The employee and their social security in flexible forms of employment on the example of Poland – selected issues. Part I

Abstract

The regulation of employment and social policy – with safe and secure conditions of employment in terms of remuneration, safe employment conditions, protection in the event of dismissal, social dialogue, personal data protection, work-life balance, and finally a healthy, safe and well-adjusted work environment – constitutes the foundations of decent working conditions. At the same time, the task of a democratic state is to adjust the dynamically changing economic and market realities to ensure the maximum level of protection in the areas mentioned above relevant to each employee. This situation is also due to the radically progressing digitization that is changing the challenges of the modern labour market. In this article, the author endeavours to address the social security issue of selected flexible (atypical) forms of employment, including employee and non-employee forms of employment. The author chose fixed-term contracts and employment on digital platforms as the subject of analysis, while remaining aware of the multifaceted nature of social security. In this paper, she defends the thesis that the so-called “flexibility of employment relations” should be subject to the broader impact of social security regulations in situations where there are no normative obstacles to them being extended.