Implementing the EU's directive on Fixed-term Contracts at Company Level - Effects and Influences

Article by Trine P. Larsen

This article examines the effects and influences of the EU's directive on fixed-term contracts in the Danish local government sector. The study is based on interviews with 259 workplaces, central management and trade union representatives from 14 randomly selected Danish municipalities.

The article argues that although social partners at local level have transposed the directive, its actual effects are limited, as employers' recruitment strategies and fixed-term workers' working conditions have changed relatively little as a result of the directive. The success of implementing the directive largely depends on the used regulation methods at EU-, national- and local levels as well as the institutional set up for regulating wage- and working conditions at local level. Also the size of the individual workplaces seems crucial. Indeed, the directive has been more influential among municipalities which have developed local implementation initiatives and have more centralised procedures for regulating wage- and working conditions, particularly if the individual workplaces have no trade union representative.

Article for DSE conference 9 October 2008.