Page 48 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

addition to individual careers and training guidance, participate in further
education while receiving compensation for their lost earnings. Non-displaced
workers are also granted supplementary adequate training in the event of
structural changes. Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these processes in
Sweden is also relatively rich with research on, for example, the role of the job
security councils (see footnote 22) and the negotiations of ‘security and
adjustment agreements’ by the social partners.
Restructuring has had particular significance for the German labour market
after reunification. Policy in the last decade has increasingly favoured a proactive
approach in supporting at-risk workers and those likely to be affected by
restructuring. These measures are mandatory if the planned restructuring
involves a change of operations (Betriebsänderung) but are limited to where the
establishment has at least 20 employees. Here, social partners have to agree on
a social compensation plan (Sozialplan) which locally defines the procedures of
restructuring and assistance to be given to affected workers, and which then
constitutes enforceable rights for employees subsequently affected. As in
Sweden, although differently focused, labour and social laws establish the
framework for such agreements subject to some minimum requirements. Two
closely related instruments have emerged as common outcomes of social plan
negotiations, both including active measures for harnessing career guidance (and
other measures) in reintegrating affected workers into the labour market: transfer
agencies and transfer companies.
Although practices at enterprise level vary, where they are established,
transfer agencies take over the counselling of employees threatened by lay-off.
During the period of notice, transfer agencies assist them in job search, offer
training for job application and other soft skills and help with assessing and
selecting qualifying measures. Participants remain within their current job but are
released from work for individualised support. Funding of transfer agencies
involves some obligatory support, in most circumstances, from public
employment services (usually up to 50% of gross costs) and employers. Transfer
agencies normally support employees for three to six months prior to
redundancy.
In contrast, transfer companies are separate legal entities
(betriebsorganisatorisch eigenständige Einheit, beE) which accommodate
redundant workers. In the transfer company, affected employees receive around
80% of their former salary, and are fully released from work to participate in
career guidance and qualifying measures while they are working in transfer short-
time work; they can remain in the transfer company for up to 12 months.
Typically, they are supported by continuing outplacement measures which are

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