Page 51 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

represent all those concerned. Following the redundancy announcements, he
suggests setting up on-site local agencies (worker assistance resource centres)
often harnessing rapid response strategies, setting up services and networks as
indicated. He illustrated experience from tripartite organisations in Hungary which
succeeded in halving the average time taken by laid-off workers to find another
job.
The available evidence is richer on the role and engagement of PES in
13
implementing local employment policy ( ), in particular in restructuring, and most
recently their role in flexicurity (European Commission, 2009c). Nonetheless,
contrasts in their roles and direct relationships with employers affect their
capacity to input to career guidance interventions in restructuring situations, with
PES traditionally handing three functions in Europe:
(a) PES are key providers of information on the labour market, on job vacancies
and potential applicants, and on the possibilities of training or retraining;
(b) job brokerage is the main activity, comprising the public display of job
vacancies to be filled and encouragement of a rapid match between supply
and demand (PES of the Member States are said to be involved in 10 to
30% of all recruitment);
(c) PES contribute to market adjustments, by being involved in implementing,
usually at local level, of nationally or regionally determined labour market
policies, or regionally or locally determined local economic or social
development policies including employment or employability measures these
are usually geared to adjusting supply and demand in employment.
The European Commission’s report (Sultana and Watts, 2005) into Career
Guidance in Europe’s Public Employment Services indicated that most PES
focused on meeting the needs of the unemployed, particularly the long-term
unemployed, rather than the employed (Bysshe and Parsons, 1999). However,
some address the needs of those who have been or are about to be made
redundant. The Commission’s report indicates that PES in countries such as
Belgium, Ireland, Estonia and Austria have specialist personalised employment
and guidance activities for this group. Lithuania, for instance, sets up mini-labour
exchange services in enterprises where mass lay-offs are planned. In Austria,
AMS mobilises guidance services for employees in large enterprises who receive
a ‘notice of separation’ as a result of structural change. Such workers can receive
unemployment benefits for up to four years, a right which is embedded through
collective agreements. The AMS programme usually starts with a number of

13
( ) The essential role of the PES has been reflected since 1998 in the Employment guidelines
under four priority areas of action: employability; entrepreneurship; adaptability; equal
opportunities.

45