Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tweet[IWS] SIX FAMILIES of FLEXICURITY INDICATORS DEVELOPED at the HANS BOECKLER FOUNDATION [November 2009]
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
________________________________________________________________________
Hans Boeckler Foundation
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
________________________________________________________________________
Hans Boeckler Foundation
- Tangian (Tanguiane) , Andranik S.
- Six families of flexicurity indicators developed at the Hans Boeckler Foundation
- WSI-Diskussionspapier, Nr. 168, November 2009.
- http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_wsi_diskp_168.pdf
- [full-text, 97 pages]
- The paper is an overview of over 30 publications on six models with flexicurity indicators developed at the Hans-Böckler-Foundation for monitoring and analysis of flexicurity. The latter is a new European labour market policy which should compensate the ongoing flexibilization of employment relations (resulting in easy dismissals, adjustable working time, and variable wages) by advances in employment security and social security. Flexibility is promoted by employers, whereas trade unions are concerned with security. The models are aimed at analyzing flexicurity from the following viewpoints: (1) neo-liberal, (2) trade-unionist, (3) of the European welfare state, (4) regarding precarious work, (5) regarding professional training and lifelong learning, and (6) regarding trends in collective agreements. All the six models provide empirical evidence of increasing flexibility together with decline of social security and rise of precarious employment. This is a serious warning against improper implementation of flexicurity and one-sided use of this policy in favor of employers.
- Finally six policy proposals are made: (1) to introduce flexinsurance, (2) to impose workplace tax, (3) to provide basic income, (4) to constrain financial markets, (5) to politicize and restructuralize trade unions, and (6) separate politics from economy.
- Table of contents
- 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................7
- 1.1 Flexicurity..................................................................................................................7
- 1.2 Trade-unions response to flexicurity..........................................................................8
- 1.3 Enhancing the trade unions' position under flexicurity..............................................9
- 2 Operationalization of the concept of flexicurity..............................................................12
- 2.1 Definition and main dimensions..............................................................................12
- 2.2 Tracing flexibility-security trade-offs with matrices...............................................14
- 2.3 Flexicurity trade-offs in a policy space....................................................................16
- 3 Indexing flexicurity from the neo-liberal viewpoint........................................................20
- 3.1 Commodification of labour rights............................................................................20
- 3.2 Social security indicator...........................................................................................20
- 3.3 Flexibility indicator..................................................................................................26
- 3.4 Findings....................................................................................................................27
- 4 Indexing flexicurity from the trade unionist viewpoint...................................................29
- 4.1 Alternative understanding of flexicurity..................................................................29
- 4.2 A social welfare function with no trade-offs............................................................30
- 4.3 Indicators of flexibility and security for flexible employees...................................31
- 4.4 Findings....................................................................................................................31
- 5 Indexing flexicurity from the viewpoint of the European welfare state..........................33
- 5.1 Discussion on the welfare state................................................................................33
- 5.2 Normative evaluation of social security...................................................................34
- 5.3 Quasi-empirical evaluation of social security by survey simulation........................36
- 5.4 Findings....................................................................................................................38
- 6 Flexicurity and precarious work.......................................................................................42
- 6.1 'More and better jobs through flexibility and security'.............................................42
- 6.2 Indexing of flexible and precarious work at the micro-level...................................43
- 6.3 Institutional and factual flexibility/precariousness of work.....................................46
- 6.4 Findings....................................................................................................................50
- 7 Flexicurity from the viewpoint of professional training..................................................54
- 7.1 The role of professional training in the flexicurity concept.....................................54
- 7.2 Data and indicators...................................................................................................54
- 7.3 Findings....................................................................................................................57
- 7.4 The attitude to training.............................................................................................60
- 8 Flexibility and security in collective agreements.............................................................62
- 8.1 Collective bargaining and flexicurity.......................................................................62
- 8.2 Indices of flexibility and security for collective agreements...................................62
- 8.3 Analysis of Dutch collective agreements.................................................................64
- 8.4 Flexicurity balance...................................................................................................68
- 8.5 Flexicurity check-lists..............................................................................................70
- 9 Discussion: Six proposals.................................................................................................74
- 9.1 Flexinsurance...........................................................................................................76
- 9.2 Workplace tax / tax bonus........................................................................................77
- 9.3 Basic income............................................................................................................78
- 9.4 Constraining financial markets.................................................................................79
- 9.5 Politicization and restructuralization of unions........................................................81
- 9.6 Separation of politics from economics.....................................................................82
- 10 References....................................................................................................................85
- Six families of flexicurity indicators developed at the Hans Boeckler Foundation
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 : 8:40 AM
