Page 17 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

guidance support from public employment services where national evidence
suggests these are often not well-fitted in their focus, funding or responsiveness
to the challenges of enterprise restructuring situations. This legacy may be a
significant constraint on restructuring practice and potential, especially in ‘newer’
Member States, where the necessary policy impetus (including public
employment services, PES) seems to have developed relatively late.
Where there are established and structured provisions and capacity for adult-
related information advice and guidance, Member States nonetheless vary
greatly in the way they support workers in restructuring situations. In the
restructuring processes reviewed in this study, much of the support to workers is
provided through active or passive collaborations with external bodies. This is
predominantly publicly-funded and affects smaller enterprises and large.
Enterprise-led practice seems to remain essentially reactive, and often very
short-term in the support arrangements then implemented. The exceptions (in
selected enterprises in Germany and Sweden) have seen enabling legislation
and established social partnership structures encouraging medium and larger
enterprises to be more proactive, developing and adopting collective solutions
well in advance of restructuring decisions. This approach plays a significant role
in ‘work-security’ focused adjustments, although such arrangements seem to
cover only around a half of the employed workforce in those countries, and lack
portability across national borders in Europe.
Across the oldest Member States (EU-15) there seems to be a common
recognition that socially responsible practice requires some ‘safety net’ of support
for employees to be made redundant or who are at risk of redundancy. However,
there are considerable contrasts in what the expectations and provisions are for
safety nets even where, for example, employment protection or stability
legislation exist. While this may include codified periods of redundancy
notification, a defined statutory entitlement to retraining, referral guarantees (to
labour employment offices, for example), or legislative entitlement to ‘buffer’
periods for work adjustment and job search, the scope and content of these
varies, often greatly, between countries. However, there is also no common view
across Member States of what role career guidance should play within safety
nets.
Outside minimum employee entitlements in lay-offs, such as referral to PES,
career guidance is uncommonly a feature of ‘safety nets’ across Europe.
Entitlements not related to support services for redundant workers, such as
statutory notification periods may not be well aligned with guidance needs and
circumstances, and may impair rather than help constructive and personalised
career guidance interventions. Safety net arrangements seem to emphasise

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