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Miscellaneous unemployed person must make a commitment to actively seek employment and to carry out appropriate actions to improve his or her employability so as to shorten the period of unemployment. • Suitable employment Beneficiaries of the unemployment protection scheme may not reject suitable offers of employment, i.e. offers that correspond to their professional or vocational skills, their habitual occupation and their physical abilities and qualifications. However, provisions are included to ensure that, should the worker in question be required to travel to work, this will not entail a change of locality or place of residence; that his/her professional, personal and family circumstances will be taken into account in all cases; and that he/she will receive adequate remuneration. The new regulations specify these measures concretely so as to avoid any application of discretion in their implementation. • Infringements and penalties The penalties applicable to workers who refuse to join a training scheme or refuse to improve their employability or to take up suitable employment have been mitigated, with the introduction of a sliding scale of penalties which become increasingly stringent in the event of repeated refusal. Eligibility for protection from unemployment • Immediate recognition of unemployment status Unemployment benefit is now payable as from the first day of involuntary redundancy, with no need to lodge a claim against dismissal or to await the court’s decision. However, this does not prevent the employee from receiving any payments due by the employer in the event that the employee decides to lodge such a claim and obtains a favourable court decision. The regulations thus ensure financial protection for unemployed people as well as the immediate implementation of the measures aimed at improving their employability so as to reintegrate them into the labour market. • Unused paid leave In the event of any unused paid leave at the time of dismissal, unemployment benefit will not be paid until the period of paid leave to which the employee is entitled has expired, it being understood that the employer has an obligation to pay the wages and contributions due for the period in question. • Repression of fraudulent employment The National Institute for Employment (Instituto Nacional de Empleo – INEM) will be able to institute proceedings against employers who repeatedly engage workers under employment contracts that are deemed fraudulent. The INEM shall be entitled to demand reimbursement of any unemployment benefit unduly paid to such workers, though this will not prevent the workers concerned from being eligible for further protection against unemployment. Employment promotion • Lump-sum payment of benefit New provisions are set out for the lump-sum payment of the contributory unemployment benefit as an employment-promotion measure, especially in the co-operative, mutual and non-profit sector; it is possible for the payment of the outstanding benefit to be paid in full or in part. The amount paid to the worker is equivalent to the mandatory contribution he or she must normally pay to join a co-operative (cooperativa de trabajo asociado) or worker-owned company (sociedad laboral) as an associate or working partner. In the event that the amount paid in respect of this contribution is less than the outstanding amount of benefit, the balance can be claimed by the worker in the form of a rebate on his or her quarterly social security contributions. It should be added that the law includes an important new item, namely the fact that the above-mentioned employment-promotion measure is extended to include workers who wish to become selfemployed and who are now entitled to receive up to 20% of the benefit as a lump-sum payment and the rest in the form of a rebate on their social security contributions. • Compatibility between benefit and employment A system has been established whereby claimants over 52 years of age continue to receive 50% of unemployment benefit after starting a fulltime job, while their employer is allowed to reduce the worker’s wage by an equal amount. In this way, since labour costs are reduced, the chances of finding employment are increased for this group of workers who face special difficulties. • Programme for the replacement of workers undergoing training The new law stipulates that claimants of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance can continue to receive 50% of the relevant amount when they are employed to replace workers taking part in continuing vocational training activities. • Promotion of geographical mobility Grants and financial incentives are provided for workers moving to a different locality to take up employment. • Subsidies for recruitment The law provides for subsidies in the form of rebates on social security contributions for employers hiring certain categories of workers, particularly women who wish to return to work following a period of maternity leave, handicapped workers, etc. Unemployment assistance • Means testing The concept of means testing in order to assess the person’s level of need and hence his or her entitlement to unemployment assistance is expressly regulated along similar lines as for taxation purposes. Changes have been introduced in the unemployment assistance timeline so that people who are not entitled to assistance because their income level exceeds the established limit, or because they do not have family responsibilities, can still obtain assistance, provided that within one year 1 they fulfil the requirements as a result of a drop in income or the onset of family responsibilities. Furthermore, if the recipient of assistance exceeds the established income limit at any point in time or ceases to have family responsibilities, assistance is suspended, but is again made available as soon as his/her income drops below the limit or he/she assumes family responsibilities, provided that less than one year has elapsed since the entitlement to assistance was suspended. 40 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review
• Returning migrants Eligibility for this kind of assistance is in line with EU regulations. Unemployment assistance is available for workers returning from countries outside the European Union or countries with which an agreement covering protection against unemployment has been concluded. Active Vocational Integration Benefit • Extension of benefit to include new groups of workers This programme, which combines financial assistance and active job-seeking measures, now covers new groups of workers, including handicapped people, returning migrants who have worked for at least six months anywhere outside Spain, women who have suffered domestic violence, and casual workers who come under the Social Security Special Agricultural Scheme (Régimen Especial Agrario de la Seguridad Social – REASS) in Andalusia and Extremadura but who are not entitled to the specific assistance provided for this group of workers. Protection of casual agricultural workers • Nationwide contributory benefit Agricultural workers are now covered by the contributory protection scheme against unemployment throughout Spanish territory, though certain specific provisions apply with regard to the duration of the benefit and ineligibility for unemployment assistance. The benefit will gradually be brought in line with the protection provided generally for all wage earners. • Subsidy for Andalusia and Extremadura This specific subsidy is maintained for all previously existing recipients, provided they have received the subsidy in the past three years. Therefore no new claims for this subsidy are accepted, given that adequate protection should be provided and guaranteed for this group of workers through the contributory benefit scheme mentioned in the previous paragraph. UNITED KINGDOM Incapacity Benefit reform The UK Government issued a Green Paper on reform to incapacity benefits on the 18 November 2002 called “Pathways to Work – Helping People into Employment”. This covers the main changes we want to make to the delivery of incapacity benefit. The Background to Change The Government believes that everyone who wants to work has the right to do so. Since 1997 the Government has helped deliver a strong and stable economy and created the Department for Work and Pensions, Jobcentre Plus, the New Deals (for the unemployed, lone parents and people with disabilities) and given better in-work support through tax credits. The significant reductions in the numbers of unemployed and lone parents on benefit, and the fact Miscellaneous that well over 1 million more people are now in work, are a testimony to the success of this strategy. However, there are currently 2.7 million people of working age receiving incapacity benefits because of a health condition or disability. This is 7.5% of the working age population (rising to 15% in the most affected local authority areas in the North West and South Wales). This number has more than trebled since the 1970s, despite improvements in most objective measures of health since that time. People do not have to be incapable of all forms of work in order to get an incapacity benefit. Instead entitlement is based on whether a person has a level of incapacity at which it is felt unreasonable to require them to seek work. It is not set at a level of incapacity at which doing any form of work is impossible. The clear evidence is that the vast majority of people who start a claim to an incapacity benefit expect to get back to work and that, for most, a return should be a real possibility if the right help is offered at the right time. For example: • Around three quarters of new claimants have more manageable medical conditions such as back pain, depression and mild circulatory disorders rather than a severe disability such as Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia or severe learning difficulties; • Best medical evidence suggests that for the main conditions reported by claimants, a return to normal activity including work is likely to enhance wellbeing and improve long term recovery1 . The outlook for a return to work should also be positive; • Surprisingly high numbers (up to 40%) of claimants in the early stage of their claim do not see their health as a key obstacle to them finding work at all; • People coming on to incapacity benefits do report a wide range of obstacles to work that are unrelated to health. These include low confidence about finding a job, poor skills, little or no financial incentive to get a job, employer discrimination and a belief that they cannot work with their health condition. Yet the longer claimants remain on incapacity benefits, the more their mental and physical health is likely to decline. So later workfocused interventions risk being less effective because of declining health, compounded by worsening skills, isolation and social exclusion. Out of every hundred people claiming an incapacity benefit, over forty will still be there one year later. By this point their prospects for getting back to work are very poor, whatever condition they report. Once people have been on incapacity benefits for a year, the average duration of their claim will be eight years. What Will This Mean in Practice? The Green Paper recommends offering people coming on to incapacity benefits much more help and a more coherent package of choices and options than they have had previously. The changes will be piloted before rolling them out nationally: 1. Providing a better framework of support The Government intends to engage individuals and provide effective support through: • Ensuring new incapacity benefit claimants maintain contact with skilled personal advisers throughout the crucial early stages of a claim through a series of work-focused interviews. Those with the most serious disabilities such as schizophrenia or paraplegia will be exempted from this mandatory requirement. 1 Waddell G and Burton AK – Occupational Health Guidelines for the management of low back pain – Evidence Review – Faculty of Occupational Medicine, London; Jones D and West R – Cardiac Rehabilitation – BMJ Publishing Group; Acheson D (Chairman). Report. Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health. London. TSO 1998 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 41
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 and 12: At least one quarter of the members
Page 13 and 14: in the event of a third and subsequ
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: BELGIUM Harmonisation and simplific
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
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Figure 8: Average amounts paid unde
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64.5% (Hain/Tautz 2001: 365) withou
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Table 6: Collectively agreed workin
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Strukturbruch und Arbeitsmark-tentw
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men (Figure 3). In clear contrast w
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Figure 5: Unemployment rates, males
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More recent data, provided by Euros
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pensions retracted to normal levels
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Ireland 1. Introduction This Paper
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Table 3: Labour force trends, 1991-
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Table 4: Employment by age across s
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Occupational pensions There are als
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Italy 1. Introduction The EU offici
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Table 7: Activity rates (age 55-64)
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Table 10: Forecasts of employment r
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should take the territorial imbalan
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2. Statistical Data 5 Number of pen
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4.2 Measures to encourage older wor
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6. Conclusions With regard to keepi
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level. No taxes and social premiums
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edundancy scheme by employers. The
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uittreding: early retirement) schem
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Figure 4: Dependency and ageing ind
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Figure 8: Percentage of working age
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Figure 11: Average age of workers l
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Figure 2: percentage change between
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Figure 4: Figure 5: 25 20 15 10 0 -
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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figu
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However, this measure does not cove
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Table 1(a): Employment rate, men, 5
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Figure 3(b): Main Source of income
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4. Policies to stimulate active age
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Appendix Table A1(a): Participation
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Venta • Salg • Verkauf • Pvl
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