FRANCE The

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Overall Developments GERMANY Reform of the labour market to implement the report by the Commission for Modern Services in the Labour Market (“Hartz Commission”) The “Modern Services in the Labour Market” Commission The “Modern Services in the Labour Market” Commission was established in the spring of 2002 as part of the Federal German Government’s two-stage plan to make services in the labour market more competitive and more customer-oriented. Chaired by Dr. Peter Hartz, it was made up of people from trade and industry, business associations, trades unions, politics, academia, corporate consulting, the Federal States (Länder) and local authorities. The task of the “Hartz Commission” lay in reshaping the Federal Employment Service and transforming it into a modern service provider. On this basis, a comprehensive report was submitted in the summer of 2002, outlining 13 areas for reform. The Federal Government has taken immediate measures to implement its proposals. In addition, two Acts have already been passed (December 2002). To enable the “Hartz proposals” to be executed speedily, both Acts – the contents of which are outlined below – were implemented on 1 January 2003. Immediate measures By removing the obstacles to funding and by boosting the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises, the Government hopes to prevent a situation where unemployed people are not recruited because of a lack of funds. With this objective in mind, the “Capital for Work” programme was started by the Reconstruction Loan Corporation (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) on 1 November 2002. The scheme is aimed at companies that recruit unemployed people, people threatened with unemployment or people in mini-jobs (short-time work), and place them in a permanent employment which is subject to social security contributions. The companies must be creditworthy as a whole, and must have positive prospects for the future. For every new person taken on, the company can receive a funding package worth a maximum of € 100,000 euro. In each case, half of the package is comprised of loan capital with the other half in the form of a subordinated loan. The First Act for Modern Services in the Labour Market On 1 January 2003, two “Acts for Modern Services in the Labour Market“ entered into force. They consist of a diverse range of measures and form the basis of a comprehensive reform of German labour-market policy. In accordance with the basic principle of “Activate Self-Initiative – Ensure Security”, on the one hand, new support payments will be offered. On the other hand, there will be clear incentives to take up work in the event of being unemployed. Measures to control employee behaviour during periods of unemployment With the aim of immediately activating job seekers to find work and thereby avoiding or reducing the length of unemployment, employees and other individuals who, for whatever reason, are liable to pay social insurance contributions to the Federal Office for Employment, are required to report in person at their local employment office and give notice that they are looking for work. This obligation “to look for work at an early stage” comes into effect as soon as the employee receives notice that his employment is set to end, i.e. in the case of permanent employment, once he receives notice of termination or at the conclusion of a cancellation agreement. In the case of fixed-term employment, notice must, however, be given at the earliest three months before it is due to end. Employees who delay in reporting to the employment office will see their unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance cut in the event of subsequent unemployment. The Acts on Modern Services in the Labour Market are aimed at developing the basic principle of “Activate Self-Initiative – Ensure Security “. In this context, the rulings governing the regional mobility of unemployed people have also been clarified and extended. To date, the following points have been regulated under the law on this matter: • Basically, it is seen as reasonable for an unemployed person to take up employment outside the locality if the commuting time is up to 2 hours (there and back); • In the case of part-time work totalling less than 6 hours, the reasonable commuting time is generally seen as 2 hours. It is generally seen as reasonable for an employee to commute between two separate homes for up to six months. It has now been clarified in law that an unemployed person can essentially even be required to move house to end his period of unemployment and go to a place outside the reasonable commuting distance. Exemptions apply if there are important reasons that could be cited against such a move, which – in particular – means family ties or if the person is still in the first three months of unemployment and the employment office predicts that the unemployed person will be able to find work within the daily commuter zone. Employees in breach of their undertakings and who are found to have contributed to their unemployment or who have prolonged their unemployment without having an important reason for so doing will receive no unemployment benefit for 12 weeks, during which time their benefit will be frozen. The same shall apply to supplementary benefit. In deciding whether or not to freeze payments, it is currently up to the employment office to prove that there is no important reason within the meaning of the law. In future, it will be the unemployed individual who will have to bear the burden of proof relating to the facts and circumstances from his sphere or area of responsibility. This is true, for instance, if the unemployed person pleads an important reason relating to circumstances in his personal life or if he subsequently cites reasons that the employment office initially had no reason to clarify because the unemployed person had not provided the right details on time. The rules governing the duration of a benefits freeze on account of a refusal to take up employment, a refusal to undertake vocational integration measures or due to the discontinuation of vocational integration measures, have been rejigged to be more flexible and more differentiated in accordance with the new concept of creating a more customised job-placement service. In the event of an initial violation of obligations, a benefits freeze of three weeks will come into effect, rising to six weeks in the event of a repeat offence. Only 12 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review
in the event of a third and subsequent violation – as is the case under existing legislation – does a 12-week suspension come into effect. Introduction of Personnel Service Agencies (PSAs) To make greater use of temporary work as an instrument of job placement, personal service agencies (PSAs) are to be set up throughout Germany. The Federal Employment Service is now committed to setting up at least one PSA in every employment office region. As a priority, the PSAs are to be awarded in accordance with competition law. The aim of the PSAs is to take on unemployed people on the basis of contracts entered into with the employment office in order to hire them temporarily. The PSA is forbidden from hiring out the unemployed to their previous employer. When it comes to deciding which unemployed people are to be taken on by the PSA, this has to be done in accordance with regional structures and special regional features, and is to be hammered out and agreed between the employment office and the PSA. Since the Federal Employment Service is bound by the basic principles of commercial efficiency, other job-placement instruments will be used in preference if it is predicted that these will quickly lead to employment outside the remit of the personal service agency. The level of pay within the PSA is geared to the new provisions of the German Act on Temporary Employment (see section immediately below). Until this comes into force on 1 January 2004, it must be ensured that pay and employment conditions are in line with the collective agreements for the temporary employment sector. Within the PSA, the unemployed are accordingly given a contract of employment, a guarantee of fair pay and statutory national insurance cover. Modernisation of the Regulations on Temporary Employment In order to promote the incidence of temporary employment in Germany, the regulations of the German Act on Temporary Employment have been revised. From 1 January 2004, these will apply both to commercial temporary employment and the newlyfounded PSAs. This, therefore, meets all basic demands of the casual employment sector in terms of bringing about greater flexibility – some of which have been around for a long time – whilst guaranteeing fair conditions of work for employees. The Federal Government is convinced that temporary labour must also be made more attractive for employees if it is to trigger palpable employment effects. In harmony with the intentions of the European Directive on Temporary Employment, currently being discussed at the Council of Ministers, temporary workers will, in future, be entitled to receive equal treatment on a par with the employees of the hiring firm during the period of their hire. It is possible to deviate from the principle of equal treatment in two cases: when unemployed people have been taken on during the first six weeks of their employment with the hirer, and if there is a collective agreement generally that provides for different rulings. The management and the unions are required to conclude collective agreements in the year ahead for the PSAs that take account of the Overall Developments different requirements of PSA employees and thus, in particular, give those unemployed people for whom it is difficult to find work a chance of getting a new job in the first labour market. The Federal Government is convinced that management and unions are aware of the implications of their decisions on employment policy, and that they will take on the responsibility this brings as a result. Realignment of training support On account of the overwhelming demand for skilled personnel in the labour market, the chances of unemployed people finding new work essentially depend on their qualifications. For this reason, measures have been taken to optimise the way training support is given. Overall, the right to training support is being simplified. Rulings that unnecessarily restrict the employment offices’ room for manoeuvre or are detrimental to the initiative of individuals seeking training and, above all, prevent competition between the training bodies, will be scrapped. At the heart of these new regulations lies the introduction of new training credits for employees for whom the employment office has established a training requirement. As a rule, employees will be free to use their training credits among the licensed training measures or training bodies. In addition, the review of the criteria for training bodies and measures has been re-assessed. Under the previous legislation, it was exclusively the employment office that decided on both the individual support for those involved and the recognition of the bodies and, therefore, in effect, on support of just one specific training body. Sometimes, this severely impaired competition between the training providers. With the future external expert (i.e. certification agencies) review of the quality criteria imposed on bodies, whose expertise must be determined by accreditation by an office at Federal level, the employment offices will have their workloads cut. In addition, this – coupled with the introduction of training credits – will ensure greater objectivity and more competition. Measures designed to integrate older employees Within the meaning of the aims of the European Employment Strategy, older employees constitute an explicit target group for the Acts on Modern Services in the Labour Market. Various measures specific to this target group are being taken. On the “supply side”, a combined wage model – the “pay guarantee for older employees” – is to be introduced for employees who have reached the age of 50. This wage-supplementing payment, to which they are legally entitled, comprises two components. Firstly, it involves a grant of 50% of the “net difference in the pay” between the job they had before and after they were unemployed, if they accept a job on lower pay. The pay subsidy is not subject to tax or social security contributions. Secondly, the old age pension of older employees, reduced on account of the new pay, is partly restored through increased insurance in the statutory retirement pension scheme. The pension contributions are increased to 90% of contributions that were paid in the previous position. The wageguarantee payments are only given to older unemployed individuals, who have a (remaining) claim of at least 180 days or – in the event of an employee threatened with unemployment – would have had such a claim. The pay guarantee is given, at most, for the duration of the entitlement to unemployment benefit. To avoid Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 13
Page 1 and 2: Employment & European Social Fund E
Page 3 and 4: European Employment Observatory Rev
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Policies Overall
Page 7 and 8: AUSTRIA The programme of the Austri
Page 9 and 10: FINLAND Essential changes to legisl
Page 11: At least one quarter of the members
Page 15 and 16: of active labour-market policy, as
Page 17 and 18: Training Networks Programme The Tra
Page 19 and 20: Subsequently, the provisions concer
Page 21 and 22: a strengthening and revitalisation
Page 23 and 24: workers into the labour market as w
Page 25 and 26: This reinforced targeting and resul
Page 27 and 28: BELGIUM The Occupational Immersion
Page 29 and 30: Agreement on converting 10,000 subs
Page 31 and 32: outplacement procedure, its duratio
Page 33 and 34: Integration agreements Another impo
Page 35 and 36: and local job and volunteering oppo
Page 37 and 38: FINLAND Preliminary information on
Page 39 and 40: BELGIUM Harmonisation and simplific
Page 41 and 42: • Returning migrants Eligibility
Page 43 and 44: Playing the generation game: an ove
Page 45 and 46: workers, who have either exited the
Page 47 and 48: e) Finland’s comprehensive approa
Page 49 and 50: Compared with the figures for 1997,
Page 51 and 52: Table 4: Activity quotas by age and
Page 53 and 54: Table 6: Length of unemployment by
Page 55 and 56: 4Prospects In view of the demograph
Page 57 and 58: and is exempted from the obligation
Page 59 and 60: The Government is also addressing t
Page 61 and 62: permanente, 97-124 Desmet, R. and J
Page 63 and 64:
Table 4: Breakdown by age of older
Page 65 and 66:
Figure 1: Gender gap in the activit
Page 67 and 68:
Figure 5: Effective and statutory r
Page 69 and 70:
3. Recent trends in policies As alr
Page 71 and 72:
3.3 Labour market programmes for el
Page 73 and 74:
Figure 1: Population aged 15 and ov
Page 75 and 76:
Table 3: Labour market transition r
Page 77 and 78:
companies. One of these projects wa
Page 79 and 80:
Table 2: Projection of the economic
Page 81 and 82:
Table 8: Numbers entering Early Ret
Page 83 and 84:
Figure 1: Rate of access to trainin
Page 85 and 86:
Germany 1 Introduction As far back
Page 87 and 88:
Figure 3: Potentially economically
Page 89 and 90:
Figure 5: Take-up of early-retireme
Page 91 and 92:
Figure 8: Average amounts paid unde
Page 93 and 94:
64.5% (Hain/Tautz 2001: 365) withou
Page 95 and 96:
Table 6: Collectively agreed workin
Page 97 and 98:
Strukturbruch und Arbeitsmark-tentw
Page 99 and 100:
men (Figure 3). In clear contrast w
Page 101 and 102:
Figure 5: Unemployment rates, males
Page 103 and 104:
More recent data, provided by Euros
Page 105 and 106:
pensions retracted to normal levels
Page 107 and 108:
Ireland 1. Introduction This Paper
Page 109 and 110:
Table 3: Labour force trends, 1991-
Page 111 and 112:
Table 4: Employment by age across s
Page 113 and 114:
Occupational pensions There are als
Page 115 and 116:
Italy 1. Introduction The EU offici
Page 117 and 118:
Table 7: Activity rates (age 55-64)
Page 119 and 120:
Table 10: Forecasts of employment r
Page 121 and 122:
should take the territorial imbalan
Page 123 and 124:
2. Statistical Data 5 Number of pen
Page 125 and 126:
4.2 Measures to encourage older wor
Page 127 and 128:
6. Conclusions With regard to keepi
Page 129 and 130:
level. No taxes and social premiums
Page 131 and 132:
edundancy scheme by employers. The
Page 133 and 134:
uittreding: early retirement) schem
Page 135 and 136:
Figure 4: Dependency and ageing ind
Page 137 and 138:
Figure 8: Percentage of working age
Page 139 and 140:
Figure 11: Average age of workers l
Page 141 and 142:
Figure 2: percentage change between
Page 143 and 144:
Figure 4: Figure 5: 25 20 15 10 0 -
Page 145 and 146:
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figu
Page 147 and 148:
However, this measure does not cove
Page 149 and 150:
Table 1(a): Employment rate, men, 5
Page 151 and 152:
Figure 3(b): Main Source of income
Page 153 and 154:
4. Policies to stimulate active age
Page 155 and 156:
Appendix Table A1(a): Participation
Page 157 and 158:
Venta • Salg • Verkauf • Pvl
show all

FRANCE The

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?