The wide-ranging European perspectives brought together in this volume aim to analyse, by means of an interdisciplinary approach, the numerous implications of a massive shift in the conception of ‘work’ and the category of ‘worker’. Changes in the production models, economic downturn and increasing digitalisation have triggered a breakdown in the terms and assumptions that previously defined and shaped the notion of employment. This has made it more difficult to discuss, and problematise, issues like vulnerability in employment in such terms as unfairness, inequality and inadequate protection. Taking the ‘deconstruction of employment’ as a central idea for theorising the phenomenon of work today, this volume explores the emergence of new semantic fields and territories for understanding and regulating employment. These new linguistic categories have implications beyond language alone: they reformulate the very concept of waged employment (including those aspects previously considered intrinsic to the meaning of work and of being ‘a worker’), along with other closely associated categories such as unemployment, self-employment, and inactivity.

Se resumen cinco dimensiones del tiempo de trabajo decente (promoción de la salud y la seguridad, ser conveniente para la familia, promover la igualdad de género, aumentar la productividad y la competitividad de las empresas, facilitar la elección y la influencia del trabajador en sus horas de trabajo), y cómo poner en práctica estos principios. Se identifica cómo cada una de las dimensiones puede contribuir a alcanzar la situación ideal de tiempo de trabajo de beneficio mutuo para el trabajador y el empleador mientras mejora el equilibrio entre vida privada y trabajo, y simultáneamente aumenta la competitividad de las empresas.

This book has been envisaged as a contribution to defining the concept of decent work and promoting its achievement, as objectives adopted by the International Labour Organisation. It approaches its task from the particular viewpoint of the prospects and practices of the vocational training institutions of the Latin American and Caribbean Region.