Dualisation and part-time work in France, Germany and the UK: Accounting for within and between country differences in precarious work

Abstract

By comparing protections for part-time work in France, Germany and the UK, this article contributes to the comparative debate over whether industrial relations actors are mitigating or creating labour market dualisation. Significant variations in incidence and form of part-time work (a ‘spectrum of precariousness’), between and within the three countries, are explained through a theoretical frame that layers the actions of industrial relations actors against a backdrop of welfare and labour market rules and gender relations. This reveals important path dependent differences in part-time work patterns, including in the lines by which part-time work is segmented. The findings call for a more nuanced approach to dualisation that recognises that trade union responses to precarious work, albeit conditioned by their own path dependencies, have involved active efforts to extend protections to part-timers through twin strategies of support for legislative instruments and new forms of organising, albeit with only partial success.