Department of Public Management Masters in Safe Environment at Work Enhancing the Human Resource: Em

1
Department of Public ManagementMasters in
Safe Environment at WorkEnhancing the Human
Resource Employee WellBeing at the Workplace -
An Interdisciplinary Approach.

• The European Social Model and Occupational Health
  and Safety Strategy
• Charles Woolfson

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What is the European Social Model?

• The term European Social Model (ESM) has been
  used in policy circles in Europe but lacks a
  precise definition.
• Despite this, the idea of ESM informs much of
  policy making in social matters at European
  level.
• Thus, the European Summit (Lisbon 2000) member
  states adopted a formal position
• the European Social Model with its developed
  systems of social protection, must underpin the
  transformation of the knowledge economy

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Basic definition

• The ESM is a set of European Community and
  member-state legal regulations, but also a range
  of practices aimed at promoting a voluntaristic
  and comprehensive social policy in the European
  Union
• Elements of formal legal instruments and
  compliance mechanisms
• Elements of voluntary practice and
  self-regulations
• One European social model or several?
  Anglo-saxon, Nordic, Southern European

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Examining the ESM in the specific area of working
environment

• social dialogue, labour relations, employee
  rights to participation in CEE
• health and safety of employees in the workplace
• corporate social responsibility, that is, the
  behaviour of companies in the area of social
  questions of employee welfare and wider societal
  impacts of business

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A common core of values?

• At the Nice summit (December 2000) of EC heads
  of state the common core of values of the ESM
  was identified-
• the European Social model, (is) characterised
  in particular by systems that offer a high level
  of social protection, by the importance of social
  dialogue and by services of general interest
  covering activities vital for social cohesion, is
  today based, beyond the diversity of the member
  states social systems, on a common core of
  values

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• What are these common European values?
• Make a list..

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• Democracy (not totalitarianism)
• Individual rights (as against purely collective
  rights)
• Free collective bargaining (free trade unions
  not dominated by the State or Party)
• Equality of opportunity (Gender and race
  discrimination avoided)
• Social welfare and solidarity (social support
  for the needy and poor, and inclusion)
• In summary, a social dimension is necessary for
  economic and social cohesion and therefore also
  for political stability and economic performance.

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Other elements of the ESM

• Key assumptions
• ESM is embedded in a market economy
• The notion of quality the assumption that
  competitive advantage and performance can be
  boosted by quality in working conditions and
  social policy in general.
• A role left to public authorities to manage and
  moderate the impacts of the free market on the
  weaker and more vulnerable sections of society
• Specific concern to reduce social inequalities

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Examples-

• At Community level, use of Structural Funds to
  reduce inequalities between regions
• Social protection programmes European
  Employment Strategy to promote labour market
  developments eg training, human resource
  development
• Promotion of workers and citizens rights
  through various forms of social charters
  (non-binding declarations) spreading theses
  values throughout the Community

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Key Treaty Maastricht Treaty 1992 (Treaty of the
European Union)

• Maastricht Treaty 1992 (Treaty of the European
  Union) (Signed by 11 member states with UK
  opt-out)
• Social Protocol a new legislative framework -
  annexed to Maastricht Treaty progressed social
  policy in three areas
• i. extension of the competences of the Community
  on social issues
• ii. introduction of qualified majority voting
  (QMV) in new areas (such as health and safety at
  work, working conditions, information and
  consultation, equal opportunities
• iii. recognition and extension of the social
  partners role and rights.

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Maastricht Treaty

• Overall effect allowed European institutions to
  take the initiative on social issues that were
  formerly the prerogative of individual states
  resulting in significant advances in safety and
  health at work legislation through a Framework
  Directive and daughter directives and in social
  dialogue discussions at Eruopean level.

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Amsterdam Treaty

• Amsterdam Treaty 1997 (coming into force in 1999)
  calls for a more Social Europe addressing
  concerns about unemployment and social exclusion.
  Incorporation of the Maastricht Social Protocol
  into the Amsterdam Treaty (Art 138)
• The Social Protocol is a political instrument
  that contains moral obligations to guarantee the
  respect of certain social rights -related to
  labour market, vocational training, equal
  opportunities and the working environment. On
  social protection and worker participation
  decisions still unanimous.

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The Lisbon Agenda

• The meeting of European heads of state at Lisbon
  in 2000 produced a new agenda.
• An attempt to reconcile the contradictory
  objectives of promoting greater economic
  competitiveness in Europe, with preservation of
  previous forms of social protection.
• To create the most competitive dynamic
  knowledge-based economy in the world

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• Three elements stressed at Lisbon Council-
• the interaction between economic, social and
  employment policies
• the role of new instruments of European
  policy-making (the Open Method of co-ordination)
• European Social Agenda assessed annually by the
  Commission

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Social Charters

• Community and the Member States defined
  fundamental social rights on the basis of two
  texts-
• the European Social Charter signed at Turin on 18
  October 1961 and
• the 1989 Community Charter of the Fundamental
  Social Rights of Workers.
• These fundamental social rights mainly concern
  employment, living and working conditions, social
  protection, social dialogue and the combating of
  exclusion.

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Revised European Social Charter for Fundamental
Social Rights 2000

• CHAPTER IV, SOLIDARITY
• Article 27
• Workers' right to information and consultation
  within the undertaking
• Workers or their representatives must, at the
  appropriate levels, be guaranteed information and
  consultation in good time in the cases and under
  the conditions provided for by Community law and
  national laws and practices.

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Article 28 Right of collective bargaining and
action Workers and employers, or their
respective organisations, have, in accordance
with Community law and national laws and
practices, the right to negotiate and conclude
collective agreements at the appropriate levels
and, in cases of conflicts of interest, to take
collective action to defend their interests,
including strike action.
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• Article 29
• Right of access to placement services
• Everyone has the right of access to a free
  placement service.
• Article 30
• Protection in the event of unjustified dismissal
• Every worker has the right to protection against
  unjustified dismissal, in accordance with
  Community law and national laws and practices.

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• Article 31
• Fair and just working conditions
• 1. Every worker has the right to working
  conditions which respect his or her health,
  safety and dignity.
• 2. Every worker has the right to limitation of
  maximum working hours, to daily and weekly rest
  periods and to an annual period of paid leave.

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Strengths of the ESM

• The ESM while attempting to endorse common
  societal values also leaves open key aspects for
  local adaptation by member states (the principle
  of subsidiarity)
• recognising the diversity of local and national
  conditions (multi-level governance and decision
  making processes)

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• ve virtues of adaptability and flexibility in
  policy making within a common framework.
• ve attempt through a common set of standards and
  values to prevent social dumping or free
  riding - to attract foreign investment by
  offering lower levels of protection to citizens
  and workers eg on safety and health at work.

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Weakness of the ESM

• -ve complex and ill-understood policy model which
  lacks transparency and relevance
• -ve subsidiarity is often used by member states
  to block new Community policies and instruments
  and resist binding social regulations
• -ve remuneration, the right of association, and
  the right to strike or lock out are not addressed
  at Community level. While these issues are
  addressed in the non-binding Revised European
  Social Charter for Fundamental Social Rights 2000
  this does not create enforceable rights

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The ESM under attack the neo-liberal offensive

• The ESM founded on social democratic values (a
  social welfarist Europe a balance of market and
  social priorities)
• Attack from within EU
• - powerful individual member states such as UK,
  Italy and Germany hostile to ESM, especially
  during the 1980s and 1990s, but still today (the
  Third Way of Tony Blair, Germany Hartz IV
  reforms).
• - UNICE the European Employers Federation
  afraid of too much regulation as a burden on
  business

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ESM under external attack

• Major international financial institutions (IMF,
  World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
  Development) argue that European competitiveness
  depends on being able to compete in the global
  market place ie with cheaper sourced products
  from SE Asia, China etc

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The nature of the attack on the ESM-

• - New forces of globalisation make the ESM an
  outdated concept of the 1960s and the 1970s
• - Social welfarist approaches stifle individual
  initiative and free market enterprise (the nanny
  state)
• - Social protection measure introduce harmful
  rigidities into the labour market which
  undermine necessary flexibility and
  competitiveness (eg minimum wages, too high
  unemployment benefit levels, unwillingness to
  accept lower pay and benefits eg reduced state
  pension rights and increased working age).

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Soft law, subsidiarity and voluntary
initiatives

• Regulatory reform at European level -
• Key policy goal of the Lisbon strategy has been
  to reduce the administrative burden of business
  (European Council, 2000).
• Traditional EU Directives replaced by more
  efficient, flexible and proportionate instruments
  (for example, framework directives, new approach
  directives or softer regulatory alternatives)
• This encourages autonomous processes of
  adjustment and confers rule making-powers to
  self-regulatory processes ie., stakeholders
  in the regulation process voluntarily agree to
  frameworks of rules eg sectoral agreements on
  safety and health.

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Discussion on the ESM - A realistic agenda for
the enlarged Europe?

• Can the ESM be transposed into the CEE new member
  states?
• What might be the internal political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers to transposing
  the ESM?
• What might be the external political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers barriers to
  transposing the ESM?
• Do we need a European Social Model?

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Some Indicators of Social Development in the
Baltic States

• Total expenditure on social protection
• GDP per capita
• Employees with earnings two-thirds below the
  median
• Levels of Deprivation and inequality
• Life expectancy
• Death by suicide
• Death in transport accidents
• Class structuring of health inequalities

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Total expenditure on social protection per head
of population (2001)

• (approx ¼ of EU levels)
• EU 15 6425.9 (e)
• Estonia 1308.1 (p)
• Latvia 1138.6 (p)
• Lithuania 1318.2 (p)

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GDP per capita in PPS (2004)

• (about ½ of EU levels)
• EU 25 100
• Estonia 52.0 (f)
• Poland 48.1
• Latvia 45.6 (f)
• Lithuania 49.8 (f)

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GDP PER CAPITA AT PURCHASING POWER PARITY (EURO)
Source THE WORLD BANK, Washington, D.C. 2002
32
Employees with earnings two-thirds below the
median ()
33
(No Transcript)
34
Gini Index of Income Inequality in CEE (excl.
Baltic States)
35
Gini Index of Income inequality including Baltic
States
36
Socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause
mortalityKalediene R, Petrauskiene J.
Inequalities in mortality by education and
socio-economic transition in Lithuania equal
opportunities? Public Health 2005in press
Leinsalu M, Vagero D, Kunst A. Estonia
1989-2000 enormous increase in mortality
differences by education. International Journal
of Epidemiology 2003321081-1087.
37
Average life expectancy at age 25 by
educational level in Estonia 1989-2000Source
Leinsalu M, Vågerö D, Kunst AE. Estonia
1989-2000 enormous increase in mortality
differences by education. Int J Epidemiol
2003321081-1087
38
Comparison of age specific mortality between
group with University and primary education (
mortality of university education group equals 1)
Source CONTRIBUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION TO
PUBLIC HEALTH tackling health inequalities
through health policy development in Lithuania V.
GRABAUSKAS
39
Male Life expectancy at birth (2002)

• (approx 10 years less than EU averages)
• EU 15 75.8 (e)
• Estonia 65.3
• Latvia 64.8
• Lithuania 66.3

40
Recent demographic developments in Europe 2004.
Strasbourg Council of Europe Publishing 2005
41
Death by suicide (standardised death rate per 100
000 persons) (2000)

• (3X to 5x higher)
• EU 15 16.0
• Estonia 46.0
• Latvia 56.9
• Lithuania 80.8 (30 per week, popl.
  3.5m) (Source EuroStat)

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Death in transport accidents (standardised death
rate per 100 000 persons) (2000)

• (2x or 3x higher)
• EU 15 15.7
• Estonia 28.8
• Latvia 48.0
• Lithuania 35.5

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Crude Death Rate per 100,000 population for
Baltic States compared to EU and Nordic
averagesSource V. Grabauksas and R. Kalediene
Tackling social inequality through the
development of health policy in Lithuania, Scand
Journal Of Public Health, 2002, 3012-19
44
Socioeconomic inequalities in self-assessed
health in Europe Monden C. Socioeconomic health
inequalities in Latvia a cross-sectional study.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
200432(3)217 - 223.Leinsalu M. Social
variation in self-rated health in Estonia a
cross-sectional study. Social Science and
Medicine 200255847-861.
45
Association between perceived control and poor
self-assessed health in seven Eastern European
countriesBobak M, Pikhart H, Rose R, et al.
Socioeconomic factors, material inequalities, and
perceived control in self-rated health
cross-sectional data from seven post-communist
countries. Soc Sci Med 2000511343-1350
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Health and Safety in European law

• Article 118A of the Treaty of Rome (incorporated
  as Article 137 of the Amsterdam -Treaty- the
  Commission with the Member States will develop
  clearly defined policy on prevention of
  occupational accidents and diseases.
• Key instrument Framework Directive 89/391/EEC
  which contains basic provisions regarding the
  organisation of health and safety at work and the
  responsibilities of employers and workers.
  Subsequent legislation protects workers form
  risks related to exposure to chemical, physical
  and biological agents at work with specific
  directives on harmful substances such as asbestos.

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Adapting to Change in Work and Society A New
Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work
2002-2006

• Occupational safety and health linked to
  quality in work, as a positive factor to the
  business competitiveness equation
• Emphasis on well-being at work, implying not
  simply the absence of sickness and injury, but
  attainment and preservation of general physical
  and mental health in the work process
• Consolidating of a culture of risk prevention
  through a combination of policy instruments and
  a partnership approach to safety and health at
  work
• Mix of policy instruments including both
  voluntary initiatives, such as social dialogue,
  corporate social responsibility, economic
  incentives and benchmarking which improves
  peoples knowledge of risks and attempts to
  ensure better application of existing law.
• mainstreaming of neglected issues such as the
  gender factor

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Enlargement and the new strategy on safety and
health at work

• candidate countries - an average frequency of
  occupational accidents which is well above the
  average for the EU
• mainly because of their higher degree of
  specialisation in sectors which are traditionally
  regarded as high-risk
• No figures provided for relative frequencies of
  accidents or illnesses

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Diplomatic understatement the call for
heightened vigilance

• The data indicate that the preventive approach
  set out in Community directives has not yet been
  fully understood and taken on board by the
  various players, nor applied effectively on the
  ground (2002,p.4)

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Preparing for enlargement

• one of the major challenges facing the European
  Union (2002, 17)
• ensure that the new Member States can be
  absorbed in conformity with the rules and with a
  guarantee that the institutions and bodies of the
  EU will continue to function smoothly
• the candidate countries themselveshave to
  absorb into their national systems an enormous
  and complex corpus of legislation

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an effective transfer of experience and
knowledge.

• beefing-up programmes of technical assistance,
  using partnership and twinning arrangements
  developing arrangements for the exchange of
  experience and access to knowledge and to the
  results of Community research, by integrating the
  candidate countries into the institutions and
  bodies concerned strengthening the social
  dialogue at all levels, particularly in firms
  promoting the collection and analysis of data on
  accidents at work and occupational illnesses,
  notably by integrating the candidate countries
  into ongoing Community work on statistical
  harmonisation.

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Strategy an elaborate and systematic plan of
action

• The Commission strategy claims to provide a
  coherent policy framework and proposes concrete
  action, along with a full implementation
  timetable

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Institutional mechanisms for promoting the new
strategy

• The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
  in Bilbao - a driving force in matters
  concerning awareness-building and risk
  anticipation
• Agency to set up a risk observatory in order to
  provide examples of good practice and to organise
  exchanges of experience and information by way of
  the systematic collection of data
• Agency instructed to integrate the candidate
  countries into these information networks, and
  devise working tools which are geared to their
  specific situation

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Positive steps

• Attempt to integrate the candidate countries has
  been through the creation of Agency focal
  points - a Europe-wide network of
  representatives of labour inspectorates, now
  involving all of the new member states.
• Informational role, the Agency web presence in
  the national languages of the new member states,
  augmenting existing resources.
• Basic information about Agency campaigns, annual
  reports and factsheets, for example, on stress,
  bullying and violence at work are now available
  in the languages of the new members.

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Promoting Quality at Work in an Enlarged
European Union

• future initiatives are outlined in the Agencys
  Rolling Programme of Work 2005-2008
• 30 - 50,000 Euros will be allocated to each
  member state, new and old, to encourage the
  further development of national focal points
• Creation of a dedicated Topic Centre for the
  New member States (funded to 240,000 Euros)
• An Enlargement Action Plan (1.75m Euros)
  focussing on communications activities, data
  collection and awareness raising/campaigning in
  new member states

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Concerns

• All long overdue programmes.
• Is the Agency is being asked to do the
  impossible, with too little resources and too
  late in the day?
• How far can informational and networking activity
  secure the consolidating of a culture of risk
  prevention?
• Little evidence so far of working tools which
  are geared to their (NMS) specific situation.

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Alternative explanations of poor health and
safety need to be addressed in policy proposals

• State-sanctioned resistance to European health
  and safety law in general
• traditions of poor regulatory enforcement
• low domestic OHS agency adaptive capacities
• employer indifference and worker collusion
• low levels of administrative penalties for safety
  violators
• absence of criminalisation of repeat safety law
  offenders

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Implementation Theory - resistance to European
health and safety law in NMS

• Key policy goal of the Lisbon strategy has been
  to reduce the administrative burden of business
  (European Council, 2000).
• Policy making in the Baltic States - a mix of
  chronic political instability, fiscal crises,
  complex policy demands, unresponsive
  decision-making processes, and poor policy
  management capacity at the centre, contributing
  to high levels of executive policy
  unreliability which, in turn, has slowed the
  pace of reform (Evans and Evans, 2001, p. 935).

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Veto Points

• Exogenous pressure to conform to the requirements
  of the European acquis.
• The trajectory of reform has been an imposed one,
  in which the accession states were required to
  meet externally imposed regulatory frameworks and
  standards
• veto points emerging in a domestic context,
  which may compromise the successful transfer and
  imposition of EU requirements.

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Barriers to Implementation

• Veto points, whether de facto or
  institutionalised, exist if -- the policies
  underpinning the proposed institutional rules are
  not clear enough to offer a coherent
  institutional model, and if domestic preferences
  do not converge towards reform (Dimitrova, 2002,
  p. 2)
• Conditionality and asymmetry in the
  enlargement process make the possibility of
  institutionalised veto points unlikely.

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Informal veto points

• Absence of formal institutional veto points
  should make EU-led institution-building
  successful
• there is still the question of whether major
  political actors are united around ideas about
  the new institutions, so that the new rules have
  the chance to endure without being immediately
  contested (Dimitrova, 2002, p. 6).

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Absence of domestic reform fit

• If EU requirements fail to correspond with the
  domestic reform fit, for example, because
  domestic consensus is inspired by different
  ideas, or because there is no consensus on
  reform, the newly imported rules are likely to
  be contested and even changed.

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Doing Business in 2006 Eastern European and
Baltic Nations Encourage Businesses with
Aggressive Regulatory Reforms

• WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 2005 Eastern
  European and Baltic nations are aggressively
  courting entrepreneurs with far-reaching reforms
  that streamline business regulations and taxes,
  according to a new report from the World Bank
  Group.
• The annual report, which for the first time
  provides a global ranking of 155 nations on key
  business regulations and reforms, finds that
  every country in Eastern Europe improved at least
  one aspect of the business environment
• The top 30 economies in the world in terms of
  the reports ease-of-doing-business index, in
  order, are New Zealand, Singapore, the United
  States, Canada, Norway, Australia, Hong
  Kong/China, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Japan,
  Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania
  (15), Estonia (16), Switzerland, Belgium,
  Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Puerto Rico,
  Mauritius, the Netherlands, Chile, Latvia (26),
  Korea, South Africa, Israel, and Spain. For the
  three Baltic countries to be in the top 30 is a
  remarkable achievement, as only a decade has
  passed since they first began reforms.