Flexible labour in flexible production

The other side of such success is however also the entry of flexible Humans into  flexible production. Michael Hartmann, Professor for the sociology of elites reckons for us: “ Twenty years ago 67.7% of labour was employed in a full time job with social security. Today it is only 39%. 43.5% of the people work and live with existential insecurity! Almost half of all those employed find themselves in practical training, repeated temporary employment, service contracts or agency work. Many well qualified people need 3 jobs to be able to make ends meet.”

In fact even the completely unsecured jobs of the „Crowd workers“ (internet workers) and the “Gig-Economy” ( Piecework and payment per App) are spreading fast. These jobs are fee-based and often the one who quotes the lowest cost gets the job. A lector checks the book of a well-known publishing house for an hourly wage of 7.90 €/ hour. That is not the minimum wage, but the person is self-employed and decides the price for her work on her own. A press photographer gets 40€ for his picture in print. Even teachers and professors have started being  employed as freelancers. On Internet platforms such as “My Hammer craftsmen” offer their services. Here only that person gets to work who offers to work for the lowest hourly wage for example 5.80€. Further the crowd worker is being continuously monitored. Should his rating fall below 75% he only gets lower paying jobs. Corporations such as Audi, Telekom, Henkel, Deutsche Bank or Coca Cola, but even NGOs such as Greenpeace are moving their work out to crowd platforms.  A very new idea is the so called standby contract. This is the basis on which, for example, salespeople at H&M  or couriers at Foodora work.  They must be on standby for 6 days a week, almost around the clock, and are then allowed to work only the guaranteed 10 to 15 hours a week – and that too for just a pittance. Pensioners poverty is pre-programmed.