Global value chain restructuring and changes in work in the EU: facts and perspectives

1. Global value chain restructuring and changes in work in the EU: facts and perspectives Work Organisation Restructuring in the KBS Monique Ramioul Research Institute for Work and Society- HIVA-KUL

2. R&D engeneering administration PRO-DUCTION ICT Distributon/ lo-gistics Sales/customer services Relocation Outsourcing Offshoring The value chain approach • Restructuring of business functions: • Contractual: in-house or outsourced • Spatial: domestic or international (nearshore, offshore) • Combination of both

3. WORKS – case studies • Period: between June ‘05 and December ’07! • Business functions: • Production • R&D, ICT • Logistics, customer services • Sectors: • Food, clothing, IT • Post and railways • Public administrations • Countries: IT Logistics Austria Belgium Bulgaria Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Netherlands Norway Portugal Sweden UK Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

4. 1. Value chain restructuring • Outsourcing and offshoring but also integration Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

5. 1. Value chain restructuring • A huge variation of restructuring modes • Value chains are generally becoming more elaborated and industries more specialised • But integration of activities in view of value chain control is also observed • Moving ‘race to the bottom’ hypothesis confirmed for low-skill production activities (clothing,food) • Much greater geographical ‘stickiness’ in high-skill activities such as R&D • Dynamics of moving up the value chain Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

6. 2. Work organisation and skills • More skills needed to work harder? Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

7. 2. Work organisation and skills? • New skills are needed at the higher end of the chain • Inreased knowledge-intensity • Organisational and technological changes accompanying the restructuring • Speeding-up of business • Growing importance of non-core professional skills, not necessarily strengthening these • But also more bureaucratisation, standardisation and formalisation • mulitplication of interfaces and spatial distance limit organisational flexibility and responsiveness • workers’ skills and informal capabilities have to compensate Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

8. 2. Work organisation and skills? • 1. Figures from employee surveys: in 15 EU countries (Greenan, Walkowiak,Kalugina) • Significant DECREASE in work complexity between 1995 and 2000, and between 2000 and 2005even after controlling for micro and macro characteristics • Significant INCREASE in intensity of technical constraints • No changes in intensity of market constraints • Significant DECREASE in quality of working conditions Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

9. 3. Flexibility • Fragmentation of work and employment conditions Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

10. 3. Flexibility • Differentials in working conditions between companies, sectors and countries act as a driver of restructuring • ‘same’ work, ‘same’ colleagues but under different conditions • Flexibility is unevenly distributed along the value chain • Growing contractual flexibility and/or insecurity, esp. at the ‘lower’ end • Temporal pressures along the chain • Growing pressure on the core Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

11. Subsidiary of National Post • Employees by employment contract: • 15 management • 98 workers under National Post collective agreement • 120 workers under subsidiary company collective agreement • 80 seasonal workers – national minimum wage • 250 - 300 temporary agency workers Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

12. 4. Industrial relations • Managing restructuring Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

13. 4. Industrial relations • Huge country differences with major role for existing national and sectoral structures • the national and sectoral influence the social dialogue structure, negotiated issues and role in restructuring process • Generally a marginal role of union representation, esp. when move to regions/sectors with weaker structures • Defining change is a management prerogative • Response is reactive not proactive • Marked differences between occupational groups • Sector differences in the role of representation are high Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

14. 4. Industrial relations • intensified power differences between labour and management because of larger, diffuse units, complex networks and remote contacts • EU regulations are not very visible at the workplace or in the consciousness of workers for restructuring issues (EWCs; information and consultation are minimal) Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

15. WORKS Thematic reports • Value chain restructuring in Europe in a global economy • VCR and company strategies to reach flexibility • VCR and the use of knowledge and skills • VCR and the role of technology • Changing careers and trajectories • Working time, gender and worklife balance • Health and safety and the quality of work: psychosocial risks • VCR and Industrial Relations and workplace representation • Changing patterns of segregation and power • VCR and changes in work: future perspectives IT Logistics Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

16. The WORKS project www.worksproject.be Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10