The Malta Independent
Restructuring at the corporate level involves downsizing, mergers or complete change of the area of competence. This inevitably leads to labour redundancies which are often cushioned through early retirement schemes.
At the micro-level employers operating early retirement schemes are considered more caring than employers who merely shut the doors or just give the notice period for termination of employment in accordance with minimum requirements stipulated in the employment legislation.
But at the macro-level what sense does it make for restructuring to signify not much more than operating early retirement schemes, offering thousands of liri of taxpayers money to those that elect to give up the security of public sector employment`
Restructuring principally involves the creation of new employment opportunities. Only through creation of such opportunities would it be possible to achieve labour mobility in a socially just and efficient manner without wasting resources in paying people for not working.
As it is,` only the able bodied and capable would accept the early retirement offer.` The less capable prefer the security of public sector employment to the lump sum offered as this would run itself out quickly unless alternative employment could be found.
Common sense would demand that funds earmarked for early retirement schemes could be more productively channelled for re-training opportunities to all employees, public and private, whose employment is threatened by` redundancy and technological obsolescence.
Re-training and skills enhancement are the basic ingredients that contain the seeds for a sustainable solution for the much talked about economic re-structuring which never seems to happen. Re-training facilitates labour mobility.` Employees can only be expected to change jobs when they see better prospects in the new jobs and have the skills necessary to qualify for them. This could address the structural public sector excessive recurring expenditure in the only meaningful way possible ` that of making central government operate with much less resources.
More importantly it could provide the real incentive to attract foreign direct investment without which strong and sustainable economic growth would remain a castle in Spain. Investment is attracted much more by available and trained labour resources rather than by any other fiscal or tangible incentive.
New foreign direct investment attracted by the availability of trained and competitive labour resources will create the new opportunities so much necessary to grease the re-structuring process and smoothen the mobility of labour which has become completely jammed by the insecurity fanned by the current economic downturn.
Without excluding that at the micro-level there could be instances where early retirement schemes make sense, it makes no sense at all to make early retirement the centrepiece of economic restructuring at the macro level.
The only early retirement that makes sense at the macro level is that of the government.
Restructuring at the corporate level involves downsizing, mergers or complete change of the area of competence. This inevitably leads to labour redundancies which are often cushioned through early retirement schemes.
At the micro-level employers operating early retirement schemes are considered more caring than employers who merely shut the doors or just give the notice period for termination of employment in accordance with minimum requirements stipulated in the employment legislation.
But at the macro-level what sense does it make for restructuring to signify not much more than operating early retirement schemes, offering thousands of liri of taxpayers money to those that elect to give up the security of public sector employment`
Restructuring principally involves the creation of new employment opportunities. Only through creation of such opportunities would it be possible to achieve labour mobility in a socially just and efficient manner without wasting resources in paying people for not working.
As it is,` only the able bodied and capable would accept the early retirement offer.` The less capable prefer the security of public sector employment to the lump sum offered as this would run itself out quickly unless alternative employment could be found.
Common sense would demand that funds earmarked for early retirement schemes could be more productively channelled for re-training opportunities to all employees, public and private, whose employment is threatened by` redundancy and technological obsolescence.
Re-training and skills enhancement are the basic ingredients that contain the seeds for a sustainable solution for the much talked about economic re-structuring which never seems to happen. Re-training facilitates labour mobility.` Employees can only be expected to change jobs when they see better prospects in the new jobs and have the skills necessary to qualify for them. This could address the structural public sector excessive recurring expenditure in the only meaningful way possible ` that of making central government operate with much less resources.
More importantly it could provide the real incentive to attract foreign direct investment without which strong and sustainable economic growth would remain a castle in Spain. Investment is attracted much more by available and trained labour resources rather than by any other fiscal or tangible incentive.
New foreign direct investment attracted by the availability of trained and competitive labour resources will create the new opportunities so much necessary to grease the re-structuring process and smoothen the mobility of labour which has become completely jammed by the insecurity fanned by the current economic downturn.
Without excluding that at the micro-level there could be instances where early retirement schemes make sense, it makes no sense at all to make early retirement the centrepiece of economic restructuring at the macro level.
The only early retirement that makes sense at the macro level is that of the government.
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