European Commission Employment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

1. European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities Synthesis Report on Anticipating and Managing Restructuringin the EU 27 Member StatesDissemination of the results – European Parliament /EMPL Committee Brussels, 14th April 2011

2. 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 ARENAS objectives &Methodology European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

3. 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 Limitations with methodology European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

4. 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. Basis for the report European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

5. 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 Context for drawing conclusions European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

6. 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 CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities Spending on labour market policy measures

7. 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. Classification of anticipation measures European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

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

9. 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) Anticipating & Supporting Transition (II) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

10. 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) Anticipating & Supporting Transition (III) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

11. 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 –) Anticipating & Supporting Transition (IV) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

12. 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. Lesson learned - anticipating restructuring European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

13. Measures to avoid redundancies Measures for managing redundancies Training for transition & reintegration Classification of measures to manage restructuring European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

14. 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) Measures to avoid redundancies (I) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

15. 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) Measures for managing redundancies(II) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

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

17. 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. Lesson learned – managing restructuring(I) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

18. 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 Lesson learned – managing restructuring (II) European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

19. 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. Dynamics & trends European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

20. 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. Issues & dilemmas European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities

21. http://arenas.itcilo.org/ http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=819&langId=en for further information European CommissionEmployment, Social Affair and Equal opportunities