Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Substitution strategies – the third type of reactions to diminished workability of older
workers – partly compensate for burdening work, but do not prevent early loss of
workability. Such strategies, in the form of wage accruals or early holidays, are far more
popular in Poland than in Germany (comp. also Brown et al. 2001: 253). I regard that as a
barrier to prolongation of working life, as wage accruals may keep employers from
improving working conditions and may bind workers to their workplaces and lower their
motivation to switch to an easier, albeit less paid job. (Such a phenomenon occurred also in
the German Firm DE-3; see Box 1 in section 4.2.2.).
Examples of ´good practice´ in this policy field are Firm PL-4 and Firm PL-8 (see Box
8 for the latter example).
Box 8: Good practice in health and integration management in Firm PL-8
The communal utility offers opportunities for older impaired workers to continue working. Respective
measures on health and integration management are codified in the Collective Agreement. The firm provides
early diagnosis and vaccinations and additional examinations for workers past their 40th year in order to
prevent diabetes, malignant neoplasm a.o. If workers with a long tenure in the company suffer from health
impairments, they are deployed at easier workplaces or in a subsidiary. As prevention, younger workers
perform more strenuous tasks (digging holes, carrying heavy weights).
The findings in this section show that firms are to a low extent involved in the further
development of occupational safety and workplace health promotion into a holistic health
management strategy. Also trade unions to a low extent involved in that issue. Brown et al.
(2001: 255-6) explains that with the reliance of Polish firms on the government in that
domain, and with the concentration of trade unions on issues of employment security,
remuneration and social benefits.
On the basis of those findings, hypotheses 2A is not supported and hypothesis 2B is
supported, as the firms do not consider age in respective policies and externalisation
strategies are uniform towards all employees with incapacity to work (in most cases,
utilisation of disability pension). Hypothesis 3 is not supported with regard to the economic
position of the firm – among firms which apply an externalisation strategy in case of
impaired workers, there are both such with a stable employment situation and with
personnel reductions, both such with a positive development of the economic branch under
the period of investigation and with a negative development. Hypothesis 3 is also not
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