THE CHALLENGES OF PART -TIME WORK IN THE CONTEXT OF FLEXICURITY

Part-time work has become an important instrument of the national legislators to create new jobs and to respond to employers’ demands for increased flexibility. For workers it can be a „bridge“between employment and inactivity and vice versa, as well as an instrument to achieve a better balance between working life and family responsibilities. The law regulating atypical employment relationship has a complex role to play today: to promote the creation of the desired voluntary part-time work arrangements and to put those workers on equal footing with „standard“ workers. In Croatia only a small percentage of workers work part-time. Unlike workers in other EU member states, especially those with a lower unemployment rate, Croatian workers choose to work part-time mostly involuntarily in the absence of full-time employment opportunities. The authors analyse the advantages and disadvantages of part-time work, regulation of part-time work at the international and regional level with special attention to problem issues regarding definition and access to part-time work. In this context the case law of the European Court of Justice has been consulted. Measures encouraging part-time work, as well as good practice in some European countries have been presented. Also, they analyse problem related to low rate of part-time work in Croatia and propose solutions de lege ferenda