Social Europe

Directorate-General For Employment Social Affairs And Inclusion European Commission

Description

Youth pay and employers' recruitment practices for young people in the Community
Labour market - free movement of workers
Working conditions

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-EMPLOYMENT_SOCIAL-AFFAIRS-AND-INCLUSION-EUROPEAN-COMMISS
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

SOCIAL EUROPE
Supplement on YOUTH PAY AND EMPLOYERS'
RECRUITMENT PRACTICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
IN THE COMMUNITY
Report of a conference held at Farnham Castle, Surrey, UK, June 1985
€
COMMISSION OFTHE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EMPLOYMENT,
SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND EDUCATION SOCIAL EUROPE
Supplement on YOUTH PAY AND EMPLOYERS'
RECRUITMENT PRACTICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
IN THE COMMUNITY
Report of a conference held at Farnham Castle, Surrey, UK, June 1985
£
COMMISSION OFTHE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EMPLOYMENT,
SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND EDUCATION This publication is also available in the following languages:
DE ISBN 92-825-5926-8
FR ISBN 92-825-5928-9
The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect either the position or views of the Commission
of the European Communities.
Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1986
Reproduction in whole or in part of the contents of this publication is free, provided the source is acknowledged
Catalogue number: CE-ND-85-009-EN-C
ISBN 92-825-5927-0
Printed in Belgium III
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY PAGE
1. FOREWORD M. LAINE
2. Youth Pay and Employers' Recruitment
Practices for Young Workers in Western
Europe D. MARSDEN
ACADEMICS
The Employment a nd Earnings Situation
of Young Workers in the Federal Repu-
blic of Germany M. TESSARING 26
Is there a relat ionship between cost
of in-company vo cational training and
offer of trainin g places in the Fed-
real Republic of Germany? S. WIEDERHOLD-FRITZ 39
Supply of traini ng places and forms
of employment fo r unemployed young
people in the Fe deral Republic of
Germany R. ZEDLER 49
New forms of Sta te intervention in the
conditions of ac cess to employment for
young people in France J-M. BARBIER 58
Trainee pay and the costs of voca-
tional training in Britain and West
Germany I.S. JONES 73
Young and out of work : the labour 8.
market for young people P.N. JUNANKAR 85
TRADE UNIONS
9. A policy to create real jobs - a
prerequisite for combatting youth
unemployment J. MAGNIADAS 104
10. Does cutting youth wages help young
workers to find jobs? 116 F. CRONE
11. Young people's pay and employment P. KANE 129 IV
EMPLOYERS
12. Youth pay and employers' recruiting
practices : the Italian experience I.F. MARIANI 135
13. The fight against youth unemployment
in the Netherlands (plans and impact) P.J.L. VAN RINTEL 144
14. Youth pay and employment, the employer's
perspective P. LOBBAN and
P. INGRAM 161 -1·
FOREWORD
Within the context of action taken following the Council Resolution on the
promotion of employment for young people (1), the Commission decided to
find out more about the policies and practices of companies vis-à-vis
young people in order to identify trends and the reasons behind them on
the one hand and to promote and support social innovation on the other.
This second aspect is the subject of a large bi-annual programme of regional
consultations between innovative companies for which an intermediate report
will be published early in 1986. As regards general trends and the influence
the relative level of young people's wages can have on them, it was im­
portant :
- to gather together all the scientific literature available,
- to carry out some additional research in this field.
This was carried out in 1984 (2). The way was then open for a comparison
between points of view based on sound factual data. The seminar held in
Farnham Castle (U.K.) from 19 to 21 June 1985 enabled 25 top level experts
(employers, trade unionists and university experts) to discuss matters in
a relaxed atmosphere.
It is no exaggeration to say that the work of this seminar covered
the basic points of what today can be said, scientifically speaking, on
this difficult matter which is all too often the subject of cut and dried
statements. The quality of the debate and the results owe a lot to the
excellence of the preparatory work, entrusted to David Marsden.
While waiting for specific action to be taken as a follow-up to this, it
seemed useful to publicise the results of this work. Given the volume of
(1) O.J. C 29/1 of 4.2.84.
(2) In particular see Studies 83/8 and 83/6 relating to the youth/adult
wage differential. -2-
papers presented, it was necessary to separate their publication. Certain
articles will appear in the next edition of the British Journal of Indus­
trial Relations, and in this special edition of Social Europe, you will
find the summary of the proceedings, all the statements made by the two
sides of industry and some contributions which could not be included in
the B.J.I.R. because of lack of space.
The Social Europe editorial staff thereby hopes to provide food for thought
and will be pleased to receive any reaction from its readers to these
documents (3).
M. LAINE
Commission of the European Communities
(3) Send to Mr. LAINE (ARCH.I - 2/11). -3-
YOUTH PAY AND EMPLOYERS' RECRUITMENT PRACTICES FOR YOUNG WORKERS
IN WESTERN EUROPE
David MARSDEN
London School of Economics and Political Sciences
The high levels reached by unemployment among young people give cause
for concern for many reasons, including the distress caused to young
people, the restriction of opportunities open to them, and the impact
upon youth training and the future supply of skilled labour. In a
number of countries demographic factors have been associated with an
increase in the supply of young workers. This paper deals mostly with
measures affecting the demand for their labour, looking both at re­
lative pay, and at recruitment policies. Few observers doubt that the
depth of the recession after 1979 has been one of the major causes
of the increase in youth unemployment in absolute terms, but there
remains the important question as to why young people should have been
hit especially hard. Certain features of youth employment, such as
higher rates of job changing among young workers, "last-in-first-out"
rules, and policies to cut recruitment rather than lay-off adult labour
could make youth employment more sensitive to recession than that of
other age groups. Increased pay relative to adults may also have caused
youth to be seen by employers as in a more marginal position in their
labour forces than previously. But it is worth remembering that in the
last great recession in the 1930s, youth did not bear the brunt of
unemployment to the extent that they have done in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the 1930s, in Britain, at least, adult manual workers did not bene­
fit from the same employment protection they do today from the law
and from collective agreements, and youth relative pay was markedly
lower (1). This raises a number of important questions which have been
(1) In 1935 manual male workers under 21 received weekly earnings of 36%
of those of their adult male counterparts. After a long rise between
about 1955 and 1975, it reached a peak of 56%. Department of Employ­
ment. British Labour Statistics. Historical Abstract, and Earnings
of Manual Workers in October. -4-
addressed either explicitly or implicitly in recent policy measures,
notably whether the pay and conditions of employment of youth compared
to adults have contributed to the problem.
To examine these questions in a European context, a small conference
was held in Farnham Castle in June 1985 inviting people from European
employers' and trade union organisations and academic and government
researchers. This paper provides an analysis of the written contributions
and of the discussions. The proceedings can be divided into six broad
headings: recent developments in youth pay, and in the cost of appren­
ticeships; evidence on the relationship between youth relative pay and
youth unemployment; employers' training and recruitment policies; col­
lective agreements to promote youth employment; and the impact of public
policies.
1. Developments in youth pay relative to adults
A number of the speakers from the employers argued that the increase
in youth relative pay during the 1960s and 1970s had contributed to
the current high levels of youth unemployment (Lobban and Ingram,
Mariani, and Zedier). Table 1 summarises trends in youth relative pay
between 1966 and 1978 for six major EEC countries.
Except in FR Germany, and for manual women in Britain, youth to adult
hourly paid increased in all countries between 1966 and 1978, although
the pace and the size of increase varied considerably, the biggest
changes, of about 10 percentage points occurring for male youth in
Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.K. the increase in relative pay
has mostly been accompanied by a decline in the youth employment share
in industry. Paradoxically, the biggest change in youtht share
occurred for manual women whose pay relative to adult women had increased
the least. This is partly because of the increase in participation by
older women.
For changes since 1978, the papers by Crone, Kane, and Wells sho