Dealing with Unemployment: Labour Market Policy Trends

Unemployment benefits are crucial to addressing unemployment, but are
not, in and of themselves, sufficient. Activation policies are also
essential. These should enable the unemployed to become employable,
i. e. ready to re-enter the labour market (LM). Yet the contractualization
of social rights and the loosening of definitions of ‘suitability’ of job
offer, as well as the exacerbation of sanctions, seem to be inspired more
by the need to reduce public expenditure than by any desire to empower
the unemployed. At the same time, any policy that takes only the supply
side into account would seem insufficient to adequately promote
employment. Moreover, boosting employment also depends on how the
right to work is interpreted, and whether such interpretation implies the
mere encouragement of employability on the supply side or, rather, the
promotion of a macroeconomic policy aimed at full employment,
according to which the qualitative dimension of working contracts and
conditions count. Indeed, regarding the latter, the working conditions
offered in the LM, as well as the flexibility applied within working
relationships, should be taken into consideration in any attempt at
addressing unemployment, as should the role of governments in
providing welfare and activation. At the same time, the relationship
between social and labour law in dealing with the current challenges of
the LM should be highlighted, taking into consideration both their
mutual influences and differing goals. Thus, the contributions to this book map out possible links between
social security protection and working conditions offered by the LM, and
how such dimensions impact on each other and affect individuals’ lives.
The need for macroeconomic policy geared toward full employment,
supported by adequate activation policies, as well as the need to assure
people of a life lived in dignity, are two recurring themes in the authors’
contributions. These, in turn, concern both employment and social
security law. Unemployment is one side of the coin, while the flipside
comprises working conditions and working contracts offered by the LM. Indeed, the higher the unemployment rate, the more likely the risk of
working conditions offered under working contracts being eroded, and
of the spread of non-standard work.
At the same time, the types of working contracts and the working
conditions offered by the LM have a direct impact on social security
protection provided to the unemployed: working contracts characterised
by discontinuity create difficulty in fulfilling those eligibility requirements
required to access insurance unemployment benefits. This also makes
more likely the direct accessing of assistance, where it is offered by
domestic systems. Together, working contracts that offer low wages
reduce the amounts of insurance unemployment benefits, since these are
calculated as a percentage of prior earnings. At the same time,
unemployment benefits and assistance seem to be increasingly being
utilised as tools to promote employment, notwithstanding that their
social security goals are formally framed in terms of ensuring that lives
are lived in dignity.
This book is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to
analysing the concept of “suitable job offer” and its possible effects on
the individual’s circumstances. This part also provides an in-depth
analysis of the links between sanctions and social rights, with a particular
focus on the right to live in dignity.
The second part considers LM trends in terms of possible ways to
characterise the right to work, and possible ways to develop working
time as a feature of the working contract that can be used both to tackle
unemployment and to improve worker health and safety, while also
providing greater flexibility for both employers and employees.
The third part looks at the contractualization of social rights and its
impact on LM institutions. It suggests some possible models for a more
functional and effective LM and for a social protection system focused
on improving individuals’ rights.
With regard to the first part, the increasing conditionality between social
rights and activation duties requires unemployed people who access
unemployment benefits or assistance to undertake activation duties.
Thus, these unemployed must, for example, accept training and mentoring activities offered by public employment services (PES) and, at
the same time, accept any “suitable” job offer.
If precarious working contracts are characterised as “suitable” and thus
must be accepted by the unemployed, and if they are actually offered
increasingly by PESs, it will likely become increasingly difficult for the
unemployed to access insurance social protection against unemployment,
especially considering the often-stringent eligibility requirements
(typically, a minimum period of work within a specific time frame prior
to unemployment). This, in turn, will lead to conditions in which those
who lose their job tend to be forced to re-enter the LM under precarious
working contracts.
Moreover, the definition of suitability of job offer affects the
circumstances of individuals in many additional ways. When an
unemployed person refuses a suitable job offer, she incurs sanctions, i. e.
postponement of benefit payments, reduction in the amount of benefits,
and/or total benefit loss. Such consequences may have a direct impact
on an individual’s right to a life of dignity, which social security systems
must guarantee to citizens in accordance with domestic, European and
international regulation.
Thus, one might question how far the law can push the beneficiary of an
unemployment benefit to accept a job offer. The conditions under which
a job offer is considered suitable are thus important, as is the question
whether an unemployed person should be forced to accept any job offer
in order to avoid having their benefits removed or reduced, or whether
certain job offers may be refused.
Alexandre de le Court analyses the definition of suitable employment in
three member states: Spain, The Netherlands, and Germany. In
particular, he focuses on the relationship between precarious forms of
work and the possibilities for reintegrating the unemployed into the LM,
while also considering the risk of “precarious reintegration”.
Looking beyond the EU, Nelli Diveeva and Elena Sychenko look at the
notion of “suitable employment” as defined by Russian legislation, in
light of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and of international
instruments. In particular, they consider special rules for specific groups of people in the Russian LM, highlighting the discrimination profiles of
the regulation.
Also taking an international perspective, Alexandre de le Court (in
respect of the EU) and Nelli Diveeva and Elena Sychenko (in respect of
Russia) consider the impacts of restrictive definitions of suitable
employment on the right to work and on the choice of the beneficiary of
unemployment benefits/assistance to choose the type of contract and
the type of job, and consequent working conditions, as they re-enter the
LM.
The concept of suitability of job also impacts on the social rights of the
unemployed with respect to protection in case of unemployment. The
transition from unemployment to employment is an EU goal, and
through it the EU aims to actively include the unemployed in the LM.
Thus, activation initiatives and social security protection are vital in
supporting the unemployed to re-enter the LM. This approach is also
applied to assistance, i. e. each person should receive adequate income
support and, at the same time, such support should be applied in
conjunction with activation initiatives to assist re-entry into the LM.
However, this relationship between activation policies and
unemployment benefits or assistance in terms of minimum income
should also be informed by the consequences, in terms of sanctions, for
those beneficiaries who fail to comply with activation duties. Indeed, if
activation initiatives or “suitable” job offers (as defined by the domestic
legislation) are not accepted, even worse consequences than joblessness
may affect the unemployed, i. e. loss of the economic support that would
enable a life lived in dignity. In terms of assistance, leaving a person
without economic support may violate the right to adequate minimum
income benefits, which can be vital in ensuring lives are lived in dignity.
Anja Eleveld focuses on the relationship – as provided by the European
Pillar of Social Rights – between the EU goal of inclusion in the LM and
the protection of basic social rights. In particular, the author discusses
how the minimum wage has been seen as a tool for expanding the scope
of employment policies. Nevertheless, this expansion brings with it the
risk of abandoning the social rights perspective, which should, on the
contrary, be further strengthened if the European Pillar of Social Rights is to be advanced. Further, Eleveld takes an interdisciplinary approach in
analysing the link between tougher work-related sanctions and
investment, in both social protection and activation policies, in most EU
member states.
As discussed, the right to work can be viewed from a number of
different perspectives: on one hand, as a social right and, on the other
hand, as a way to deal with unemployment. These different dimensions
are analysed in the second part by Vincenzo Pietrogiovanni, who focuses
on the various definitions of the right to work, as well as the major
restrictions upon it, highlighting the lack of its justiciability.
Depending on the perspective one takes, the bringing to bear of the right
to work can be seen as a question of labour supply employment policy,
to be achieved via the neoliberal approach of supporting employability
policies. Yet from another standpoint, the right to work may be best
realised through a macroeconomic policy aiming at full employment. At
the same time, the quality of job offers must be considered in relation to
the duty of the State – as it exists in many States and as stated as an EU
goal – to promote macroeconomic policy geared toward the
achievement of full employment. Thus, full employment should be
regarded as a policy goal to tackle low-paid and precarious jobs, too.
In the transition out of and into the LM, hybrid possibilities also exist,
including specific unemployment benefits compatible with specific ways
of structuring working time. Working time, as an element of any working
contract, plays an important role in shaping working conditions in the
LM. Its regulation, and its combination with public benefits, can serve as
a valuable tool in the redistribution of working hours between workers,
and thus the avoidance of dismissals. Yet, at the same time, working time
offers a means of protecting workers’ health and security, and of
achieving a healthy work-life balance. These aspects present a more
challenging dimension at present, with digitalization eroding the
boundaries between work and free time. Thus, if an unemployed person
is forced to take on a duty to be available (to work and to accept suitable
job offers), the worker must also assume a right to unavailability outside
her regular working hours. The manner in which one frames these rights may have a profound bearing on the characterisation of an individual’s
rights.
In this connection, in the second part of the book, Reinhard Singer,
Stephan Klawitter and Friedrich Preetz focus on the distinctions
between the categories of working time and rest periods. Rest periods
should be granted without interruption, though this objective seems
increasingly elusive in light of the opportunity afforded by digitalization
to be online at all times. The authors illustrate some possibilities that
could be offered by German legislators to mitigate the risks that constant
availability pose to health and safety at work: indeed, the current
Working Time Law seems to inadequately acknowledge the right to
unavailability and the right to flexibility, both of which can be important
tools for achieving a positive work-life balance.
Tania Bazzani deals with such dimensions of the working contract, too:
health and safety protection for workers, and flexibility, for both
employers and employees. In particular, she adopts a comparative
perspective to focus on the role of both collective bargaining and public
short-term work schemes. These aspects of working time may help
provide flexibility and avoid dismissals. However, negative effects
resulting from abuses of short-term work schemes are also highlighted.
With regard to the third part of the book, the conditionality between
social rights and activation duties is analysed through the lens of
contractualization of social rights. In this context, conditionality refers to
the relationship between social rights and the duties of beneficiaries:
sanctions are targeted at beneficiaries of unemployment benefits or
assistance who do not comply with activation duties. Conditionality, in
this form, reduces social rights to a quid pro quo, a kind of contractual
relationship between citizens and the public administration. Despite
criticisms of such an approach, the administrative reforms made last year
by member states seem to have been squarely inspired by it.
Bazzani’s contribution looks at the tendency toward such an approach in
three specific member states: Italy, Spain, and Denmark. Although these
three systems are characterized by normative and LM differences,
common aspects of contractualization in active and passive LM policies and recent reforms may be highlighted; these also affect the role of LM
actors, such as PESs, social partners, and social security institutes.
Moreover, as discussed by Bazzani in a further contribution, attempts at
coordination and cooperation activities between public and private
actors in the LM show how such actors can go beyond a mere
contractualization approach or a merely-bureaucratic reciprocal
relationship, instead achieving the kind of collaboration that leads to the
achievement of common goals, including the fostering of social
protection for the unemployed.