Tell us what you think about the latest ideas from Europe to change the way you work......
Experts agree that jobs in this part of Wales – like other parts of Europe - are under threat. The threats come from competition elsewhere in the world, from new technology, and from an ageing population. But experts also agree that there are ways that new jobs can be encouraged.
Encouraging new jobs to be created will involve changing how people work. Experts say that there needs to be greater flexibility in the workforce and more security for workers. This combination of flexibility and security is called ‘flexicurity’.
Greater Flexibility
Employers and employees need to be more flexible about how they work in order to adapt quickly to changes in the economy. The most important proposal is that employers should be able to hire and fire their employees more easily than now. This is supposed to encourage businesses to take on new workers.
But this is not the only way that employees will need to be flexible. Other ideas are that:
• hours of work should be flexible, to suit either the employer or the employee (e.g. part-time work, minimum hours contracts, term-time working etc)
• employees should be able to move jobs within firms more easily
Greater Security
As well as being more flexible, experts say employees need to have greater ‘security’ to help them during their working lives, especially if they no longer have a ‘job for life’. In particular, employees need better social security benefits if they are out of work so that they do not suffer as a result of changing jobs.
Experts also agree that employees will need:
• More help and encouragement to find work if they do not have a job
• More help to combine work and family responsibilities (e.g. looking after children)
• More help to learn new skills
.....but not everyone agrees
Not everyone thinks that the idea of introducing flexibility and security is a good one. Some people say that in the UK there is already a great deal of flexibility, as workers have relatively little protection against dismissal or redundancy. For many workers being ‘flexible’ means having low pay, little control over their hours of work, and no training. They also say that workers are not compensated for being flexible because UK unemployment benefits are relatively low and there is limited help available to find new work.
What do you think?
The idea of ‘flexicurity’ is gaining ground and could affect you and your job in the next few years, if the different countries of Europe agree.
But most of the discussion about flexicurity has been amongst politicians and experts. There has been very little discussion of the idea amongst ordinary people.
The European Commission has given a grant to the Bevan Foundation (a registered charity which aims to promote fairness and equality in Wales) to find out what people in Wales think of the idea.
.....so let us know what you think about the idea by :
- Emailing your views, writing or faxing us at:
The Bevan Foundation,
FREEPOST RRKG-YZYE-HBEC
Aneurin Bevan House,
40 Castle Street,
Tredegar,
Blaenau Gwent
NP22 3DQ
Email: myjob@bevanfoundation.org
Fax: 01495 725214
The Bevan Foundation is a registered charity no. 1104191. This project is part funded by the European Community.