8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Dual employment protection legislation weaken the position of the youth Firing cost should be gradually increasing with the duration of employment relationship Employment protection legislation often treats different categories of workers in different ways. Differences in redundancy costs of fixed-term and permanent employees are large in a number of countries.
Fixed-term contracts are common, particularly among young workers and ideally they can act as a “bridge” to a permanent position. But the temporary contracts are in a weaker position relative to ongoing contracts, and layoffs have been concentrated on fixed-term contracts. So young people are in general in a weaker position due to their over-representation in these contracts.