Page 170 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

employees. This is particularly so in some of the newer Member States, where
the necessary policy impetus and services (Cedefop, Walsh and Parsons, 2005)
have developed relatively late. This is not to say that publicly funded mainstream
services are absent, since there is evidence of significant interest and
investment, in developing career guidance through programmes such as the
ESF, as part of wider VET development or reform programmes. Elsewhere, with
some important exceptions, the range of guidance intervention in restructuring
situations depends largely on services covered by local and regional schemes,
rapid reaction programmes, and differences in PES and other organisations’
capacity to provide adequate support to adults in employment, in the particular
context of restructuring enterprises.
The review has shown that Member States vary greatly in the way they
support workers, though there is increased interest in active labour measures
and the development of flexicurity which potentially can support restructuring
processes, as acknowledged also by recent European Commission research
(European Commission, 2009c). The present review suggests most ‘better
practice’ is provided through partnerships with external bodies and is
predominantly publicly-funded. Consequently, where restructuring occurs in
Member States where publicly-funded adult counselling and career related
guidance has struggled to develop, this can leave employees caught up in
circumstances which are beyond enterprises’ capacity, or willingness, to address
the needs of laid-off workers. Some Member States have a long way to go to
develop more integrated and all-age guidance to support, and empower, citizens
in their life and work choices.
Across the oldest Member States (EU-15) there is recognition that socially
responsible practice requires some ‘safety net’ for employees being made
redundant, with the scope and content of these varying, often greatly, between
countries. If there is a consensus that safety nets are a necessary feature, there
is no common view of what role guidance should play within this. Certain
statutory arrangements may impair career guidance interventions, for example
with minimum statutory notification periods shortening in a number of countries.
Training subsidies and vocational training support seem to be the most common
area of standardised entitlement. However, these may have limited choice for
individuals affected and do not always support sustained individual abilities to
manage their careers, which public policy is often keen to encourage.
Where it exists in the reviewed countries, minimum service level for careers
information and related guidance services stems less from regulatory provision
for safety nets than from previously negotiated collective agreements for
restructuring or job displacement. These emphasise active measures aimed at

164