Summary of the Re-Structuring Forum of the European Commission
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Current challenges
In terms of employment and working conditions, re-structuring is interpreted as a negative phenomenon by the enterprises, though it is of vital importance for them from the perspective of survival and development. Everything shall be done in order to minimise the term and the nature of the negative consequences of re-structuring exerted on employment and on working conditions.
At company level, re-structuring is a form of changing and transforming production constantly as a result of numerous factors.
Development of the Single European Market and the opening up and participation of the economies in international competition offers new opportunities for the enterprises, including dynamics in the economy, competitiveness and the creation of jobs requiring high-level skills.
Competition within the internal market of the European Union promotes the realisation of prosperity and the creation of lasting employment.
Innovation is the number-one engine to create new products and new services and to revitalise the economy. However, technological innovation also results in re-structuring:

  • New information and communication technologies accelerate the processes in international trade and in the co-ordination of production and, at the same time, make them cheaper;
  • At the same time, new applications representing more creative and higher-quality jobs are created;
  • New production processes and methods are also coupled with the creation of higher and better quality jobs;
  • These necessitate new types of training to meet the new job requirements;
  • Ecological innovations also contribute to creating new jobs, improving this way our social well-being.

New legislation or deregulation may bring about changes in production and on the labour market.
Quantitative aspects: Corrective measures will result in a new distribution between those working in production and those employed in the service sector. In reality, the number of new jobs has been on the increase in Europe: between 1977 and 2002 30 million new jobs were created in net term so that 44 million new jobs were created in the service sector and minimum 7 million jobs ceased to exist in the industry and 7.5 million in the agriculture. Every year, 10% of the European companies start their operation and the same ratio of the enterprises closes down. According to statistical estimates, the average number of companies starting their business and closing down in the Member States of the European Union varies between 5 thousand and 15 thousand per day.
Qualitative aspect: In accordance with the European trend, the jobs that are created in certain sectors are of higher quality and of bigger productivity. In the service sector, employment has been increasing during the past 20 years. In 2003, two out of every three people were employed in the service sector, and during the past five years, this sector witnessed a 25% increase in employment. Between 1998 and 2003 increase could be experienced in three categories of the employees in the 15 Member States of the EU (+2.2% among the workers with low qualification, +14.2% among the employees with medium level of qualification and a +25.1% increase in the highly-qualified group of workers). At the same time, the proportion share of workers with low qualification level decreased in comparison to the total number of employees.

Workers do not move from one sector to the other automatically. The termination of jobs replaced by other jobs, and the disappearance of some extremely risky and polluted jobs shall be interpreted as positive phenomena. However, the new job vacancies are not necessarily filled by those who have lost their work or became redundant, because the place of work or the demand for skills do not always coincide with each other.
The above-described changes affected the most vulnerable groups of the population, and had an especially severe effect on the workers with low qualification level.
The negative tendencies might be mitigated should the state and the authorities take the necessary measures and actions and should the parties affected co-ordinate with each other efficiently.
Openness of the economy results in the growth of the economy and in the increase of employment, but – at the same time – this trend forces the affected enterprises, companies and employees to execute costly adaptation measures.

Effects:
- In general, the costs of opening up the economy are concentrated in certain sectors and/or areas;
- Due to the nature of costs, the respective costs can not be correlated directly with the benefits of opening up the market;
- A certain period of time has to pass before the benefits of economic opening become manifest after the spending;
- Costs and benefits do not appear at the same place.

In the interest of strengthened co-ordination among the community policies, convergence and synergy shall characterise the different internal objectives, policies and actions.

 Reform of the European Employment Strategy:

  • Prior to and during the re-structuring process the labour market shall attract and hold more people;
  • The capacity for adaptation of the workers and of the companies shall improve , and
  • Investment into human capital shall increase.

The new proposal for the regulation of the European Social Fund (financial planning for the period of 2007-2013) strengthens this role, especially in the following contexts:

  • Strengthening the adaptation capacity of the workers and the companies in relation to re-structuring at sectorial and company levels;
  • Through investing into human capital and life-long learning, the European Social Fund can support quality training systems based on extensive partnership and satisfying local needs;
  • With the conclusion of employment and innovation pacts and the creation of partnerships at national, regional and local levels, the new regulation will, for example, promote the development of systems preceding economic and social changes;
  • By means of strengthening the institutional capacities and the efficiency of the affected parties (for example: by training the “managers orchestrating the changes”);
  • By the creation of synergy and partnership among the persons/institutions in charge of vocational training and those responsible for regional development.

Strengthening partnership for the realisation of changes:

  • Strengthening sectorial social dialogue
  • Corporate social responsibility
  • Creation of the forum for „re-structuring”.

The role of social partners:

  • It depends on the European sectorial social committees whether they develop methods for the period preceding re-structuring, with special emphasis on the conclusions of the negotiations mentioned under point 2.4. and to their own initiatives related to sectorial and regional monitoring;
  • As their specific knowledge and experience about their own sector is a given factor, they have an important role, at every level, in informing and alerting the authorities. Should the social partners decide to alert the Commission in connection with a specifically annoying case, the Commission may decide to launch a serious sectorial or regional control by the lines described under points 2.1.3 and 2.1.4.

The second phase of the consultations with the European social partners on the re-structuring of companies and on the European works councils:

  • More intensive involvement of the social partners into the events of the phase preceding re-structuring and into re-structuring itself, as they are the key actors of the efficient actions related to re-structuring.
  • The social partners shall be promoted to continue their work, namely the motivation for the implementation of guidelines compiled from the best practises of re-structuring and on the European works councils.

The most important objective is to reach an agreement amongst each other, on the desirable trends and means/tools in the following issues:

  • Implementation of the mechanisms assuring the use of the existing guidelines on re-structuring and the monitoring thereof and the discussions on the ways to continue;
  • Promoting the implementation of best practises already included in the guidelines on re-structuring;
  • Disseminating the best practices on the functioning of the European works councils in order to make their operation even more efficient, with special emphasis on their role in orchestrating the changes;
Finding a common approach on the other items – being of interest for the social partners – of communication, with due respect to training, sectorial dimensions and the steps to be taken before re-structuring.