Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

or women working at the assembly line. The lines of conflict centred on the issue of cost
containment (on the side of managers), respectively on indispensable investments in order
to keep workers on the job (on the side of trade unionists).
In several firms, trade unionists and managers jointly asserted that the status of inservice-training
had been better under communism. Firstly, current cohorts of older workers
had profited from generous subsidies and paid leave for extramural (also college) education,
or of initial education provided in vocational schools formerly run under the firms´ own
auspices. Secondly, also investments on intramural education had been higher, although the
focus had been more on (obsolescent) hard skills. After the transition to market economy,
firms were forced to cut subsidies to educational activities undertaken by workers (comp.
also Morecka 2003: 300). Especially in the utility Firm PL-9, trade unionists push for a
restitution of the former status of in-service training.
Several manufacturing firms with foreign investment stressed the role of know-how for
the success of the firm on the market and for the individual success of workers within the
firm. Due to the long period of schooling and know-how transfer and the high costs
incurred, experienced older workers are retained or re-hired for commissioned work (Firm
PL-9, Firm PL-12, Firm PL-13, Firm PL-17; all of those are foreign ownership firms).
Thus, the expert know-how of older workers serves as a guarantee that they might continue
working until (or even past) retirement. The downside to it is that some older workers fear
redundancy once they have conveyed their knowledge onto successors, as was reported by
shop stewards in several firms. (Similar opinions were issued in the studied German firms.)
Foreign ownership is a factor which might improve the position of older workers also in
another respect. Those firms promote the acquisition of multiple competences and the
ability to hold varying positions as the opposite of the narrow specialisation and the
unwillingness to learn new tasks criticised in older workers. That approach constitutes an
opportunity to prevent the „specialisation trap“ (Wolff 2000) and to improve the
workability of older workers. However, as much as foreign ownership has an impact on the
standing of qualifications and further training in the firm (comp. also Pocztowski et al.
2001: 17-18, 20), it does not necessarily imply equal access to training to workers of all
ages.
Another chance to integration of older workers stems from EU accession, as EU funds
(e.g. Phare) may be utilised for further training.
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