Previous projects by topic

This joint European social partners’ study is designed to assess the implementation of the common principles of flexicurity (* see bottom of page) and to assess the role of social partners in the process. It also aims to promote trust and mutual understanding among social partners so as to facilitate the implementation of flexicurity principles at national level.

This study covers 29 countries, all 27 EU Member States and Candidate Countries Croatia and Turkey.

METHODOLOGY

A team of subcontracted experts will prepare 29 national fiches that illustrate available data on quantitative indicators and commentary on the implementation of the relevant ‘flexicurity’ policy measures. The fiches also incorporate the views of social partners (interviews, questionnaires, good practices). The draft fiches will be discussed during cluster seminars, each involving 7-8 countries, that mix together geographically disparate countries of different sizes and with different industrial relations systems. The findings of the 4 cluster seminars and 29 fiches will be presented at an EU-wide seminar to be held in Brussels in spring 2011.

DOCUMENTS & TIMETABLE

(*) Council Conclusions, 6 Dec 2007 (Download here)

1. Flexicurity is a means to reinforce the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, create more and better jobs, modernise labour markets, and promote good work through new forms of flexibility and security to increase adaptability, employment and social cohesion.
2. Flexicurity involves the deliberate combination of flexible and reliable contractual arrangements, comprehensive lifelong learning strategies, effective active labour market policies, and modern, adequate and sustainable social protection systems.
3. Flexicurity approaches are not about one single labour market or working life model, nor about a single policy strategy: they should be tailored to the specific circumstances of each Member State. Flexicurity implies a balance between rights and responsibilities of all concerned. Based on the common principles, each Member State should develop its own flexicurity arrangements. Progress should be effectively monitored.
4. Flexicurity should promote more open, responsive and inclusive labour markets overcoming segmentation. It concerns both those in work and those out of work. The inactive, the unemployed, those in undeclared work, in unstable employment, or at the margins of the labour market need to be provided with better opportunities, economic incentives and supportive measures for easier access to work or stepping-stones to assist progress into stable and legally secure employment. Support should be available to all those in employment to remain employable, progress and manage transitions both in work and between jobs.
5. Internal (within the enterprise) as well as external flexicurity are equally important and should be promoted. Sufficient contractual flexibility must be accompanied by secure transitions from job to job. Upward mobility needs to be facilitated, as well as between unemployment or inactivity and work. High quality and productive workplaces, good organisation of work, and continuous upgrading of skills are also essential. Social protection should provide incentives and support for job transitions and for access to new employment.
6. Flexicurity should support gender equality, by promoting equal access to quality employment for women and men and offering measures to reconcile work, family and private life.
7. Flexicurity requires a climate of trust and broadly-based dialogue among all stakeholders, where all are prepared to take the responsibility for change with a view to socially balanced policies. While public authorities retain an overall responsibility, the involvement of social partners in the design and implementation of flexicurity policies through social dialogue and collective bargaining is of crucial importance.
8. Flexicurity requires a cost effective allocation of resources and should remain fully compatible with sound and financially sustainable public budgets. It should also aim at a fair distribution of costs and benefits, especially between businesses, public authorities and individuals, with particular attention to the specific situation of SMEs.