Page 62 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

3.2.1. Differentiation in career guidance support
The case study research indicated a division in practice between those situations
where it was most common for all staff made redundant to be broadly offered the
same services and those where some, occasionally significant, differentiation
occurred. Differentiation in terms of career guidance support offered to
employees during restructuring can occur for various reasons such as age or
seniority, or level of skill. In turn, this can affect the level and type of support that
companies choose to provide. This can also be emphasised by the
accompanying financial severance terms beyond legal requirements and
collective agreements.
With outplacement, ‘the level of support is often related to the seniority of the
people being made redundant, the more intensive forms of career support being
offered to higher-ranking employees and less intensive being offered to other
employees’ (Cedefop, 2008a, p. 30). The fact that broadly the same service offer
appears to have been made in the selected case studies should not be taken as
necessarily representative of common practice and does not mean that the
services were not appropriately personalised. To be effective, group sessions
covering topics such as interview techniques need to address individuals with
broadly similar needs, and those mixing senior managers and highly skilled
employees with less skilled staff might run the risk of not meeting the needs of
participants.

3.2.2. Support for vulnerable workers
The previous chapter has set out the paucity of past evidence on, and difficulties
in defining, socially responsible practice for guidance in restructuring situations.
For example, the working definition of vulnerable workers established by the
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Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE) ( ) in the UK referred to
‘workers whose participation in the labour market places them at risk of ongoing
and often extreme suffering, uncertainty and injustice resulting from an imbalance
of power in the employer-worker relationship’. For the purposes of this research,
we have widened this definition to include workers who are particularly vulnerable
to their jobs being made redundant, especially covering the range of preventive
work that is being undertaken to maintain and improve employability.
The SOCOSE project identified that ‘the most vulnerable groups appeared:
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employees aged 40 and above, with low qualifications ( ), with very specific job

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( ) The Commission was established by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to undertake a major
investigation into the causes of, and solutions to, vulnerable employment. See:
www.vulnerableworkers.org.uk [cited 10.5.2010].
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( ) See the report of the award winning Leonardo da Vinci Project The social partners and
vocational guidance for lower paid workers (www.gla.ac.uk/wg/index.htm) [cited 10.5.2010].

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