Špidla faces union flak for ‘hire-and-fire’ plan

Vladimír Špidla, the European commissioner for employment and social affairs, is being accused of paying lip-service to workers’ interests while tolerating hire-and-fire labour practices.

In a paper to be released next week (27 June), Špidla attempts a delicate balancing act, combining flexible labour markets with job security. Critics say that his blend, which is being compared to the Danish labour market model known as flexicurity, is long on flexibility but short on security.

Danish MEP Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, leader of the Party of European Socialists, one of the architects of the flexicurity model as prime minister of Denmark in 1993-2002, expressed concern about the Commission’s blueprint. "I feel they have got the wrong end of the stick, that they don’t approach it in a social democratic way, that there is more flexibility than security," Rasmussen said.

A draft of the paper attempts to shift the debate away from job security to prioritising employment security - the availability of and access to jobs. It pushes for flexible contractual arrangements "both from the perspective of the employer and the employee". It places substantial emphasis on lifelong-learning strategies, active labour market policies in the form of guidance and assistance for workers in transition and the modernisation of social security systems.

John Monks, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, said: "It [the paper] seems to focus on the need to relax dismissal regulations and to make contractual arrangements more flexible - read, less protected - while giving only vague promises about the need to invest more in training and active labour market measures."

Špidla, he said, "did not give any guarantees that the necessary increase in unemployment benefits and transition security" would ever materialise.

"The world has changed and we must face it," Špidla told European Voice. "Jobs for life are a thing of the past. Improving the responsiveness of European labour markets is crucial to raise economic activity and ensure high productivity. But workers need to have employment security, so Europe can keep up its overall competitiveness."

Evidence is cited in the paper of the damaging effects that employment protection legislation can have on the prospects of those "most likely to face problems of entry into the labour market, such as young people, women, older workers and the long-term unemployed". Companies that are penalised for laying off workers, it claims, are less likely to recruit.

Danish Socialist MEP Ole Christensen warned that use of flexicurity to reduce protection at a time when decisions on working-time and pension rights were being ducked at EU level would create "a feeling of mistrust" among workers. He said that the Danish model was successful largely because of its provisions on welfare and social security. "When workers feel secure then they are willing to focus on employment security rather than job security," he said.

Špidla denied that the paper was based on the Danish approach. "This is not about copying a model. The traditions in the member states are diverse. Some have strong social partners, others regulate the labour market through legislation, some have very segmented labour markets, others high unemployment," he said. Member states will in next week’s communication be offered a selection of four approaches to labour law reform.

BusinessEurope, the employers’ lobby welcomed Špidla’s approach. In a letter to Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, the organisation urges the forthcoming holder of the EU’s rotating presidency to place flexicurity at the heart of his agenda. As well as brokering agreement on principles for flexicurity by the end of this year, the presidency aims to make the approach central to the final phase of the Lisbon Agenda on jobs and growth.

Vladimír Špidla, the European commissioner for employment and social affairs, is being accused of paying lip-service to workers’ interests while tolerating hire-and-fire labour practices.