ABSTRACT
During the last decade, flexibility is frequently mentioned when characterising the ongoing transformation of work organisation and employment patterns, as well as in regulation of the labour market. Flexibility is seen as a main instrument in reducing labour costs, boosting employment, and increasing productivity. Consequently, the need for flexibility in work and employment is emphasised by both politicians and employers as a necessity to adjust the national labour markets to the intensified competition following from globalisation, new forms of technology, and changing consumer patterns and family relations. Seen from the employer's perspective, introduction of labour flexibility is a convenient instrument for helping firms cope with the growing uncertainty in the market and in giving the employers the possibility of transferring this uncertainty on to their employees. For the employees, the introduction of flexible work organisations and employment contracts are more dubious. On the one hand, it might release the employees from the most rigid forms of organising the work process and thereby give them greater possibilities of combining work and family responsibilities. On the other hand, it typically also means more insecurity and irregularity of employment contracts and consequently greater vulnerability in their position in the labour market (Benoit 2000; Carnoy, Castells and Brenner 1997; Castells 1996; Dex and McCulloch 1997; O'Reilly and Fagan 1998; Rubery et al. 1998).
