Encuesta aplicada a estudiantes de educación parvularia

What then should be considered when reforming regulation of restructuring? As noted above, the regulation of the event of restructuring does not necessarily serve the in- terests of the dismissed worker. Indeed, limitations on the employer’s decision to dis- miss workers in particular, may obviously limit the workers anticipation of coming job transition needs29_{. It is the regulation of the conditions of employment after the noti-} fication of redundancy, – “the transition conditions” – that should be the focus of at- tention. As we have seen above, legal frameworks regarding transition conditions vary across Member States. It is hardly appropriate to recommend specific proposals for all countries. Nevertheless, it appears reasonable to suggest that workers should have the same notification periods independent on their seniority, assuming that the time it takes for individuals to find a new job is similar independent of seniority. Thus, the assumption should be that the time it takes to transfer to a new employ- ment is similar independent of seniority unless there are objective grounds to assume otherwise. In some countries social partners have negotiated dismissal periods based on the assumed time it takes for a worker to find new employment (equal for all) and if it takes shorter time the individual receives a bonus for speedy transition. This is the situation in several large companies in Sweden and in France, where social part- ners have developed a form of transition contract. Longer notification periods may also serve to award dismissed workers more anticipation and time for transition.

To summarise, when considering reforms of the legal framework on restructuring the following main principles should be considered:

- Equal treatment of sectors/industries, measures implemented should be, as far as possible, industry neutral, private and public sectors should be equally treat- ed.

- Equal treatment of employers, large and small, and independent of location30_.

29 _{There is a tendency among employers to be secretive concerning restructuring. When putting restraints on the employers}

decision to announce redundancy there is a tendency to postpone, decisions until it is too late. Such information bias may also be dependent on the distance between the initiator of restructuring and the formally responsible employer. Employers may keep information about changes for themselves. This does not provide good conditions for workers transition to new jobs in case they need to go anyway in the end, neither does it provide good conditions for social dialogue and collaboration between social partners. Experience from case studies show that it is better to receive information at an early stage to be able to pre- pare for the coming situation.

- Equal treatment of dismissed workers,

o Provide the same transition conditions for all dismissed workers, equally long notification periods, dismissed workers should have the right to leave the workplace for job search activities and engage in transition services during the notification period.

- Equal treatment for employees:

o Measures that reduce wages or undermine standards of employ-

ment/working conditions should be avoided in times of restructuring. o Efforts should be made to explore the possibilities to regulate restructur-

ing that implies externalization of the employers responsibility, i.e. dis- missal and transfer to agency work or dismissal and transfer of activities to external service provider (outsourcing) or transfer of activities to other location (offshoring).

However, legal reforms are not enough. There is also a need for change among social partners, as French and Swedish experiences indicate. In both these countries there appears to have been a growing acceptance of the phenomenon of restructuring and a willingness to seek measures that are not exclusively focused on the short-term objec- tive to save jobs or to make profit. Similar developments can be observed in other countries. There is a need for unions to reconsider their policies in relation to redun- dancies as a means to manage restructuring and to move towards discussing how to support those workers who are made redundant rather than trying to save jobs at any costs.

There is also a need for employers to recognize the advantages of investing in tran- sition services for dismissed workers. Most importantly, the examples investigated in this project shows that adaptation can be achieved without having to reduce the standards of employment or cutting wages. It is conditioned upon responsible negotia- tions of working conditions and wages that enable long-term competitiveness in the economy rather than to use any crisis situation as a way to reduce working conditions and wages.

Second, measures to support transition to new jobs may promote higher employ- ment rates, especially for older workers, compared to the alternative, for example ear- ly retirement, where the older workforce are taken out from the labour force.

Third, enabling firms to initiate redundancies, but with good conditions for the dismissed, provides more incentives to retain skilled workers in the labour force than other measures and there are reasons to believe that firms may be more productive and thus serve to enhance long term competitiveness. From this perspective there may be much to gain from shifting the regulation of restructuring along the lines dis- cussed above. The removal of the barriers to initiate redundancies, limitations of cri- teria for selecting workers for redundancies and above all the removal of limitations of reasons for initiating redundancies would almost certainly be of benefit to the em- ployers and perhaps the entire economy. On the other hand, regulations should be more focused on conditions that secure transition of workers into new employment.

Acknowledgements

This report was made possible by the EU project MOLIERE, which is financed by the European Commission. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Swedish Council for Work Life and Social Research (FAS) and Vinnova, which has made the production of this text possible. The report benefitted greatly from the comments from the independent experts of the IRENE network and MOLIERE project partners: Claude Emmanuel Triomphe, Christophe Tessier, Vassil Kirov, Johannes Kirsch, Gernot Mühge, Matthias Knuth, Ricardo Rodri- guez Contreras, Zdenek Karasek, Frederic Naedenoen, Fanny Fox, Metoda Dodik Fikfak, Vedran Omanovic, Lars Walter, Raquel Rego, Wim Sprenger, Nick Clarke, Sonia McKay and Reinhard Neumann. Thank you all for your advice and insightful comments!