Munca precară, soluție pentru populația vulnerabilă din mediul rural. Rezultate dintr-o cercetare calitativă

Abstract

Driven by the social and political transformations and the general economic situation, the overall employment situation in Romania become very complex. It has shifted from generalized standard employment in socialism to wider informal or non-standardized forms of work. Over the last 25 years, Romania has undergone a very long and difficult transition period, with several social and economic recessions. The recent economic crises contributed to a decline in the country’s social and economic situation, especially for vulnerable groups (youth, aged employees, disabled or ethnic minorities) that are less protected in the face of economic challenges. Employment is one of the most important factors responsible for standard of living and quality of life. The labour market was particularly affected by crises, and the main consequences were unemployment, but also the emergence of atypical employment forms and substitute strategies for economic survival. The analysis of monetary indicators (poverty rate, equalized median income) and the non-monetary measure of poverty (deprivation rate) demonstrates a poor condition in Romania, in comparison with the European average. The article’s research objective is to study the occupational situation of a vulnerable population in a rural Romanian community. The population living in a situation of precarious prosperity (coined by Hubinger in 1996) is defined by irregular income, income and material deprivation, the concept being operationalized by following the methodology of multidimensional poverty measurement. The data were gathered through face-to-face interviews that included a wide variety of topics: employment and career paths, intergenerational exchanges, coping strategies and standards of living. To analyse the data we used analytic induction to identify the main patterns of precarious work in the area under study, investigating the dimensions of instability, insecurity, working conditions, accident risks and level of income. The results showed the dominant pattern of employment in the community to be informal, daily based work in construction, services or subsistence agriculture. Access to more stable jobs is obstructed by the costs of commuting to the neighbouring cities, as well as by the lack of social services for children or other dependent family members. The social consequences of precarious work in this community are observed in individual and family life, and particularly affect the younger generation, for whom the absence of permanent jobs delays the transition to adulthood and independence. The article’s results confirmed that there is a population living in a situation of precarious prosperity, based on informal employment experiences, very poor working conditions, low payment and adverse social consequences.