Security vs. Autonomy

karen herland

Workers who are their own bosses never have to negotiate the minefield of office politics and need no more than a bathrobe to commute from bed to their home office.

On the other hand, they often work in isolation without job security or any kind of social safety net. Are the self-employed casualties of globalization and downsizing?

A book by sociologist Martine D’Amours, Le travail independent: Un révélateur des mutations du travail, takes on these myths by objectively exploring the conditions of self-employment. The research is based on her UQAM doctoral thesis.

D’Amours, a professor in the School of Community and Public Affairs, said that a full third of the workforce are currently outside of the paradigmatic regular, full-time job for single-employer sector. That third is made up of the self-employed, contract and seasonal workers, consultants and part-time employees.

“There is no code, no norm for having a full-time permanent employee, so employers have no impetus to create permanent employees,” D’Amours said, and usually, it’s less expensive for them not to."

D’Amours chose to focus on the independent worker. She found that within that category, there were five specific models of worker ranging from professionals like lawyers and architects to non-professionals like truck-drivers or maids, to piece-workers, consultants or artists.

D’Amours discovered much had been written about why a growing number of people work in non-standardized conditions. “Often, the situation is presented as individual choice.”

Young mothers can stay home with their children, and night owls can sleep the day away and still be productive. “But remaining focused on individuals means you lose some of the larger conditions that create that situation,” D’Amours argued.

There are broader repercussions. “Most [labour] legislation excludes these people. At some point we have to consider the impact of a large group of people who are aging with no pension and few RRSPs.”

D’Amours found a range of factors that influenced work conditions. While many autonomous workers enjoy more freedom than those in office situations, some are dependent on contractors. For instance, pieceworkers can either acccept their contractors underbid price or refuse the job.

Others have to develop and maintain their own client base. A hairdresser who falls ill, takes time off with a new baby or moves to a new town has to start over again, with no benefits to tide him/her over.

D’Amours returned to school after 15 years working as a writer for an alternative paper, Vie Ouvrière, and then as a freelancer. Studying work-related issues seemed like a logical step.

At school, she worked on research and lecture contracts. “A journalist works from one article to the next, a researcher from one year to the next. But you still assume the same risks.”

That risk, the flip side of freedom, is the focus of D’Amours’ current research through the FQRSC, the Quebec humanities and social services granting agency. In broad terms, professionals are better able to set up RRSPs. Non-professionals can’t afford that option and rely more on family.

D’Amours said some independent workers would be willing to pay into a general employment insurance fund. However, such options don’t interest those who can afford their own safety net, and “employment insurance can’t work if only the poorest are willing to pay in.”

D’Amours has funding through SSHRC to explore different legislative models to address these issues.

Ultimately, she would like to see government working with professional associations and unions to ensure basic security for independent workers, but she said such solutions are unlikely in the short-term.