Synthesis Report on Anticipating and Managing Restructuring in the EU 27 Member States Dissemination of the results – European Parliament /EMPL Committee Brussels, 14 th April 2011 European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

ARENAS objectives &Methodology  27 National Background Papers (NBPs) with case studies prepared by 27 independent experts  27 national tripartite seminars held to discuss NBPs and to examine the case studies  27 NBPs revised & published after seminars  Synthesis report prepared by 3 independent authors based on the evidence in 27 NBPs and 27 seminar minutes European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Limitations with methodology  Limited availability of data on restructuring at country level  Possible expert bias  Seminar debates include only the views of participants who attended  Challenges in synthesizing rich & complex information European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Basis for the report  Coverage of every Member State of the EU.  Period covered: April 2009 to June 2010  76 measures for anticipating restructuring  111 measures for managing restructuring  88 case studies  More than 800 seminar participants  54 private companies involved in case studies. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Context for drawing conclusions  Economic & financial crisis  Rising unemployment from 7% (2008) to 10% (2010) Eurozone - 9.6% EU 27  Formulation & implementation of government anti- crisis measures  Diverse labour market situations: main types of labour market situation European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

a group of countries with modest LM spending, mainly Central & Eastern Europe a group of high spending countries with a blend of measures – services, measures & support (i.e. Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Finland & Sweden) a group of countries with a high share of LM spending on support measures (i.e. Germany) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities Spending on labour market policy measures

Classification of anticipation measures  Measures based on forecasting of economic and labour market trends  Measures aimed at anticipating and facilitating transition during a period of change, including training and skills adaptation. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Main measures for anticipating restructuring (I) 1.Economic forecasting measures (e.g. Government Foresight Network in Finland) 2.Labour market forecasting measures (e.g. Estonia & Portugal) 3.Regional anticipating and monitoring system (e.g. Moravian-Silesian Region of Czech Republic & TKTT Finland) 4.Early warning system (e.g. Slovenia & Ireland) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Anticipating & Supporting Transition (II)  Skills boosting (e.g. Netherlands -Platform Beta Technics)  Encouraging innovation (e.g. France – technology poles),  Encouraging innovation in SMEs (e.g. Hungary, Portugal, Latvia & Slovakia)  Attracting investment (e.g. Slovakia – SARIO) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Anticipating & Supporting Transition (III)  Sectoral initiatives (e.g. Netherlands - bipartite training & development funds for construction industry)  Regional initiatives (e.g. Italy – territorial employment pacts, Sweden – multi-stakeholder organizations like Business Region Göteborg) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Anticipating & Supporting Transition (IV)  Supporting individual transition (e.g. Portugal – New Opportunities”, UK. Individual learning accounts)  Continuous vocational training (e.g. Germany – lifelong learning for workers)  Support through collective bargaining (e.g. France – GPEC –) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Lesson learned - anticipating restructuring  Concept of anticipating restructuring not universally recognized across EU  But all countries have some anticipatory measures  Role of state is key factor for anticipatory measures  Anticipatory measures at company level can be very effective, especially use of social dialogue & collective bargaining.  No systematic evaluation of impact of measures. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Classification of measures to manage restructuring 1.Measures to avoid redundancies 2.Measures for managing redundancies 3.Training for transition & reintegration European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Measures to avoid redundancies (I)  Wage reduction & wage subsidies  Short-time working (e.g. Flexikonto in Slovakia & S/T work in Austria)  Partial unemployment (e.g. Netherlands)  Temporary lay-offs (e.g. Belgium & Italy) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Measures for managing redundancies (II)  Early retirement (quite common in many Member States e.g. Spain)  Dismissal & severance pay (not always a legal obligation for employers e.g. Denmark & Sweden)  Dismissal & transition to alternative employment (e.g. Sweden – Job Security Councils) European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Training for transition & reintegration (III) Examples:  Estonia – accrediting prior experiential learning  Netherlands – from “Work to work Programme”  Czech Republic – “Educate Yourself Programme”  Portugal – “Qualification Employment Programme” European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Lesson learned – managing restructuring (I)  Wide range of measures exist in Member States  But availability of specific measures is uneven across Member States.  A majority of Member States give priority to measures for avoiding redundancies.  A few Member States give priority to job transition measures. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Lesson learned – managing restructuring (II)  New measures such as short-time working and partial unemployment were introduced or temporarily extended owing to the economic crisis.  It is too early to assess the impact of the recent measures European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Dynamics & trends  Social dialogue has proven to be very effective for anticipating & managing restructuring.  State intervention taken to safeguard jobs provoked by the economic crisis.  Innovations in the support offered by PES.  More involvement of local & regional government in mitigating effects of restructuring. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

Issues & dilemmas  Eligibility of temporary & atypical workers for support?  Restructuring practices in SMEs do not address re- training and job-to-job transfers.  Vulnerable groups of workers lose out due to restructuring.  Not easy to delineate company versus public responsibility for supporting worker transition.  Questions about the design of worker training schemes. European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

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