Summaries
Regulation and mixed economy D. Jacobs
In this article the approach of the French regula tion-school is followed inasmuch as economic regulation is not confined to the realm of the state, but viewed in a more general way as the continuing (re)ordering process of the economy (or a sector of it) resulting from the totality of (non-)actions proceeding from the objectives of enterprises, public authorities and possible other actors. It is shown that when you further differ entiate the regulatory mechanisms into regula tion through the market ( ‘anonimous regulation’), through agreements of producers ( ‘private regu lation’) or through the state ( ‘public regulation’), it becomes possible to see the way in which these forms interact, in which they also need each other and so to avoid simplistic propositions of the kind one sometimes finds in radical liberal (liber tarian) literature. With it one can also make a further subdivision of forms of ‘regulatory syn theses’, through which it is possible to bring the discussion about ‘mixed economy’ on a higher level.
Equal pension rights for men and women M. Bruyn-Hundt
The labour market participation of married wo men in the Netherlands is very low. This is the main reason why old-age pensions are primarily paid to breadwinners and why pensions for widows are customary. Old-age pensions consist of a state pension, supplemented by pensions provided for by the firm or industry where one is working. The state pension is differentiated according to the way one is living. People living in couples, married or unmarried, each receive a state pension of 50% of the pension for couples. People living alone get 70% of the pension for couples. Suppleting funds make the fictituous assumption that a person who is part of a couple receives 2 X 50% of the state pension for couples.
They supplete this state pension to 70% of the last received wages. For persons living in double income couples this means that their total old age pension is lower than the pension o f bread winners, since each partner is missing 50% of the fictituous 100% state pension.
Other questions in this article concern pensions for widowers and for flexible workers, and de ferred pension rights.
The old-aged: insured or provided for? J.H.Th.M. Cuppen
Since January 1, 1957 the General Pensions Act has ensured every citizen of an old age pension. A political controversy had blocked effective legislation for ages. Socialists and liberals wanted a non-contributory pension, whereas confes sionals persevered in an insurance-based, contri butory pension scheme. The opposing groups finally came to terms: the G.P.A. can be defined as a (compulsory) insurance schema, but it is also leaning on principles such as collectivism and mutual solidarity. For debatable reasons the financing of the G.P.A. is effected by the pay-as- you-go system, which means that the contribu tion income is directly used for the payments to the old age pensioners. The ageing of the popula tion now demands increasing contributions. A funding system would have been a better choice. Such a system is insensitive to the demographical composition of the population.
Influence of trade unions on technology R. van den Besselaar and L. Leydesdorff
The influence of trade unions on technology is an urgent problem. In this study we focus on the question whether the trade-unions can use the collaborations with scientists which are made possible by institutes such as the science shops for the programmatic development of a ‘labour oriented science and technology’.
We will do this on the basis of two strategically chosen case studies of long-term collaborations
with the unions in chemical industry and banking. Because in these cases both different technologies and different markets are involved we will be able to generalize our conclusions about how techno logy affects the positions of workers, and about the possibilities for trade unions to translate these consequences into what we will call ‘technolog ical demand’: the specifications of a technological research program which may produce labour- oriented technologies.
Telework, a good solution? T. Weijers and S. Weijers
This article states that firms use telework as part of a larger strategy towards functional and numer ical flexibility. Flexibility of the organisation means that a company puts out certain, not firm specific, jobs to workers outside the firm. It also means that the company will be able to use as many people as it wants at a given time. This applies especially to low-skilled clerical workers, mostly female. But not only low-skilled workers are engaged in telework. High-skilled professionals are also represented. Apparently telework will have different effects on these two groups. The job and income security diminishes for the clerical worker, whereas the professionals, who hold a stronger position on the labour market, can use telework as a means to increase then- autonomy. Both groups find themselves in the second segment of the labour market, but then- positions differ greatly.
Part-time workers and collective agreements L. Kok and E. Schoneveld
This article deals with the question in what way and to what extent part-time workers are discri minated in collective agreements. It is concluded that collective agreements are often not clear about the way terms are to be applied to part- time workers. This is especially the case in in dustries with few part-time workers. In industries with many part-time workers, terms of employ ment for part-time workers are usually more clear. The objective is not seldom to restrict the rights of part-time workers and to yield an un equal treatment of full-time and part-time wor kers. The authors suggest measures to eliminate this kind of discrimination. For some terms of employment, improvement by means of legisla tion is suggested. For other terms a better solu tion has to be reached in the collective bargaining process. For the time being overall legislation is
rejected.
The government is criticized for not drawing con sequences from endorsing the principle of equal treatment of both full-time and part-time wor kers. Budgetary considerations seem to prevail. Networks and unemployment
H. Flap, N. Lam, M. Sprengers and F. Tazelaar This paper reports a preliminary test of the idea that access to and use of social resources will im prove a person’s conditions of life, and accord ingly, that people will invest in other persons de pending on the expected utility of future social support. Some o f the implications of this idea for the situation of unemployed persons are investi gated empirically.
Using a longitudinal research-design, data on a sample of unemployed men, 40-55 years of age, show that unemployed men with a greater num ber of contacts do succeed in finding a new job earlier, and that unemployed men with ‘better’ social resources (as indicated by the occupation of the three best friends) end up in a somewhat better job. Furthermore, unemployed persons with higher original positions derive greater bene fits from their social resources. Lastly, a situa tion of long-time unemployment does not seem to eat strongly into their social resources, at least not within the first year after dismissal.
Unemployment and education participation L J. Herweijer and L.T. Blank
In this article we investigate the relationship be tween youth unemployment and the extent to which pupils choose to continue their educational careers. Based on the credentials-inflation litera ture, the hypothesis is formulated that a slack de mand for labour discourages students to enter the labour market. This hypothesis is tested on flow- coefficients for post-secondary education in the Netherlands. The tests are conducted by means of time-series regression analysis for the period 1967-1984. Although the hypotheses that there exists a link between unemployment and enrol ment seems quite trivial, there are two aspects in this article that attract special attention. Firstly, the use of flow-coefficients in this kind of ana lysis is an important improvement in comparison with other studies. Secondly, youth unemploy ment has an unexpectedly severe impact on en rolment. After the throughflow reached a ‘natural saturation level’ in the mid-seventies, rapidly growing unemployment rates forced young people to continue their educational careers.
