3. Temporary workers and COVID-19: Currents below a calm sea
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Conclusion
This chapter has looked at trends in temporary work and at the impact on temporary workers, as suggested by the early evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows that temporary work has a significant structural element, but that there can also be increased use of temporary work during crises as a result of business uncertainty. In countries with available data, there are signs of significant labour market churn of temporary workers since the onset of the pandemic, but the trends have not been dissimilar to those evident the year before the pandemic. It appears that
the implications of these dynamics for workers, enterprises and the macroeconomy are long term and not necessarily tied to the crisis. Although temporary work offers benefits to enterprises and to workers, it also brings negative effects for both enterprises and workers. While there is no consensus on the optimal mix of flexibility and security, certain measures can be used to discourage the use of temporary work for tasks more suitable for permanent workers and as a means of sidestepping regulations that would apply to permanent workers.
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