Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University
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Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

jacobs.university.de
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11.03.2014 Views

workers before recruiting persons from the external labour market. A hiring freeze enforced or supported by the works council was also a means to shield incumbent workers from redundancy. That confirms Lindbeck´s and Snower´s (1988) observation that employee representatives help preserve the power of ´insiders´ by keeping ´outsiders´ from entering the first labour market. An interviewed official from a regional employment office explained the hesitant recruitment of older applicants in large companies with the strong opposition from the works council towards that practice: “They have released older workers with expensive programmes, they are afraid to hire them again even if they could and wanted to as it does not fit in with their ideology” (JR_27 10 03). My case studies did not confirm this statement. I found ambiguous evidence with regard to the role of works councils in facilitating the employment of elderly persons from works councils opting against the hiring of older persons in order to give a chance to younger unemployed, to those which opposed it on grounds of the lowering of social standards when hiring a former employee under worse conditions, closing with the chairman of a works council who agitated in favour of the governmental programme “50 plus” (see section 3.2.2.) but was not supported by the personnel manager in his endeavour to hire older unemployed. Health management is a more conflict-prone issue as the interests of the management and the works council diverge. While the employer strives for lowering the absenteeism rate, the works council wants to introduce workplace health prevention (Arbeitnehmerkammer 2003). In the studied firms, it also showed that the works council and the employer are fighting over issues which centre on the alternatives cost-cutting vs. investment, e.g. whether to install technical aids at workplaces or introduce ergonomic improvements. Such conflicts arise even in a firm with a codified age management strategy, showing the divergence between declarations and actual practice. Another area of conflict are sheltered workplaces which previously were a refuge for incapacitated workers and have been by now outsourced or closed in most companies. The works council in one firm managed to crowd out the subcontractor and to re-integrate those easier workplaces in the firm. In some firms, the works councils, for which health management is a classic field of action (Brussig/Ahlers 2004: 621), acted as trend-setters – they initiated health management 153

with a health management professor as mediator and consultant. The purpose was to redirect the focus from analysis of absenteeism rates to preventive measures. Further training and know-how transfer provokes clashes between the two parties in a smaller number of firms than is the case with health management. Again, those clashes ground on cost saving issues. E.g., in one firm the exemption of experienced workers in pre-retirement age for a few weeks from regular work so that they can qualify younger workers is rejected on grounds of temporary unproductivity. In some firms, works councils play a role in stimulating training and preserving training investments (e.g. in case of redundancies, so that outplaced or dismissed workers can quicker find a job more quickly), or pushing for the introduction of customised training (e.g. different levels of IT courses). There is less disagreement between the two parties over issues of personnel reductions and early retirement. Backes-Gellner et al. (1997: 334) arrived at the conclusion that there is a “seemingly high degree of consensus between management and workers´ representatives, even in the case of dismissals”, and Ebbinghaus (2003: 47) stated that “one actor alone is not able to shape early exit policy successfully unless there is one other main actor that shares similar interests”. Unions “will foster early exit from work when their leaders deem that policies are in the interests of their members”, and the interests of organised labour and employers is to “control and regulate early exit from work independently, and they have an interest in externalizing the costs thereof to the public” (ibid: 47-48). Moreover, according to Mares (2001: 58-59), “[f]irms would like to control the “who, when and how” of early exit, retaining those with needed skills and high productivity, while shedding those with redundant skills and low productivity”. Following those lines of argument, the management and employee representatives collude in the use of public funds for the early release of older workers with wage compensation. While employers strive to reduce the head count and to ensure the support of workers for the reciprocity norm (Kohli et al. 1983: 29), the works councils have an interest in securing their position by rewarding their constituency and releasing it from work burdens. In my firm case studies, the employee representatives generally supported early retirement and firm-level pre-retirement schemes on grounds that they offered the option of early exit for persons with impaired health and those suffering from adverse working 154

workers before recruiting persons from the external labour market. A hiring freeze enforced<br />

or supported by the works council was also a means to shield incumbent workers from<br />

redundancy. That confirms Lindbeck´s and Snower´s (1988) observation that employee<br />

representatives help preserve the power of ´insiders´ by keeping ´outsiders´ from entering<br />

the first labour market.<br />

An interviewed official from a regional employment office explained the hesitant<br />

recruitment of older applicants in large companies with the strong opposition from the<br />

works council towards that practice: “They have released older workers with expensive<br />

programmes, they are afraid to hire them again even if they could and wanted to as it does<br />

not fit in with their ideology” (JR_27 10 03).<br />

My case studies did not confirm this statement. I found ambiguous evidence with regard<br />

to the role of works councils in facilitating the employment of elderly persons from works<br />

councils opting against the hiring of older persons in order to give a chance to younger<br />

unemployed, to those which opposed it on grounds of the lowering of social standards when<br />

hiring a former employee under worse conditions, closing with the chairman of a works<br />

council who agitated in favour of the governmental programme “50 plus” (see section<br />

3.2.2.) but was not supported by the personnel manager in his endeavour to hire older<br />

unemployed.<br />

Health management is a more conflict-prone issue as the interests of the management<br />

and the works council diverge. While the employer strives for lowering the absenteeism<br />

rate, the works council wants to introduce workplace health prevention<br />

(Arbeitnehmerkammer 2003). In the studied firms, it also showed that the works council<br />

and the employer are fighting over issues which centre on the alternatives cost-cutting vs.<br />

investment, e.g. whether to install technical aids at workplaces or introduce ergonomic<br />

improvements. Such conflicts arise even in a firm with a codified age management strategy,<br />

showing the divergence between declarations and actual practice. Another area of conflict<br />

are sheltered workplaces which previously were a refuge for incapacitated workers and<br />

have been by now outsourced or closed in most companies. The works council in one firm<br />

managed to crowd out the subcontractor and to re-integrate those easier workplaces in the<br />

firm.<br />

In some firms, the works councils, for which health management is a classic field of<br />

action (Brussig/Ahlers 2004: 621), acted as trend-setters – they initiated health management<br />

153

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