SNOVE Final Dissemination Event Kauniainen , 19-20 September 2 013

1. French perspectives on support for older and vulnerable employeesJessica GrandhommeFrançoise Le Deist Jonathan WintertonToulouse Business School, FR SNOVE Final Dissemination Event Kauniainen, 19-20 September 2013

2. Overview • Introduction • Economic context in France • Effects of restructuring on work and workers • Actions of stakeholders • Stakeholder perspectives • Workers’ voices • Conclusions

3. Introduction • Limits to trade union action to combat precariousness and vulnerability • Paradoxes in relation to precarious work and vulnerable workers: • Trade unions are least able to protect jobs when they most need to – militant action fails in recession. • Those who most need trade union support are least likely to be organised – difficulty of organising vulnerable groups. • Matthias Principle: those who most need training are least likely to have opportunities

4. Economic context in France • Current restructuring wave is the most significant since (and potentially more serious than) the Great Depression • Layered effects of global shift that began in 1980s, GFC 2008 and SDC 2010 • Job losses concentrated in DE, FR and UK but affecting all EU MS • Over-capacity > high profile cases in France: • PSA (Peugeot Citroen) car plant in Aulnay • Petroplus refinery in Petit-Couronne • ArcelorMittal blast furnaces at Florange

5. Effects of restructuring on work and workers • Affects those already vulnerable and brings more into the categories of precariousness and vulnerability • Job insecurity and job losses associated with ill health • Work intensification and extensification (karoshi) • Suicides related to work overload (karojisatu) • Insecurity, uncertainty and fear of job loss are as damaging to health as actual job losses • Work organisation that involves high demands and low control > job strain when support is low • Work stress clearly increased since 1990s and has accelerated since the recession

6. Actions of stakeholders in France • State and intermediary organisations: • Extensive involvement of public and private agencies • Contradictions in policies (migrants, youth, low skilled…) • Employers exhibit considerable diversity: • Vulnerable workers low priority in economic crisis • Large employers more likely to have inclusion strategies • Trade unions: • Less ambivalence and exclusion of non-core employees than in UK but low level of unionisation in general • Inclusion strategies for undocumented migrant workers ‘maximum risk and minimum voice’ (Meardi et al, 2012)

7. Stakeholders’ perspectives • State and intermediary organisations: • Emphasis on individualised support and social competences • Urgent action to combat LTU and social exclusion • Employers: • Importance of internal organisation (Airbus, SNCF) • Contradictions over handicapped and low skilled youth • Increasing use of non-standard work and migrants • Trade unions: • Priority groups: youth with low Q, seniors, migrants • Seasonal (CFDT) , handicapped (CFTC), sans papiers(CGT)

8. Workers’ voices • Older workers: • Age discrimination, culture of early retirement • Very critical of PôleEmploi, need for individualised coaching and psychological support • Unemployed youth: • Foreign nationals, unqualified, low level of French • Lack of training opportunities available (resource issue) • Workers with handicaps: • Length of time out of employment exacerbates problems • Cap Emploi provides tailored support adapted to individuals

9. Role of training and development • Social dialogue arrangements over workforce training plans could offer opportunity for more union action • Changing emphasis from opposition to job losses to seeking training for employability and adaptability • Union-led learning in UK focuses on employees with low levels of educational attainment needing basic skills • Successful in bringing non-traditional learners into training including migrant workers but depends on workplace union • Potential to improve competitivity and job quality with sustainable high involvement ‘anthropocentric’ work

10. Conclusions • Union-led learning can address all three paradoxes associated with vulnerability and precariousness: • Union-led learning engages disadvantaged groups • Can be used as an organising tool to raise unionisation • Integrative (positive sum) bargaining over restructuring • Limitations: • Limits to consensus on training as interests not congruent • Management support is crucial at operational level • Learning agreements needed to institutionalise actions