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Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

6. Case studies on socially responsible

restructuring

This chapter provides a full description of sixteen examples of restructuring
processes, with a specific focus on the support services delivered to redundant
workers. It includes a small number of regional partnerships in the UK that
support local employers to restructure their companies in a way that minimises
negative effects on workers and local communities. The case studies provide
practical evidence of socially responsible practices that support the reintegration
of workers into employment. The example final selection process was extremely
challenging, since a number of enterprises were reluctant to participate in the
review. The case studies provide contrasting experience from Germany, Ireland,
Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the UK, in terms of the services offered to
both workers who risk being made redundant and companies undergoing
restructuring. These contrasts also embrace the types of safety nets provided to
workers facing redundancy, the range and depth of career guidance services,
and different traditions of enterprise commitment to the training and professional
development of their employees.
The analysis of case studies was customised to the particular context of their
practice, but included:
(a) the restructuring context, formal and transition arrangements set against any

national, sectoral or enterprise-level agreements, and agreed enhance-
ments;
(b) cross-agency planning, preparation and collaboration processes (including
affected employers, social partners and sectoral agencies) to draw together
adjustment plans and approaches, including any local and European
funding;
(c) processes through which career guidance and other support services have
been articulated to customise provision, to broaden access to workplace
guidance, integrate support to redundant workers with mainstreamed
services, as well as for workers’ referral, for example, to transfer agencies or
PES;
(d) applied practice in career guidance and counselling for differentiating,
personalising and adapting support to the needs of different target groups,
and the quality of achieved customising provision;

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