Thematic feature - collective agreements on changes in work organisation

This article gives a brief overview of collective bargaining on changes in work organisation in Norway, as of September 2004. It looks at: the extent to which collective agreements introduce changes in work organisation that take into account productivity demands, flexibility and security in an integrated way; the main areas in which changes are being introduced; the overall success or otherwise of bargaining on the topic; and the prospects for the future.

The EU’s European employment strategy was revised in 2003 (EU0308205F), following demands for a more results-oriented strategy contributing successfully to the targets for more and better jobs and an inclusive labour market set at the Lisbon European Council in 2000 (EU0004241F). To support the three objectives of full employment, quality and productivity at work and cohesion and an inclusive labour market, the current employment guidelines identify 10 priorities ('commandments'), including one on 'promoting adaptability of workers and firms to change'. This identifies work organisation (alongside skills, lifelong learning and career development, gender equality, health and safety at work, flexibility and security, inclusion and access to the labour market, work-life balance, social dialogue and worker involvement, diversity and non-discrimination, and overall work performance) as an element in improved quality at work, which should be pursued through a concerted effort between all actors and particularly through social dialogue.

The 2004 Council Recommendation on the implementation of Member States’ employment policies provides for four priorities:

• increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises;

• attracting more people to enter and remain on the labour market, making work a real option for all;

• investing more and more effectively in human capital and lifelong learning; and

• ensuring effective implementation of reforms through better governance.

The Recommendation refers to promoting flexibility combined with security in the labour market, by modernising and broadening the concept of job security, maximising job creation and raising productivity. As defined in the employment guidelines, 'job security' refers not only to employment protection but also to building people’s ability to remain and progress in work. Changes in work organisation thus appear to be seen as a main vehicle for increasing the adaptability of workers and enterprises. Related to this issue is flexibility and security in the labour market and the relative attractiveness of 'standard' and 'non-standard' employment relationships (with the aim of avoiding a 'two-tier' labour market).

With work organisation playing an increasingly important role in European employment policy, in September 2004 the EIRO national centres were asked, in response to a questionnaire, to give a brief overview of the industrial relations aspects of the topic, looking at: the extent to which collective agreements introduce changes in work organisation that take into account productivity demands and flexibility and security at the workplace in an integrated way; the main areas in which changes are being introduced; the overall success or otherwise of bargaining on the topic; and the prospects for the future. The Norwegian responses are set out below (along with the questions asked).

Recent agreements on changes in work organisation

Please provide information on recent developments (over the last three-five years) in collective agreements on work organisation that introduce changes in flexibility, security and productivity in an integrated way. The kind of issues that such agreements might cover include: introducing autonomous (or semi-autonomous work) teams; reducing the number of hierarchical layers; new forms of employee involvement; reorganising work functions; moving away from product-based structures to business unit; flexible working hours; multiskilling; job rotation; improving training (eg making it more systematic, ensuring wider participation, or changing the focus); new pay systems (eg performance-based pay, profit-sharing, share ownership schemes), and new financial and non-financial performance measures; or new appraisal systems.

The kind of agreements that we are interested in here are those that deal with a number of the issues listed above as an overall 'package'. Please provide any overall information available on this kind of development, if possible, and brief details of three or four agreements (at company and/or sectoral level) that you consider particularly innovative and interesting. Below is an indicative list of the kind of information we are seeking.

• What are the main aims of bargaining on work organisation - eg increasing productivity? Increasing personnel flexibility? Improving the company’s position in the market? Avoiding redundancies and lay-offs?

• What is the extent of bargaining on work organisation - how many agreements are there? How many companies/employees are covered?

• What are the main areas in which changes are being introduced - eg new organisational structures, new more flexible and less hierarchical methods, new corporate cultures, new business practices, more training, new performance measurement techniques, new reward systems?

• In the context of the introduction of work organisation changes, what kind of contractual and working time arrangements are provided - ie how is the flexibility and security issue being addressed?

• In the context of work organisation changes introduced with a view to improving productivity, what specific measures have been agreed?

• What are the motives of the parties in concluding such agreements - please indicate the motives of each side (management and workforce), such as reducing costs, promoting flexibility, securing employment, preventing compulsory redundancy, or improving terms and conditions.

The objectives of the EU's Lisbon targets, and of European employment strategy, have to some extent been followed up by measures being introduced in Norway (despite it not being an EU Member State). In October 2001, the government and the social partners concluded an agreement of intent to achieve a more 'inclusive working life', known as the 'IA agreement' (NO0110107F). The social partners, in cooperation with national authorities, have also for many years been involved in improving education, skills and competence development at work (NO9804161F, NO9710127F, NO9904126F and NO0405104F). In many areas the legal framework already provides for relevant structures and activities at the company level, in particular the area of health and safety through the Act relating to Worker Protection and the Working Environment (AML). Similarly, work organisation is also an issue dealt with by the social partners. However, although guidelines and provisions are often provided in central/sectoral collective agreements, what most of these initiatives have in common is that they often are dealt with outside the formal bargaining system, either through separate social dialogue agreements (such as the tripartite IA deal), through the legal framework (eg health and safety), or through information and consultation processes at the company level.

Bargaining over work organisation in Norway is not, it appears from the available evidence, carried out in an integrated way as defined in the question above. This is not to say that bargaining over such issues does not take place, nor that it does not take account of productivity demands, flexibility and security. These are principles that form the basis of bargaining in most areas of working life in Norway. However, changes in work organisation must arguably be seen as a result of separate bargaining strategies focusing on different aspects of work organisation, but with consideration given to the three principles. Thus collective agreements touch upon various issues related to work organisation, and changes to the way work is organised depends very much on the interplay between these three principles. Bargaining may take place at both central/sectoral and company level, although no agreements at either level have been negotiated introducing changes to work organisation in an integrated way.

At the central/sectoral level, bargaining is to a large degree framework-oriented, often opening up for company-level solutions. At the company level, relevant agreements may exist, but more often the issues are dealt with through the system of information and consultation (NO0309102T) in the form of joint social partner projects and programmes. There are no central agreements that introduce changes to work organisation in an integrated way, although they do touch upon the issues in a fragmented way. In the 2000 overall wage settlement (NO0005192F), the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO) and the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO) agreed to include in all collective agreements to which they are party, provisions opening up for company-level flexible working time schemes deviating from central agreements. These flexible solutions may, among other methods, take the form of time-account or annualisation schemes. Provisions on continuing and vocational training were also included, including guidelines as to where to place the burden of financing subsistence during educational leave. These are, however, very much framework-oriented regulations. Education, skills and competence development has also been dealt with outside the formal bargaining system, often in cooperation with the national authorities.

At the company level, many aspects of work organisation, such as company restructuring, reorganisation of work functions, introducing autonomous work teams and, to some degree skills development, are seen to fall within the scope of management prerogatives, ie within the discretionary powers of management. Thus in the absence of collective bargaining, these issues are normally dealt with through information, consultation and co-determination processes in the firm, rather than through bargaining.

Sometimes, issues relating to work organisation are formalised through joint programmes and projects between management and workforce representatives at company level. These initiatives are often taken at the central level, and later implemented at the company level. One such initiative is the 'main confederations joint initiative programme' (Hovedorganisasjonenes Fellestiltak) between LO and NHO. The main focus of this initiative is on company development, although work organisation must be seen to form an integrated part of it, and it takes into consideration the security of employees, the productivity of companies, and the flexibility of both. Through these projects the social partners aim to change companies from within. In some cases these projects may end up in agreements being reached, although not necessarily collective agreements. One such project is VS2010, which involve the Norwegian Research Council (Norsk Forskningsråd, NFR) and other research institutions, as well as the social partner organisations. The overall objective of VS2010 is to enhance the effects of cooperation on productivity and value creation, innovation and competence, the work environment and more attractive workplaces. It is based on the assumption that broad participation from employees in the company is important to learning, development and innovation.

Assessment

What have been the results of collective agreements introducing work organisation changes? Drawing on assessments/evaluations made by researchers or the parties to agreements (employers, trade unions, works councils etc) or other sources, please provide information on issues such as the following:

• whether agreements have been successes or failures, and the reasons why in both cases;

• the impacts on flexibility and security (eg are there any successful examples of collective agreements addressing this issue as part of work organisation changes?);

• the impacts on productivity (has productivity been improved as a result of the work organisation changes introduced?); and

• the impacts on collective bargaining - are such deals broadly considered as concession bargaining, or as 'zero-sum' or 'positive-sum' situations? What are the implications for the structure, process or nature of collective bargaining (eg company versus sectoral? workplace representatives versus trade union? from “distributive” to “integrative” bargaining [with mutual gains for both sides]) and the role of management?

Where significant differences of interpretation exist in assessments on these questions - notably between the social partners - please report on the differing views.

Since there are few, if any, collective agreements dealing with the issue of work organisation in an integrated way, there are no known assessments/evaluations. Evaluations of projects carried out jointly by the social partners have been undertaken, but fall outside the scope of this article.

Debate and prospects

What impact has the kind of agreement referred to above had in your country, and what impact might such agreements have in future? What is the current debate on the topic? Please provide an assessment of prospects for the future in terms of work organisation bargaining in your country (differentiating by sector, if relevant).

The extent to which the type of agreements referred to in this thematic feature will have an impact in the future remains to be seen. There are so far no signs of the social partners moving towards increased collective bargaining on work organisation and related issues. There is a deep rooted tradition of handling such matters at the company level through information and consultation, rather than bargaining. This is not to say that bargaining does not take place, but not in an integrated way. Rather these issues are subject to company-level information and consultation, and to a lesser degree negotiations, over separate issues, and often within a framework set by central/sectoral collective agreements (or in some instances the legal framework).

The current debate on these issues takes place in a variety of arenas - at company level between employees and employers and at the central level through the joint efforts mentioned above, as well as through tripartite cooperation between employers, unions and government in areas such as sickness absence (NO0110107F) and competence development. (Håvard Lismoen, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science)