Redefining Work

Women are sometimes compelled to accept precarious work because they have to cater to the unpaid care work which stems from family obligations. Precarious work which includes part time work, agency work, etc. is more prevalent amongst women, by default, than it is amongst men. There are a lot of issues faced by non standard employment/ atypical work workers as compared to workers in full time/standard employment and since women are more likely to accept such employment it is more gendered in nature. There is a need to look into the labour law policy through a feminist perspective not only to improve the conditions of women in non standard employment but moving from precarious work to full time work by making work conditions suitable for women. This study will focus on the issues related to precarious work, the need for recognising unpaid care work attributed to women, as an issue giving rise to precarious work and the ways to combat the same through feminisation of workplace. Progress relating to improvement in non standard employment in European Union is rapid because the European Employment Strategy promotes the use of non standard forms of work as a means of boosting labour supply. Moreover, when it comes to degenderizing employment in the atypical work sphere, radical steps have been taken by most of its member nations. This study shall take European Union as a comparator due to the fact that European Union is so advanced in this sphere of non standard employment and anti discrimination. Despite such progress, European Union member nations are still striving for achieving the decent work standards set by International Labour Organisation, which along with the quality of employment also focuses on gender neutral employment policies for the betterment of economy through fair labour law legislations. In India, issue relating to precarious work has not been given any special attention in the formal as well as informal sector. So far as unpaid care work is considered, that has not been challenged at all. It is futile to discuss the theory of feminism to be included in framing a labour law policy without substantiating it with practical application and there comes the role of feminist economics, which will study the impact of such inclusion in the specific economic context of current-day India. Law plays an important role in making social changes; it is one of the instruments to do so. This study shall address all the challenges faced by women when it comes to transition from unpaid care work to precarious work and later on towards full time employment, thereby breaking the male breadwinner model existing in our society.