French Perspectives on Support for Older and Vulnerable Employees

1. French perspectives on support for older and vulnerable employeesJessica GrandhommeFrançoise Le Deist Jonathan WintertonToulouse Business School, FR SNOVE Final Dissemination Event Kauniainen, 19-20 September 2013

2. Overview • Introduction • Economic context in France • Effects of restructuring on work and workers • Actions of stakeholders • Stakeholder perspectives • Workers’ voices • Conclusions

3. Introduction • Limits to trade union action to combat precariousness and vulnerability • Paradoxes in relation to precarious work and vulnerable workers: • Trade unions are least able to protect jobs when they most need to – militant action fails in recession. • Those who most need trade union support are least likely to be organised – difficulty of organising vulnerable groups. • Matthias Principle: those who most need training are least likely to have opportunities

4. Economic context in France • Current restructuring wave is the most significant since (and potentially more serious than) the Great Depression • Layered effects of global shift that began in 1980s, GFC 2008 and SDC 2010 • Job losses concentrated in DE, FR and UK but affecting all EU MS • Over-capacity > high profile cases in France: • PSA (Peugeot Citroen) car plant in Aulnay • Petroplus refinery in Petit-Couronne • ArcelorMittal blast furnaces at Florange

5. Effects of restructuring on work and workers • Affects those already vulnerable and brings more into the categories of precariousness and vulnerability • Job insecurity and job losses associated with ill health • Work intensification and extensification (karoshi) • Suicides related to work overload (karojisatu) • Insecurity, uncertainty and fear of job loss are as damaging to health as actual job losses • Work organisation that involves high demands and low control > job strain when support is low • Work stress clearly increased since 1990s and has accelerated since the recession

6. Actions of stakeholders in France • State and intermediary organisations: • Extensive involvement of public and private agencies • Contradictions in policies (migrants, youth, low skilled…) • Employers exhibit considerable diversity: • Vulnerable workers low priority in economic crisis • Large employers more likely to have inclusion strategies • Trade unions: • Less ambivalence and exclusion of non-core employees than in UK but low level of unionisation in general • Inclusion strategies for undocumented migrant workers ‘maximum risk and minimum voice’ (Meardi et al, 2012)

7. Stakeholders’ perspectives • State and intermediary organisations: • Emphasis on individualised support and social competences • Urgent action to combat LTU and social exclusion • Employers: • Importance of internal organisation (Airbus, SNCF) • Contradictions over handicapped and low skilled youth • Increasing use of non-standard work and migrants • Trade unions: • Priority groups: youth with low Q, seniors, migrants • Seasonal (CFDT) , handicapped (CFTC), sans papiers(CGT)

8. Workers’ voices • Older workers: • Age discrimination, culture of early retirement • Very critical of PôleEmploi, need for individualised coaching and psychological support • Unemployed youth: • Foreign nationals, unqualified, low level of French • Lack of training opportunities available (resource issue) • Workers with handicaps: • Length of time out of employment exacerbates problems • Cap Emploi provides tailored support adapted to individuals

9. Role of training and development • Social dialogue arrangements over workforce training plans could offer opportunity for more union action • Changing emphasis from opposition to job losses to seeking training for employability and adaptability • Union-led learning in UK focuses on employees with low levels of educational attainment needing basic skills • Successful in bringing non-traditional learners into training including migrant workers but depends on workplace union • Potential to improve competitivity and job quality with sustainable high involvement ‘anthropocentric’ work

10. Conclusions • Union-led learning can address all three paradoxes associated with vulnerability and precariousness: • Union-led learning engages disadvantaged groups • Can be used as an organising tool to raise unionisation • Integrative (positive sum) bargaining over restructuring • Limitations: • Limits to consensus on training as interests not congruent • Management support is crucial at operational level • Learning agreements needed to institutionalise actions