Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

supported with regard to the age of the workforce – among the nine firms which run the
externalisation strategy towards impaired workers, there are two firms with an old
workforce (but another ´old´ firm does not utilise that strategy), several firms with an
average age of the workforce, but also one firm with a young workforce.
The institutional legacies of the Polish system of labour law prescribing a high
involvement of firms in the provision of health care are complemented to the benefit of
older and impaired workers with EU regulations in the realm of occupational safety. Still,
health management has a much lower standing than in Germany when understood as a
holistic concept which aims to preserve work capacity of workers through the influence of
working conditions, the whole work environment, the technical standards and workers´ selfresponsibility
for their health. Health management in Polish companies is often reduced to
the provision of regular health check-ups and health care – however, in that respect, it has
reached a high standard. Policy measures in the field of health management in the studied
firms have no outright focus on older workers or on the ageing workforce; however, older
workers may benefit to a higher extent from the regular health screening.
Most interviewees regarded women as less able to work at regular workplaces until the
retirement age of 65. That proved the impact of the statutory regulation of a genderdifferentiated
retirement age upon the assessment of workers´ aptitude (and indirectly on
company practice towards workers). Also the institution of a lower retirement age for
workers of certain occupations had an effect upon the assessment of respective working
conditions; usually, shop steward deemed workplaces (especially those of blue-collar
workers) less suitable for work until standard retirement age. While managers pointed to the
positive influence of technological change (reduction of physical risks to health), shop
stewards focused on psychical risk exposure (risen work intensity, higher performance
criteria, stress).
Firms applied different strategies or a mixture of strategies when dealing with
incapacitated workers. Externalisation strategies and substitution strategies were pursued
more often than internalisation strategies.
188