillars on which the French social protection system is primarily based. The term workers has to be understood in this respect as meaning employed persons enjoying direct rights, and their dependants, such as wives and children, who thereby benefit from derived rights. Since the 1970s, the expected trend towards greater stability in the protective status of wage employment has been turned on its head. Intermediary employment situations lying between pure wage employment and pure self-employment are now multiplying. It has been seen above that, due to the transformation in the characteristics of the labour market, the current rules respecting social protection are particularly penalizing in two areas: unemployment benefit and retirement benefit entitlements. Young persons are particularly affected by difficulties in gaining access to employment and by the instability of employment.
