Summaries
Work and care. Employers on the economy of the future
Marianne Griinell
The significance of work-care arrangements in the economy of the future is explored through interviews with 15 employers (representatives) from major industrial sectors, large corporates and employers' organizations. Central to these investigations is the extent to which work and care arrangements can mesh with the always crucial business requirement 'flexible operations in a changing environ ment'. Increasing employee care tasks are be ginning to be a factor for employers in labour supply of women, but forecast show more and more for male employees. The mass influx of ever better educated women and concomitant employer interest in this group is proving a crucial reality. Tightness on the labour market represents an essential strategy in breaking down the full-time norm, especially in higher positions. In the light of the demands made by a post industrial economy, this study explores the significance of external and internal flex ibility for labour processes, for employees and for the integration of work and care. The consequences of flexibilization in relation to policies on care leaves is examined and the di vision of responsibilities between government and private sector is discussed. The sig nificance of equal opportunities as social rea lity, especially on the labour market, is the most important conclusion.
Illusions of a 24-hours economy Koen Bieedveld
Propagators of the flexibilization of working time argue that many people are already accus tomed to working evenings, nights and week ends, and that flexibilization will improve peo
ple's control over time. In this article, these two telling statements are put to trial. For this, the author relies on time-budget data that were gathered in the Netherlands, between 1975 and 1995. The analyses indicate that, even in 1995, the bulk of the work is still being performed 'from 9 to 5'. As regards time-sovereignty, it ap pears that control over working time is more related to levels of education than to working a-typical hours.
Effects of long distance migration on the in comes of married men and women in the Netherlands, 1981-1993
Jeroen Smits
In this article, effects of long distance migra tion on the hourly wages of married men and women are studied for the Netherlands, using data from the 1981 and 1993 Housing Demand Surveys. The hourly wages of married men are found to be increased after migration, those of married women are not. However, after enter ing a migration self-selection control factor to the equations, the effect of migration on the hourly wages of both men and women be comes significantly negative. The coefficients of the self-selection control factors are positive, indicating that married men and women with (unmeasured) characteristics of a migrant tend to earn more, ceteris paribus, than married men and women with characteristics of a non migrant.
Work resumption after a period of labor disabil ity
H.G. van der Stelt
A group of 639 employees, who had a history of labor disability for over a year, were moni tored years to investigate factors influencing work resumption. Work resumption was found
Summaries to be influenced by the employees (change in)
health condition. The motivation to work also affected the probability of work resumption. Breadwinners turned out to resume work more often than persons who were not responsible for the main income in the household. The employees own perception of his capacity to work and the opinion of the medical advisers also influenced work resumption. The degree to which the former employer was satisfied with the employee, and whether he would like him to resume his work, influenced the work resumption with the former employer. Persons with beter labour market positions, and per sons who searched more actively for a job, were more likely to resume work with a new em ployer.
To keep account or to activate: Evaluation of the law to improve the labour market position of ethnic minorities
Bram Berkhout, Ger Homburg en Bob van Waveien
The Act to Promote the Labour Market Partici pation of Ethnic Minorities (WBEAA) aims to raise employment of ethnic minorities to a le vel comparable to their share in the regional la bour force. Employers have to register the eth nicity of their employees, they must use these figures to publish an annual report on the eth nic composition of their personnel, and, in case ethnic representation is below average, they have to make a plan of action to identify and to remove barriers for entry of minorities. Three years after the introduction of the law, slightly more than half of the employers has established a registration. A quarter makes an nual reports and only 13% has made a plan of action. This means that the law is only partly executed and, in so far as it is carried out, it is primarily to account figures but it fails to acti vate employers. From 1998 on the WBEAA wil be replaced by another law, the Wet Samen,
which seeks to enforce the activiting role of the legislation concerning the labour market position of ethnic minorities.
New institutional arrangements at the intersec tion of vocational education and labour market ƒ.ƒ. van H oof
This paper deals with the role of new institu tions at the intersection of vocational educa tion and the labour market in the Netherlands. The first section deals with the origins of the institutional arrangements in the policy debate on the role of vocational education and train ing for the revitalization of the Dutch econo my in the eighties. In the second section the new legal framework for secondary vocational education is discussed. Next to a formalized national system of standard skills (NQS) it in cludes the concentration of schools for voca tional and adult education in big Regional Vo cational Colleges and the establishment of a system of National Vocational Boards consist ing of representatives from education and trade and industry which jointly decide on qualifications and the corresponding educa tional goals. In section three another institu tional innovation is discussed: the develop ment of industrial training systems in a num ber of industrial branches. In particular, its re lation with recent developments in collective bargaining is emphasized. Section four deals with some problems associated with the new institutional framework (in particular regard ing its flexibility) and speculates on some un intended consequences for the behaviour of schools, students and firms resulting from new institutional incentives. It is concluded that the new institutional arrangements strengthen the position of the social partners and link vocational education with the Dutch neo-corporatist model of industrial relations (the by now famous "poldermodel").
