Since the beginning of the 1980s, an increase in the number of fixed-term employment contracts has been apparent in a number of free-market-oriented economies. This has been accompanied by amendments to the pertinent legislation. From the early to mid-1980s, a number of EC countries initiated...

Until the start of the seventies the situation on the labour markets of the European industrial states was considered with relative optimism. The high growth rates which most of the countries had achieved seemed to be sufficient to absorb the increases in the available labour force. The author...