New forms of work organization in the European Community

Eurofound — European Foundation For The Improvement Of Living And Working Conditions

Informations

• Publié par: EUROFOUND-EUROPEAN-FOUNDATION-FOR-THE-IMPROVEMENT-OF-LIVING-AND-WORKING-CONDITIO
• Nombre de lectures: 8
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

new forms of work
organisation
in the
european community \
Luxembourg
I
g !'f tF /r /E NPREFACE
This volume part is of series surveys of the spread. of new forms a of of
work organisation in the nine countries of the Comrmrnity.
These surveys constitute the first phase of the stud.ies on work reor:ganis-
ation in the comrmrnity und.ertaken on the initiative of Europeanthe
Found.ation in Dublin. The purpose surveys of the was to obtain a better
insight into the incid-ence and. the effects of innovating in this area,
taking into account the specific situations obtaining in each country.
particular, In the aim was to d.etermine to what extent neür forms of work
organisation contribute to the achievemenJ of the three objectives of
particular importance for the improvement of working conditionsl ir€. :
physical 1 tfre red-uction of psychological constraints,and. )
2) self-fulfilment of the ind.ivid.ual and. the enrichment of his skills,
parbicipation more actj-ve 3) of workers arrd. of their organisations
in the control d.ecision-making processes and. insid.e the firm.
problem This was tackled..in two stages :
1 A report prepared. was in each member state either by ) a research insti-
tute or by ind.ividual experts to whom the given For.urd.ation had the
task of cond.ucting the stud.y ;
2) All the reports were then eval-uated" by representatives of Governmen"us,
employers workers, and each of these three groups comparing the
arralysis contained. in the reports with the experience of its respectivt
members. If appropriate, the groups mad.e proposals aimed. at improving
the situation in work organisation. Each group gave its opinion in
the form of a vritten evaluation report.-2-
This method. reflects the Found.ationrs interest promoting in a type of
research which combines the expertst approach to the problem with the
practical experience people of active in the field. of working
conditions.
procedure The followed. in the stud.y of the spread of ir:novatory experiments
into work reorgra^nisation is reflected. in the conposition of this volume,
which consists of :
1 tfre evaluation reports by the representatives ) of Governments, employers
and workers, based. on working g?oup sessions d.uring a seminar he1d.
in Drblin at the end of 1978 i
2) a stud.y carried. out byOffice tuxembourgeois pour ltAccroissement d.e
la Productivit6 on ner{ forms of work organisation in Luxembourg.
The E\:.ropeanFourrd.ationwishes stress to that the analyses and. opinions cori-
tained in the stud.y reports the sole are responsibility of the insti{utes
or ind.iwidual experts who conpiled. then.EVATUATION REPORTSsmLrNaR_ON NEI/ü FoRMs gF hlORK. qRGANJSAT{ON
Held. in hblin on 26th 27th and October 1978
? EVALUATION REPORT OF T}M UNIO]VS GROLTPseminar on nehr forms of work organisation
Held in Drblin on z6th and. 27rh october 1978
I Evaluation report of the unions Group
The group of workers found. that the reports that had. been presented.
llere on the who1e useful as a basis for reflection on work organisation.
The r views of the workers group were strrrctured. on the work which had
been carried" out in the European Trad"e Union Confed.eration questionson
of working cond.itions since the Lond.on congress. This work should. be
completed. for the next ETUC Congress.
rt is not so rmch question a of accepting or rejecting these reports
as of d-rawing information from them, whatever the criticisms or
assessments to be mad.e. They will be assessed. by the participants
and. experts of the various countries. The reports have mad.e it
possible to provid.e homogeneous information, especially for colleagues
from countries where nothing llas yet been d.one in this field.. This
d'issemination of infornation justifies alone the European Found.ationrs
work.
The form in which the problems were presented_ highlighted. the question
of the relations and forms of relations between experts trad.e and. union
organisations. This is problem, an ethical which mrst be consid.ered..
tühen one speaks of work organisation, the context in which the workers
operate rnlst be specified.. lüork orga,nisation structures the workerrs
relationship prod.uction to in a well-d.efined. ma^:rner which mrst be taken
into account. Thus work content creates subord"inate a relationship of
worker to und.ertaking.
This situation influences the entire work organisation.
./.'- r2
t'Iork organisati.on is the central issue of the id.eological d.ebate.
-Each trad.e union organisation social plan acts on the basis of a
place but this is no to d.iscuss that question. social p1ans,These
- however whether co-management, self-management, worker control,
- ind.ustrial or economic d.emocracy nake up the backcloth of any
d.iscussion on work organisation.
Examination of work organisation rnrst take of number of factors,account a
such as:
question 1. The of lüages incomes, includ.ing the pa;rment:arrd. form of
the ETUC is against form payment any of which bind-s the worker
and 1ead.s him to risk his health. This applies to output bonuses and.
bonuses for unhealthy work, üd to situations which have ad-verse effects
r on the workers health.
2. Enployuent: the current crisis is not restricted- to the problem of
ri.nemploJment. questionIt is a cultural crisis and. it raises the
of power. powers.. The workers want greater The d.evelopments that
place have taken in work organisation are evid.ence of this d.esire.
-ülork orgari.isation 3. i-n the capitalist countri-es: the weakest workers
- eg. sub-contractors, home-workers, temporary workers are not covered.
by the regulations. 3ad working cond.itions transfemed. to theseare
workers none of the mearrs and. of improving working cond.itions are
situation to such improvement.applied. because this acts as an obstacle
The qtructure school 4. existing managerial which takes shape from and
university days, which influences the relations between workers and.
employers. In ad.d.ition, these relations are determined. by the type
production. prod.uction of Taylorisn m;st be replaced. by forms which
greater 1ay emphasis on the workers' creativity and. freed.om.
The d.ivision of the workers into d.ifferent groups 2 transformation5. a
of working conditions single grid.also requires a classification
../ -3-
forrnsbe taken into consid.eration when the new All the above factors un:st
of work organisation are examined.
fewThe rmrst not be restricted. to a new forms of work organisation
Thesmall number of workers. experiments which will affect only a
(especially processing) will many morenew technologies data affect
rTaylorized"t,begin:ning to be workers. Hovrever, these sectors are nov,t
This is truewhich lead.s to loss in the workersr freed-om of action. a
So theof such sectors barking, insurarrce and the book trade. as
population.very large numbers of the reorganisation of work will affect
form of work reorganisation.The d-evelopment of nightwork is also a
of theThese cirgumstances will transform the effects on the workers
rd-equalificationr.physical psychic burd.ens of work lead to forms of and and
ofsituation nnrst be taken into in the stud.y of new forms This account
work orgarrisation.
of collectiveIn generaL the reports und.er-estimated- the importance
framework for these forms of transformation of workagreements as a
protective organisation. For account must be taken of the clauses for
the when these. transformationsworkers contained. in collective agreements
inparticular, must be taken of these clauses occlLro In due account
not confineDuring the studies, the experts should. nationat negotiations.
question It is not a here{heir observations to one und.ertaking or workshop.
pointing out that the overallof cond.emning stud.ies based. on this method. but of
framework mrst be taken when evaluating the various experiencesinto account
of work reorganisation.
dealt with thisThe trad.e union organisations have consid.ered and always
probleur through various institutions such works committees, vuorksas
The partd.elegates, safety health delegates conmittees, etc. and and
played. steps to have the workby the works d.elegate, who carr take
organisation mod.ified., nnrst not be overfooked.
./.