Thursday, December 20, 2007
[IWS] ILO: SECURITY in LABOUR MARKETS: COMBINING FLEXIBILITY with SECURITY for DECENT WORK [December 2007]
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
________________________________________________________________________
ILO
Economic and Labour Market Papers
Security in labour markets: Combining flexibility with security for decent work [December 2007]
Peter Auer
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/download/elm/elm07-12.pdf
[full-text, 20 pages]
[excerpt from Forward]
Trade liberalization, offshoring and technological advances entail more volatility in
labour markets and imply that labour market risks of workers increase. They have
thus to be adequately insured by new types of security outside the stable employment
relationship. Flexicurity has become a buzzword describing such developments
aiming at both labour market flexibility and security. The term drives the labour
market policy agenda of the European Commission and is now becoming attractive as
an alternative to "flexibility only" reform agendas in other parts of the world. This
article describes definitional issues and shows that it seems indeed possible to have
flexible labour markets and workers' security if certain conditions are observed. It
needs some investment in labour market policies and social rights, requires also
balancing of employer and worker oriented flexibility, internal and external flexibility
and, on the process side, a genuine social dialogue. Several configurations are
possible and a cross-country analysis of selected EU member states shows that some
countries have succeeded in organizing their labour markets in a manner that
combines flexibility with security with beneficial effects on decent work.
Contents
Foreword..................................................................................................................... iii
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1
2. The concept...............................................................................................................2
3. From job to employment security and beyond......................................................4
4. Internal and external adjustments .........................................................................5
5. Employment stability...............................................................................................7
6. The solution to the paradox: flexi-curity? ...........................................................11
7. Country differences ...............................................................................................12
8. Conclusions.............................................................................................................12
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................14
Annex I........................................................................................................................16
Figures
Figure 1: From Job to labour market security .........................................................5
Figure 2: Configurations of flexibility .......................................................................5
Figure 3 :Enterprise-and worker oriented flexibility in Europe.............................7
Figure 4: Average employment tenure EU 15 / 1992 and 2005 ...............................8
Figure 5: Employment insecurity and tenure 1996 (left) and 2000 (right).............8
Figure 6: Relationship between tenure and productivity.......................................10
Figure 7: Job insecurity and Labour Market Policies, 2000..................................11
______________________________
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----------------- 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
________________________________________________________________________
ILO
Economic and Labour Market Papers
Security in labour markets: Combining flexibility with security for decent work [December 2007]
Peter Auer
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/download/elm/elm07-12.pdf
[full-text, 20 pages]
[excerpt from Forward]
Trade liberalization, offshoring and technological advances entail more volatility in
labour markets and imply that labour market risks of workers increase. They have
thus to be adequately insured by new types of security outside the stable employment
relationship. Flexicurity has become a buzzword describing such developments
aiming at both labour market flexibility and security. The term drives the labour
market policy agenda of the European Commission and is now becoming attractive as
an alternative to "flexibility only" reform agendas in other parts of the world. This
article describes definitional issues and shows that it seems indeed possible to have
flexible labour markets and workers' security if certain conditions are observed. It
needs some investment in labour market policies and social rights, requires also
balancing of employer and worker oriented flexibility, internal and external flexibility
and, on the process side, a genuine social dialogue. Several configurations are
possible and a cross-country analysis of selected EU member states shows that some
countries have succeeded in organizing their labour markets in a manner that
combines flexibility with security with beneficial effects on decent work.
Contents
Foreword..................................................................................................................... iii
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1
2. The concept...............................................................................................................2
3. From job to employment security and beyond......................................................4
4. Internal and external adjustments .........................................................................5
5. Employment stability...............................................................................................7
6. The solution to the paradox: flexi-curity? ...........................................................11
7. Country differences ...............................................................................................12
8. Conclusions.............................................................................................................12
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................14
Annex I........................................................................................................................16
Figures
Figure 1: From Job to labour market security .........................................................5
Figure 2: Configurations of flexibility .......................................................................5
Figure 3 :Enterprise-and worker oriented flexibility in Europe.............................7
Figure 4: Average employment tenure EU 15 / 1992 and 2005 ...............................8
Figure 5: Employment insecurity and tenure 1996 (left) and 2000 (right).............8
Figure 6: Relationship between tenure and productivity.......................................10
Figure 7: Job insecurity and Labour Market Policies, 2000..................................11
______________________________
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 : 5:50 AM
