wow-inequalities/02-data/intermediate/wos_sample/db801968ed9390413a5afb39e3c3579c-navajas-romero-virg/info.yaml

abstract: 'Recent years have shown rapid and profound changes in work organization

  and job content, materialized in new schemes of economic and labor

  nature, such as the increasingly common outsourcing or subcontracting of

  workforce. This trend has contributed to the emergence of dependent

  self-employed workers, who perform their work responsibilities in a

  ``gray area{''''} between paid and self-employment. The concept of

  ``dependent self-employed{''''} has also been used to label several labor

  practices or new forms of precarious freelance or professional

  activities, and although the terminology may vary, it is a clear and

  well-known reality in Europe. Despite this fact, there seems to be

  little empirical evidence about its specific characteristics and

  nuances.

  The present work aims to study the main labor characteristics of

  dependent self-employed workers-individuals with civil or commercial

  contracts who perform their economic activities depending on or

  integrated into the company they work for-in the current context of the

  European Union; to this end, a comparative analysis is conducted to

  differentiate or associate the profiles of three collectives: salaried

  employees, and dependent and traditional self-employed workers.

  Additionally, working conditions of the three groups considered are

  examined in order to show the specific particularities between them.

  The initial premise is intended to face the two groups of self-employed

  workers to elucidate whether such advantages remain or disappear for

  dependent self-employed subjects. After an initial bivariate analysis,

  the working conditions of the three groups under investigation have been

  compared in pairs: salaried employees, and dependents (false)

  self-employed and and non-dependent (traditional) self-employed workers.

  The statistical approach used to fulfill the objectives of this work is

  based on the binary logistic regression model, a particular regression

  models with dichotomous response. This statistical technique allows the

  development of a logit model to study the probability of the occurrence

  of an investigated event -e.g. being part of the autonomous

  collective-versus the probability of occurrence of the opposite event

  -e.g. being hire as a salaried employee-, according to a set of

  variables that bibliographic review has identified as related to the

  phenomenon under analysis: individual characteristics, organizational

  factors, and attitudinal variables.

  It had been used a sample of 2409 subjects has been obtained from the

  fifth European Survey on Working Conditions and broken down into three

  groups: dependent self-employed, independent self-employed, and salaried

  workers. The results point out that there is a common core in terms of

  those factors that discriminate between self-employed workers and

  jobholders; however, there are some nuances that distinguish and define

  each group of self-employed individuals with regard to salaried

  employees. In comparison to wage employment, self-employment presents

  more precarious extrinsic working conditions - kind of working day, type

  of economic activity, level of income, etc.- which are compensated, to

  some extent, by certain elements of intrinsic reward such as greater

  flexibility or the content of work itself.

  Three logistic regression models are proposed to identify the profile of

  self-employed subjects both false and traditional-from salaried

  employees, as well as to compare the working conditions of self-employed

  workers with each other. So first, we confront the two types of

  self-employed workers with salaried employees. When comparing both, it

  is observed that there is a common core with regard to the factors that

  differentiate between the self-employed workers and salaried employees:

  among the former, part-time occupations are more frequent, which does

  not prevent them from working more hours a week, even at weekend,

  although they enjoy more flexibility in deciding their working schedule;

  they are also less likely to work in shifts and have greater autonomy

  over the content of their economic activities compared to salaried

  employees. Finally, agricultural work is more common among self-employed

  people, as well as receiving lower remunerations.

  The weekly work hours of false self-employed subjects are higher than

  those of the salaried job-holders, while they are more likely to be

  forced to work on the weekend and less to do shift works. In addition,

  the probability for a false self-employed subject to earn below average

  income is almost triple than that of a salaried employee. This

  vulnerable position is partly amended by the presence of other elements

  of intrinsic compensation that dependent self-employed workers - in

  contrast to wage jobholders-enjoy, such as more flexibility in deciding

  their working hours or a greater autonomy over the content of their

  occupational activity. These workers provide their services more

  frequently in the construction and, above all, agricultural sector.

  Finally, despite the precariousness of their working conditions, false

  self-employed people are much more involved with their occupations than

  those employed by others. All these results are significant at the 1\%

  level; for this level of significance, the logistic regression model

  indicates that the rest of the variables, that have independently showed

  a significant relationship with the type of work, no longer bear it when

  it comes to evaluating its overall impact.

  Besides that, we compare non-dependent self-employed subjects with

  salaried employees, incorporates two personal variables so that the

  former are more likely to be older men than the latter. As regards

  working conditions, non-dependent self-employed people work more

  part-time, as well as many more hours a week and even at weekends, which

  is associated with lower monthly incomes than those paid to salaried

  employees. Model 3 establishes a comparison between the two types of

  self-employed workers. The profile of a false self-employed subject

  happens to be a woman who performs a ``blue-collar{''''} job for a smaller

  number of hours per week than that completed by the non-dependent

  self-employed ones, and with a lower income as well. What is more, the

  component of time flexibility and autonomy over the occupational

  activities disappears among the false self-employed people when

  comparing to the rest of self-employed workers. Similarly, the

  probability for a dependent self-employed subject to work in the

  agriculture sector is more than double than that of a non-dependent

  self-employed one. Despite the situation, the only actitudinal variable

  that differentiates both groups is the lower degree of job stress shown

  by false self-employed people. False self-employed workers constitute a

  collective of great interest to the labor market. Many companies began

  to resort to this figure in the hardest years of the crisis, justifying

  it as a lesser evil. However, some of these firms have ended up

  implementing this kind of external recruitement as a regular practice; a

  labor strategy oriented towards saving costs. More often than desirable,

  false self-employed workers perform the same activity as their peers

  with contracts, but lack the rights stated in the labor law for salaried

  employees. In spite of this circumstance, empirical research on

  dependent self-employed people is very limited given the opacity that

  characterizes the collective. On the one hand, problems of conceptual

  precision make it difficult to discern in some instances who or who is

  not a false self-employed subject. On the other hand, the very situation

  of vulnerability in which these people find themselves causes

  complications for a researcher to obtain reliable and unbiased

  information. Nonetheless, it is less common for non-dependent

  self-employed to work shift or night shift. In spite of this

  circumstance, empirical research on dependent self-employed people is

  very limited given the opacity that characterizes the collective.

  Problems of conceptual precision make it difficult to discern in some

  instances who or who is not a false self-employed subject and the very

  situation of vulnerability in which these people find themselves causes

  complications for a researcher to obtain reliable and unbiased

  information. Managerial changes have to be focused on the individuals

  and the values that might help them progress to a new organizational

  culture where the delegation of authority, open communication systems,

  participation, collaboration, and continuous learning - among

  others-prevail. This ideal scenario is clouded by the use of

  outsourcing, sometimes even fraudulent, as an instrument to circumvent

  conventional and legal employment contracts. The paradox is that other

  forces could unbalance the alleged savings attributable to the use of

  these new forms of work organization.

  By incorporating new rules to the occupational arena, which smear the

  organizational board where labor relations within the company are

  settled, the virus of distrust is inoculated among workers, both those

  who are subjected to the coercion of dependent self-employment and those

  who remain in the company being suspicious that they can be selected and

  reorganized as well at any time. This process irreversibly contaminates

  the values on which workers sustain their daily behavior, affecting in

  one way or another the business competitiveness.'
affiliation: 'Navajas-Romero, V (Corresponding Author), Univ Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain.

  Navajas-Romero, Virginia, Univ Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain.

  Carmen Lopez-Martin, Ma; Ariza-Montes, Antonio, Univ Loyola Andalucia, Seville,
  Spain.'
author: Navajas-Romero, Virginia and Carmen Lopez-Martin, Ma and Ariza-Montes, Antonio
author-email: mclopez@uloyola.es
author_list:
- family: Navajas-Romero
  given: Virginia
- family: Carmen Lopez-Martin
  given: Ma
- family: Ariza-Montes
  given: Antonio
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.89.10008
eissn: 1989-6816
files: []
issn: 0213-8093
journal: CIRIEC-ESPANA REVISTA DE ECONOMIA PUBLICA SOCIAL Y COOPERATIVA
keywords: 'Self-employed worker; dependent self-employed worker; working

  conditions; salaried workers; binary logistic regression'
keywords-plus: JOB-SATISFACTION; ENTREPRENEURSHIP; CHALLENGES
language: Spanish
month: APR
number-of-cited-references: '73'
orcid-numbers: 'Ariza-Montes, Antonio/0000-0002-5921-0753

  Navajas-Romero, Virginia/0000-0001-7381-8071'
pages: 167-198
papis_id: 770f66e83abbb97124852b9b8ad194b5
ref: Navajasromero2017dependentselfemploye
researcherid-numbers: 'Lopez-Martin, M Carmen/HKV-2043-2023

  Ariza-Montes, Antonio/G-8882-2017

  '
times-cited: '3'
title: Dependent self-employed workers in Europe
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000427094400007
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '40'
volume: '89'
web-of-science-categories: Economics
year: '2017'