Employee benefit plans occupy a special place in systems of social protection. Traditionally tied to work for an employer in a company, they provide a form of social protection which can be fairly described as fragmentary. That is to say, the rights they carry vary hugely from one employer to...

Atypical work, i.e. part-time and fixed term employment, has become the new norm in many industrialised countries. Welfare states, however, were traditionally designed to accommodate the needs of standard workers in manufacturing. This study examines to what extent welfare states have adapted to...