The challenges of globalisation for the EU labour market and social dialogue

A seminar to mark the visit of the President of Finland, Ms Tarja Halonen, to Ireland

'A road to fairer globalisation begins at home'

From left to right: Jorma Karpinnen, Director of Eurofound; Tarja Halonen, President of Finland; Billy Kelleher, Irish Minister for Labour Affairs

Speaking at the seminar on 13 November, the President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen said: 'A road to fairer globalisation begins at home.' The high-level seminar on Challenges of Globalisation for the EU Labour Market and Social Dialogue was attended by key players from Finland and Ireland.

A former trade union lawyer and former co-chair of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, President Halonen said: ‘The Lisbon Strategy is a very good globalisation strategy but its implementation has not proceeded as planned in all Member States…We must adhere to the simultaneous promotion of economic growth, employment, social cohesion and sustainable environmental policy. It's not enough that we are doing one or two – we need to do it all.’

She added that our efforts to achieve fairer globalisation should be attuned to sustainable development. ‘The wellbeing of humanity is not enough. It must go hand in hand with the wellbeing of nature.’ On another critical note, she observed: ‘It is regrettable but true that a lack of coherence at the national level is multiplied at the international level.’

Billy Kelleher TD, Irish Minister for Labour Affairs, said: ‘In my view, social Europe is entirely compatible with competitive Europe.’ He agreed with the President that globalisation must be fair and inclusive. He said that in the Irish experience, tripartite engagement was essential to achieve balance between flexibility and security.

Pertti Torstila, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Finland, highlighted four components as central to the Finnish model: flexible working arrangements, an active labour market, lifelong learning and modern social security.

Xavier Prats Monné, Director for Employment, Lisbon Strategy and International Affairs at the European Commission, stressed the diversity of the EU and saw this as an understated fact of the Union. For instance, part-time work varies from 2% in Bulgaria to 45% in the Netherlands. The challenge was to find common policies that could accommodate this diversity. The diversities constitute a challenge for EU policy. Other key factors he identified included demographic aging, technology and globalisation, and societal changes, such as the emancipation of women.

Finland had successful national collective agreements from 1968. However, as Seppo Riski, director of the Confederation of Finnish Industries observed, that is no longer the case. ‘Now this practice is discontinued. We are at a milestone.’

Asked if Ireland might abandon its successful social partnership approach, Kieran Mulvey, Chief Executive of Ireland's Labour Relations Commission said: ‘There is a real risk in Ireland that the social partnership model could be set aside for a while.’ He noted that different processes were at work and the model which has served to help bring about Ireland's economic success could ‘implode’. He said: ‘If it does implode, it could be more difficult to recreate it that it was to create it.’ He is concerned that a ‘free-for-all in the private sector and a centralised agreement in the public sector’ could develop. He believes that if the safety blanket of social partnership unravels, Ireland could be headed for a lot of industrial unrest. ‘If we can't get it right in our own countries, there are lots of other countries that will get it right. And we will haemorrhage jobs and the economy could decline.’