Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

and social security activities have an older employment structure than the education and health
subsectors (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria,
Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and Norway) the opposite is true for all the eastern European countries,
plus the UK. In other cases the picture is less definite, such as in Italy, where the oldest employment
structure is found in education activities. Third, in the majority of countries a decreasing trend in
the public sector young/older employees ratio is observable, resulting in part from cuts in temporary
employment and in the replacement ratio, albeit not always more pronounced than in the entire
economy. The few exceptions include Czech Republic, Estonia, Malta, and partly Sweden, while in
another group the ratio remains stable (Denmark, Luxembourg). Exceptions apart, on the whole
younger workers seem to be harder hit by the crisis than their older counterparts.
In connection with measures recently adopted by many governments in response to the crisis – such
as replacement freezes, cuts in temporary employment, worsening wage and working conditions
that make public sector jobs less attractive, cuts in training expenditure, reforms of the pension
systems that raise the general retirement age of public employees (see also chapter 6) while at the
same time temporarily encouraging early retirement to reduce employment levels and labour costs -
this age structure might lead to unexpected and problematic consequences. Depending on national
conditions and specific mix of measures, one consequence could be a further ageing of the public
sector workforce. A second consequence might be a change in the skills composition of public
sector employees, with a loss of human capital. Other possible consequences include staff
shortages, mobility to the private sector or migration abroad, which has happened in the case of
health professions from several eastern European countries such as Estonia, Hungary, Romania,
Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia (Masso and Espenberg 2012: 69; Hámori and Kӧllὄ 2012:
175). A final consequence is a potential worsening of the quality of public services (Vaughan-
Whitehead 2012: 15, 17, 20). Some of these potential outcomes, of course, depend on how reforms
are designed and implemented, while the expected results are enhanced levels of efficiency.
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