Precariousness refers to the act and result of making precarious , a verb that refers to causing something to lose quality . Labor , meanwhile, mentions what is linked to work .
The process that causes a detriment to the rights of workers is called job insecurity . Precarious employees lack stability and security and suffer poor working conditions .
The usual thing is that job insecurity is associated with labor flexibility : the reduction of regulations that govern the labor market and that protect the most vulnerable part. When a flexibility process is developed, allowing employers to carry out low-cost layoffs , minimize social coverage and reduce salaries , it gives rise to job insecurity.
While defenders of liberalism maintain that flexibility helps to boost the economy and results in more job opportunities for all citizens, unions affirm that, when the State loses presence in the regulation of the market, job insecurity occurs, with workers as the biggest losers.
Due to job insecurity, people can have an income and yet not cover their basic material needs . Furthermore, they can lose their job at any time and not receive compensation according to the consequences that this loss generates.
Job insecurity also means that, at times, employees must tolerate abuses of power by employers. The lack of hygiene in the work environment and the obligation to stay after hours without extra pay are part of this problem.
All of this can be analyzed from different perspectives, taking into account the needs and rights that are violated in each particular case or in the various groups that we can distinguish within society. In this way, job insecurity proves to be a much more complex problem than a simple case of "bad working conditions." However, only the latter would be enough to act in pursuit of evolution, since no one should suffer to gain economic support.
Unfortunately, the reality of work is hard for a large portion of the population, without forgetting the millions of human beings who do not even have access to a job or a warm bed at night. Life is not easy for the majority, but the main problem is that it is not fair , that a few can decide for the rest. Instability is one of the key factors of job insecurity.
And this goes hand in hand with the vulnerability to which so many people are subjected, for different reasons: their continuity in the company is not guaranteed, or their health is at risk due to lack of attention to health standards, and this It means that they cannot relax and work productively but rather live in constant anguish due to the potential consequences of job insecurity.
If we add to all this the reduced access to certain benefits and benefits, the work reality of many people is truly worrying because they give a large part of their week to companies that exploit them, despise them and get rid of them whenever they please. In fact, this wear and tear due to terrible conditions is one of the main factors in dismissal, which leads us to a particularly twisted vicious circle: "I mistreat you, that reduces your performance and then I fire you because you perform less."
One of the darkest phenomena of job insecurity is chain subcontracting , which consists of a series of contracts starting with the company that requires a specific service until reaching the one that actually performs it, passing through a variable number of others that invest. less and less money in the next one. Working conditions, quality of materials and worker safety are also increasingly poorer as we reach the lower end of the chain.