Lisbon
goodbye But the new strategy is uncertain
Security + Flexibility: is the new watchword European Union. But we are sure that works? A comparison of two economists (Marcello Messori and Bruno Amoroso) and a trade unionist (Walter Cerf)
Martina Toti
In a book published recently, the American sociologist Richard Sennett claimed that "the practice of flexibility is mainly concentrated on the forces that bend the people." And speaking of "men flexible": those "bent", in fact, the changes in the world of contemporary work, where the expression "Indefinitely" was replaced by the slogans of the new capitalism - "mobility", "risk", "uncertainty". For several years in Europe we speak of "flexicurity", a neologism that combines, in almost an oxymoron, the concepts of flexibility and security. But a union is really possible? And at what cost? We discussed with Walter Cerf, confederal secretary of the ETUC, and economists Bruno Amoroso and Marcello Messori.
After the publication of the Green Paper on Labour Law in November last year and the Commission Communication on flexicurity in June, the European Union is preparing to define the arguments in favor of this new formula and a set of common principles for Member States. So "flexicurity - as confirmed by Walter Cerf, confederal secretary of the ETUC - is an idea that is becoming central in the work of the European Commission. In a sense, is gradually replacing the Lisbon Strategy that, since 2000, had intended to make Europe 'the knowledge economy more competitive and dynamic world'. " An alternative that is not convincing at all Bruno Amoroso, a professor of economics at the University of Roskilde, Denmark, according to which the introduction of flexicurity in Europe stems from the "recognition che la strategia di Lisbona si è rivelata inutile e impotente rispetto agli obiettivi di crescita e occupazione che si era prefissata”. Secondo Amoroso, insomma, “la flexicurity è un tentativo di rianimazione di quella strategia fatto con scarsa convinzione”.
La mondializzazione, la flessibilità della domanda e dell’offerta, le nuove forme di produzione del lavoro e le stesse tecnologie della comunicazione hanno cambiato radicalmente lo scenario lavorativo. Per questo, secondo Marcello Messori, la formula ibrida della flexicurity potrebbe essere “un tentativo interessante di combinare mobilità e sicurezza, se interpretata in senso proprio come accade in Danimarca; per farlo però non si può use short cuts to be invested many resources, with very extensive social safety nets, if not universalistic, and a permanent training system that allows the adjustment of human resources. " But the model proposed by Denmark is not a panacea. Cerf is to point out: "It would be unfair leaning against the community, as in the Danish model, all costs and consequences of flexibility. Here is one of the theoretical foundations of flexicurity, should respond in some way: it is true that companies today have to deal with the global market but, in any case, should not be exempted from the consequences that implies flexibility. "
Flexicurity does not work for all
Based on his experience in Denmark, Amoroso illustrates results of the Danish case: "For years, a million people (20% of the population) are not considered unemployed and the working age live income transfer. The flexicurity works to allow rotation in the use among the professional groups most active, but turns out to be largely ineffective in ensuring the return to productive professional groups marginalized by age group over 45 years. " Messori explains, the contrast is to be created between the mobility of human resources, on the other hand, their development, "because the real competition to play on the human factor, or what economists call human capital theory. " In other words, if flexibility is understood as a way to contain labor costs in the short term, it is not a factor in competitiveness. Neither is required because of the unification of global markets, because it contradicts and undermines the strength of human resources, their training, their enormous potential. " Well one thing is the uncertainty, one thing is an innovative mobility related to a process of great significance. For this we need - adds Cerf - "support for mobility through a training process that allows the conversion of quality and ensuring a level of welfare as high as possible. "
difficult to apply in Italy
According to the analysis of Messori for a country like Italy, it would completely redefine the institutions of the labor market, which today are among the weakest in Europe regarding the protection unemployment and worker training. "It's a myth to debunk - Messori explains - the principle which, if we improve a little 'our system and a bit' our social safety net, we run the flexicurity. On the other hand, thoroughly restructure our system would cost very large and difficult to predict. "flexicurity But it is difficult to apply in Italy for other reasons:" The system - and love to speak - calls for a tax transparent, a government with a culture of 'service' and the common good, and cultural cohesion social and that is possible in countries with strong ethnic and national homogeneity, such as Denmark. This is a 'system' and not 'means' - says Amoroso -. What sense does it speak of "flexicurity" in a country in pursuit of the 'treasure' hidden and used as a weapon of blackmail and bargaining party? "
The risks of insecurity Insecurity
and job insecurity are key elements involved in the flexicurity debate. In this regard, Walter Cerf warns that strengthen the flexible component to the detriment of security and guarantees, not to mention more work but easy to use standard "would be a mistake, a gift to liberalism, as in the Europe of 27 elements of insecurity labor market is already exploding exponentially. "
In fact, the latest figures released by Eurostat for 2005 - when the EU had 25 member states - speak to an employment rate of 63.8% with one worker in seven temporary employment: in 2005, 14.5% of the population in Europe working age - or between 15 and 64 years - had a temporary contract, a figure rose from the previous year by almost a percentage point. The lack of a unified labor law and, conversely, the presence of 27 labor markets with asymmetric rights also encourages businesses to practice a kind of social dumping within the EU itself. In this regard, the Congress of Seville , ETUC has proposed, as Cerf says, "to set a minimum set of rights valid for all member states, on the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights", another important factor then the definition of self-employment and one employee: "In many states, in fact - explains Cerf - the individual employment contracts are becoming even risked calling into question even undermine collective agreements and union rights."
Europe: Harmony remote
Yet it seems that Europe has difficulties to adopt a common platform. For example, the opt-out of Britain on the Charter of Fundamental Rights calls for a bitter debate at Bruno Amoroso: "Britain has a negative weight on the European Union because it pushes Europe towards economic and cultural horizons Atlantic, enemies of the European social model and an economic policy and rights of coexistence with Asia and Africa. " To ask Europe to intervene in this matter with a uniform policy would require further resources that currently do not seem to be available. "With the current resources and without their resettlement, perhaps providing the funding cuts to agricultural policies - Messori explains - it seems very unlikely that the EU can not only encourage but also to coordinate a complex project such as the flexicurity ". What
economic means is, in fact, a major weakness in the construction of flexicurity. "All the ingredients need of public resources so high as to ensure the community to manage not only flexibility but also security - said Cerf -. Think of the Danish model, which combines the flexicurity to a high welfare and taxation among the highest in Europe. Yet the European trend today is towards a reduction in taxes. At present, the flexicurity as an element capable of combining flexibility and security is virtually impossible to implement. " An inability to judge Bruno Amoroso in light of the cultural attitudes of workers, employers and the public: "On one hand, it must be a predisposition entrepreneurial innovation and business risk that is not within the shores of the Italian culture. On the other workers, both absorbed and those who remain unemployed, they have to pay the personal costs - from stress to family instability. "
is short, that, while talking about the European flexicurity, we returned to the Flexibility of Richard Sennett, the concept that once was used to indicate the capacity of the branches of a tree bending in the wind without breaking, and then went on to indicate the ability human to adapt to change. Yet everything has a price if the original title that Sennett had chosen for his book The Corrosion of Character is - corrosion of personality - charitably translated into Italian expression Man flexible. What will become of man hours flessicuro?
( www.rassegna.it, September 4, 2007 )
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