The collection of articles titled Through the Eyes of the Precariat features 56 interviews with people in public life, ranging from former president Milan Kučan to Archbishop Stanislav Zore. We shouldn’t accept the notion that there are “first class” and “second class” employees working for the same company – people who sometimes do the exact same work. That’s according to the author of the report Črt Poglajen, who also heads the Institute for the Study of the Precariat.

Researchers have discovered that there is no consensus about the definition of “precariat.” There aren’t many differences in how precarious labor is defined among experts, but things become more complicated among politicians, or in debates between employers and labor unions on one side and employees on another, added Poglajen.
Is precarious labor an important topic?

“It’s difficult to determine the significance of precarious labor because we don’t have that many serious studies. I would argue, however, that the problem isn’t talked about enough. The media spend too little time discussing issues faced by people in difficult positions because media organizations themselves are a source of precarity. When journalists talk about precarious labor, they’re mostly talking about themselves,” said the Secretary General of the Slovenian Association of Journalists (DNS) Špela Stare.

Is precarity in the media sector a greater problem than elsewhere? According to Stare, the problem with precarious labor is significant in this field, but all other intellectual professions are feeling the pinch, since so-called “copyright contracts” are becoming increasingly common. “You can’t give such a contract to a secretary, but it’s easier to apply it to intellectual work done by a researcher at a university or a journalist,” explained Stare.
The problem goes beyond intellectual work, however. In other fields, employees are using agency workers, involuntary part-time contracts, and the self-employed to avoid paying proscribed employment expenses. Stare also noted the problem of labor unions, which usually fight for the rights of full-time employees but forget the others.
“If you haven’t made it, you must be lazy”

When conducting the interviews, Poglajen was especially surprised by the opinion of former president Kučan, whose views on precarious labor turned out to be very radical. Kučan called on the labor unions who are fighting for the rights of full-time employees to pick up the banner for precarious workers in their fields.

The second interviewee who surprised Poglajen was Archbishop Zore, whose welfare-oriented views could be, according to Poglajen, described as leftist. “He stressed that the income disparities between people should not keep increasing, that individuals must be respected, and that blame for the failure of individuals should not be ascribed to their laziness and reluctance to work,” added Poglajen.

Gorazd Kosmač
Translated by J. B.