Thursday, October 27, 2005
[IWS] EIROnline: Redundancies and Redundancy Costs [27 October 2005]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) online
EIRO thematic feature
Redundancies and Redundancy Costs [27 October 2005]
http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/files/EF0575EN.pdf
[full-text, 15 pages]
Author: Kauppinen, Timo and Meixner, Marie
Summary: This comparative study aims at giving an overview of existing national legislation on redundancy, focusing particularly on compensation payment provisions. It further seeks to reflect current debate on the issue and outline new approaches to dealing with redundancies.
[excerpt]
According to legislation in most of the EU15 Member States, collective redundancies are understood as dismissals for
'economic reasons', i.e. effected by an employer for reasons unconnected with the individual employee concerned. Such
dismissals are also referred to as 'collective redundancies'. Furthermore, national legislation set up criteria defining
precisely the circumstances in which redundancy legislation applies, such as, for example, specifying thresholds
according to the number of employees made redundant and/or the size of the company where the redundancies occur.
Thresholds, however, can vary widely from country to country.
[excerpt]
Introduction
The issue of redundancy, and of the financial, social and moral costs it involves, has been the subject of widespread
public debate over the last two decades. Governments, employers and trade unions agree that growing unemployment
resulting from collective dismissals has become a serious economic problem.
Against the background of the social costs of redundancies, rules to limit and mitigate collective redundancies have been
introduced in all the countries examined. Efforts to minimise the negative impact of redundancy have focused on three
kinds of measures: active employment policy, employee participation in the redundancy process, and severance pay. For
many years, the latter measure has been the most important one. Aimed at creating an incentive for employers not to
dismiss employees, statutory compensation payments have been introduced in many countries. On the other hand,
severance pay has been used as an inducement to employees to abandon jobs in the face of declining demand for their
labour.
Thus, this comparative study aims at giving an overview of existing national legislation on redundancy, focusing
particularly on compensation payment provisions. It further seeks to reflect current debate on the issue and outline new
approaches to dealing with redundancies.
AND MUCH MORE...including TABLES....
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) online
EIRO thematic feature
Redundancies and Redundancy Costs [27 October 2005]
http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/files/EF0575EN.pdf
[full-text, 15 pages]
Author: Kauppinen, Timo and Meixner, Marie
Summary: This comparative study aims at giving an overview of existing national legislation on redundancy, focusing particularly on compensation payment provisions. It further seeks to reflect current debate on the issue and outline new approaches to dealing with redundancies.
[excerpt]
According to legislation in most of the EU15 Member States, collective redundancies are understood as dismissals for
'economic reasons', i.e. effected by an employer for reasons unconnected with the individual employee concerned. Such
dismissals are also referred to as 'collective redundancies'. Furthermore, national legislation set up criteria defining
precisely the circumstances in which redundancy legislation applies, such as, for example, specifying thresholds
according to the number of employees made redundant and/or the size of the company where the redundancies occur.
Thresholds, however, can vary widely from country to country.
[excerpt]
Introduction
The issue of redundancy, and of the financial, social and moral costs it involves, has been the subject of widespread
public debate over the last two decades. Governments, employers and trade unions agree that growing unemployment
resulting from collective dismissals has become a serious economic problem.
Against the background of the social costs of redundancies, rules to limit and mitigate collective redundancies have been
introduced in all the countries examined. Efforts to minimise the negative impact of redundancy have focused on three
kinds of measures: active employment policy, employee participation in the redundancy process, and severance pay. For
many years, the latter measure has been the most important one. Aimed at creating an incentive for employers not to
dismiss employees, statutory compensation payments have been introduced in many countries. On the other hand,
severance pay has been used as an inducement to employees to abandon jobs in the face of declining demand for their
labour.
Thus, this comparative study aims at giving an overview of existing national legislation on redundancy, focusing
particularly on compensation payment provisions. It further seeks to reflect current debate on the issue and outline new
approaches to dealing with redundancies.
AND MUCH MORE...including TABLES....
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 8:47 AM
