Wage payment systems

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

Description

Surveys: Denmark
Working conditions

Sujets

• Food industry
• Pay
• Report
• Dinamarca
• Chemical industry
• Pulp and paper industry
• Textile industry
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: EUROFOUND-EUROPEAN-FOUNDATION-FOR-THE-IMPROVEMENT-OF-LIVING-AND-WORKING-CONDITIO
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

european foundation
■
for the improvement of living and working conditions WAGE PAYMENT SYSTEMS
SURVEYS
DENMARK
fcf/83/2 ZE-N-Copyright of THE EUROPEAN FOUNDATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIVING
AND WORKING CONDITIONS, 1982
For rights of translation or reproduction, application should be made
to the Director, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living
and Working Conditions, Loughlinstown House, Shankill, Co. Dublin,
Ireland. PREFACE
This volume is part of an inquiry on the Spread and Characteristics of
Wage Payment Systems in the Member States of the Community carried out
in the framework of the Foundation's programme of work for 1979 as de­
cided by the Administrative Board of the Foundation.
The inquiry, comprising nine national surveys and one synthesis report,
was a first step towards more detailed case studies on the impact of
the various systems of pay, especially incentive schemes. It was
therefore aimed at providing the necessary background for these studies,
which were undertaken as part of the Foundation's work programmes for
1979, 1980 and 1982 in accordance with decisions by the Administrative
Board.
On these grounds it was decided that the aims of the Foundation in
carrying out the national surveys be as follows :
(i) to give an over-all picture of the existing wage payment systems
in the nine countries, especially the incentive schemes;
(ii) to describe the developments during the last two decades and to
indicate new trends;
(iii) to assess the impact of the various incentive payment schemes
on working conditions and the work environment, production,
workers' income and the costs to the company, as well as the
interrelationship between such systems and technology.
The inquiry was carried out in three phases :
1) a report was drawn up by a research institute in each Member State;
2) a synthesis report based on the national reports was prepared by
the Foundation; 3) the set of reports was evaluated by representatives of the govern­
ments, the employers and the trade unions. Each group viewed the
analysis contained in the reports against the experience of its
respective members and, if appropriate, Tiade proposals aimed at
improving the situation. Each group set down its opinion in the
form of a written evaluation report. This method reflects the
Foundation's regard for promoting research of a type which
brings together the experts' approach and the experience of those
involved practically in problems of working conditions.
The above-mentioned aims were considered as maximum requirements and
the expectations with regard to obtaining information on the impact
on payment schemes were rather modest. However, considering that
the national surveys would serve as background information for
further studies it was decided to include alln already
available on this item.
The procedures followed in the inquiry on the Spread and Characteristics
of Wage Payment Systems is reflected in the composition of this volume
which contains :
1) the evaluation reports drawn up by representatives of governments,
trade unions and employers, based on working group meetings at a
seminar held in Dublin on 2 and 3 July 1981;
2) a study carried out by the Socialforskningsinstituttet on the Spread
and Characteristics of Wage Payment Systems in Denmark.
Specifically with regard to the evaluation report of the government
group the Foundation wishes to make the following observations :
a) the national reports are not all dated June and July 1980; they
were received between May 1980 and March 1981 and are dated
accordingly in most cases; b) the findings of the Structure of Earnings Survey from 1978/1979
prepared by the Statistical Office of the European Communities
were not available at the time when the synthesis report was
drawn up between April and June 1981, and could, therefore, not
be taken into account. Owing to some delays these findings
are not even available in extenso at the time of publication of
this volume (November/December 1982). Only in France where the
national contribution to the Structure of Earnings Survey seemed
to be more advanced than in the other Member States, it was
possible to benefit from part of these findings by delaying the
report to the Foundation until the end of March 1981.
The European Foundation wishes to emphasise that the analyses and
opinions contained in the studies carried out by the national insti­
tutes are the sole responsibility of the authors concerned.