Page 78 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

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1 000 redundancies ( ) over a period of four months in an enterprise in a
Member State; at least 1 000 redundancies over a period of nine months,
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particularly in SMEs; and in other agreed exceptional circumstances ( ).
Although, EGF support was not specific to career or occupational guidance, their
focus on active labour market measures within coordinated ‘personalised’
services were designed to reintegrate redundant workers into the labour market.
They could include closely aligned activities: supported job-search assistance;
occupational guidance; outplacement assistance; entrepreneurship promotion
and aid for self-employment; and other measures to stimulate individual
opportunities to find suitable employment. Subsequent developments have seen
both the levels of in-scope redundancy reduced (to 500 job losses) and the
duration period for support extended.
While EGF is an important potential source of support to restructuring, it does
not seem to provide a specific stimulus to career guidance-related interventions,
or to assessment of the impact or effectiveness of these or other support
mechanisms. Among the case study organisations, only two were directly
supported by EGF, with a further one where the support was subject to
agreement at the time of the case study analysis. One supported enterprise –
one of the German transfer companies – outlined a protracted process for
securing support and exclusion criteria, locally defined, which had limited its
effectiveness. Another outlined funded support measures in retraining and
outplacement which seemed already to fall within the scope of a planned and
negotiated redundancy support package and where the additionality of that
funding remained obscure. Most of the other enterprises and social partners
interviewed were unaware of the existence of EGF support and in two other
cases key personnel seem to have been inappropriately briefed about eligibility
by senior PES staff.
EGF is not the only opportunity for European programme funding support. The
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European Social Fund (ESF) Regulation ( ) identifies as a priority increasing the
adaptability of workers to support economic change. This specifically provides for
‘the design and dissemination of innovative and more productive forms of work
organisation, including … the development of specific employment, training and
support services, including outplacement, for workers in the context of company

imports into the EU, a rapid decline of the EU market share in a given sector or a
delocalisation to third countries.
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( ) Including workers made redundant as suppliers or downstream producers.
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( ) Funding could also be obtained for small labour markets or ‘in exceptional circumstances’
when redundancies have a serious impact on employment and the local economy. It was
indicated that the level of funding in these cases should not exceed 15% of the EGF each
year.
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( ) See: http://www.esf.gov.uk/info_for_cfo_and_projects/regulations.asp [cited 10.5.2010].

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