EU諸国における自営業者への失業給付

昨日のエントリの続きで、昨年11月の勧告の元になった労使団体への第2次協議の付属文書でEU諸国における自営業者への社会保障の適用状況を取りまとめているんですが、その中の失業給付に関する部分をちょっと見ておきますと：

http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=18596&langId=en

Regarding the formal coverage of unemployment benefits for the self-employed, Member States can be classified into three groups.

The first group is made up of eleven countries where the self-employed are compulsorily insured against unemployment (Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, and Slovakia). In Finland, compulsory insurance covers entitlements to flat rate basic benefits, i.e. basic unemployment daily allowance, and labour market subsidy. Insurance for income-related benefit is voluntary, as it is also for employees. Likewise, Sweden has a two-tier unemployment insurance system: a universal flat-rate benefit, combined with voluntary state-subsidised, earnings-related compensation. Moreover, in three other countries, Estonia, Ireland and the UK, they have access only to means-tested unemployment benefits.

The second group is made up of four countries where the self-employed can join unemployment insurance schemes on a voluntary basis (Austria, Denmark, Spain, and Romania). For instance, in Spain, the self-employed have a specific unemployment protection scheme which they can join voluntarily: cessation of business activity benefit. In Denmark, the state finances the marginal risk of unemployment in voluntary unemployment insurance funds regardless of the employment status of the person (salaried employees, self-employed etc.). There is, however, no general definition of self-employment, and the benefits are granted by a discretionary decision based on a complex set of rules.

The third group is formed of ten countries where the self-employed are not covered in case of unemployment (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and the Netherlands). In this group of countries, certain categories of self-employed may be compulsorily covered. This is the case of dependent self-employed and liberal professions in Italy, or employees of micro-enterprises in Latvia. It should be noted that the Belgian situation is rather specific: while there is no possibility to be covered by an unemployment insurance, there is a compulsory social insurance in the case of bankruptcy, the amount of which may be higher than the unemployment benefit paid to former salaried workers.

自営業者も失業保険に強制加入の国が11か国、任意加入の国が4か国、自営業者は加入できない国が10か国と、見事に分かれていますね。

ただ、有名どころのドイツとフランスや、イタリア、ベルギー、オランダといったところが加入できない国で、イギリスは資産調査つきの失業給付という事実上社会扶助みたいなものだけなので、加入できる国がこれだけ多いことがあんまり伝わっていないのかも知れません。

このあたり、労働法でも社会保障法でもちゃんと研究している人はほとんどいないように思うのですが、これから間違いなく売れ筋になる研究テーマだと思うので、是非若い人々に取り組んでもらいたいところです。