Global value chain restructuring and changes in work in the EU: facts and perspectives Monique Ramioul Research Institute for Work and Society- HIVA-KUL Work Organisation Restructuring in the KBS

The value chain approach Restructuring of business functions: –Contractual: in-house or outsourced –Spatial: domestic or international (nearshore, offshore) –Combination of both R&DR&D PRO- DUCTION ICT Distributon/ lo-gistics Sales/custom er services engeneering administrati on RelocationOutsourcingOffshoring

Logistics IT Austria Belgium Bulgaria Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Netherlands Norway Portugal Sweden UK WORKS – case studies Period: between June ‘05 and December ’07! Business functions: Production R&D, ICT Logistics, customer services Sectors: Food, clothing, IT Post and railways Public administrations Countries: Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

1. Value chain restructuring Outsourcing and offshoring but also integration Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

1. Value chain restructuring A huge variation of restructuring modes Value chains are generally becoming more elaborated and industries more specialised But integration of activities in view of value chain control is also observed Moving ‘race to the bottom’ hypothesis confirmed for low-skill production activities (clothing,food) Much greater geographical ‘stickiness’ in high- skill activities such as R&D Dynamics of moving up the value chain Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

2. Work organisation and skills More skills needed to work harder? Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

New skills are needed at the higher end of the chain Inreased knowledge-intensity Organisational and technological changes accompanying the restructuring Speeding-up of business Growing importance of non-core professional skills, not necessarily strengthening these But also more bureaucratisation, standardisation and formalisation mulitplication of interfaces and spatial distance limit organisational flexibility and responsiveness workers’ skills and informal capabilities have to compensate 2. Work organisation and skills? Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

2. Work organisation and skills? 1. Figures from employee surveys: in 15 EU countries (Greenan, Walkowiak,Kalugina) Significant DECREASE in work complexity between 1995 and 2000, and between 2000 and 2005 even after controlling for micro and macro characteristics Significant INCREASE in intensity of technical constraints No changes in intensity of market constraints Significant DECREASE in quality of working conditions Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

3. Flexibility Fragmentation of work and employment conditions Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

3. Flexibility Differentials in working conditions between companies, sectors and countries act as a driver of restructuring ‘same’ work, ‘same’ colleagues but under different conditions Flexibility is unevenly distributed along the value chain Growing contractual flexibility and/or insecurity, esp. at the ‘lower’ end Temporal pressures along the chain Growing pressure on the core Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

Subsidiary of National Post Employees by employment contract: 15 management 98 workers under National Post collective agreement 120 workers under subsidiary company collective agreement 80 seasonal workers – national minimum wage temporary agency workers Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

4. Industrial relations Managing restructuring Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

4. Industrial relations Huge country differences with major role for existing national and sectoral structures the national and sectoral influence the social dialogue structure, negotiated issues and role in restructuring process Generally a marginal role of union representation, esp. when move to regions/sectors with weaker structures Defining change is a management prerogative Response is reactive not proactive Marked differences between occupational groups Sector differences in the role of representation are high Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

intensified power differences between labour and management because of larger, diffuse units, complex networks and remote contacts EU regulations are not very visible at the workplace or in the consciousness of workers for restructuring issues (EWCs; information and consultation are minimal) 4. Industrial relations Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

Logistics IT WORKS Thematic reports - Value chain restructuring in Europe in a global economy - VCR and company strategies to reach flexibility - VCR and the use of knowledge and skills - VCR and the role of technology - Changing careers and trajectories - Working time, gender and worklife balance - Health and safety and the quality of work: psychosocial risks - VCR and Industrial Relations and workplace representation - Changing patterns of segregation and power - VCR and changes in work: future perspectives Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10

Monique Ramioul ETUI FORUM 24/06/10 The WORKS project