Page 76 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

ESF funds usually under co-financing or similar arrangements through public
agencies.
All but one of the case study organisations have had at least some direct
support from nationally or regionally administered public funds to improve
available capacities for restructuring. However, the relative scale and importance
of these activities have varied greatly within different national contexts. It is
arguably most substantial in the German transfer company arrangements where
the Federal Labour Agency, under certain limitations, commonly provides 50% of
the operational costs of the companies in supporting displaced workers after they
move to the transfer company. In Germany, the transfer agency for Siemens BeE
was also able to harness Federal funds at regional level as an effective subsidy
to support its temporary working arrangements for staff at risk of redundancy
(Case study 8).
Constraints were experienced where PES arrangements had limited
discretionary resources. In both of the Scandinavian case studies there was
limited resort to harnessing local PES resources or capacity. For Teliasonera this
reflected capacity constraints in the labour agency and, in particular, a required
priority for public funds for supporting unemployed, and notably longer-term
unemployed, people rather than those at risk of unemployment in the pool
arrangement. Where public funds were harnessed they were limited to a
discretionary activity, managed through the Finnish labour agency for
entrepreneurial training for those pool members considering self-employment.
In the UK, the case study organisations have mainly used regional funds and
resources. The processes have been complicated and have seen some regional
contrasts in priorities and implementation. A common thread has been to work
with national PES service – Jobcentre Plus, both to capitalise on some work-
based services using PES staff and to access funds set aside for restructuring
support in programmes, such as response to redundancy (R2R) coordinated
through regional authorities (Case study 14). Some of these arrangements have
often been complex and the East of England case study showed five separate
strands of public funding support at regional level to restructuring situations,
differentiated on the basis of client groups and circumstances but mainly
reflecting ring fencing arrangements for budgets allocated by different public
agencies: specifically the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), regional
offices of the learning and skills councils, distinct Government offices in the
regions, and also Jobcentre Plus. Some restructuring organisations, have
struggled to appreciate these distinctions and have been reliant on brokerage
agencies such as funded consultancy to unpick the different requirements and
access arrangements.

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