The articles of this special issue ‘Which securities for workers in times of crisis?’ deal with the reactions of national labour law in response to the ongoing economic crisis. Four conventional wisdoms are challenged. A first conventional wisdom is to present the legal answers to the ongoing economic crisis as contingent by nature – in other words, existing only in response to, and during times of, crisis. The second wisdom concerns the functioning of labour markets and their division into two groups: insiders and outsiders. The third wisdom is that fundamental social rights could play an active role in defining new securities for workers. Finally, the fourth conventional wisdom concerns the myth of flexicurity. We ask whether it is now time to abandon the flexicurity concept since its security side has been left dormant.