Work accommodations and sustainable working. The role of social partners and industrial relations in the employment of disabled and older people in Estonia, Hungary and Poland

Foster, Deborah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5650-7423, Masso, Mart and Osila, Liina 2021. Work accommodations and sustainable working. The role of social partners and industrial relations in the employment of disabled and older people in Estonia, Hungary and Poland. European Journal of Industrial Relations 27 (2) , pp. 149-165. 10.1177/0959680120971896

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Abstract

The under-utilisation of the labour of disabled and older people is a problem across the European Union (EU) but is most pronounced in Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states, where labour shortages are greatest. This presents a puzzle that is explored with reference to a project with social partners from Estonia, Hungary and Poland, the objective of which was to stimulate debate and actions around the role of industrial relations actors in facilitating work accommodations for disabled and older people. After establishing the extent of the demographic labour crisis in these countries, the policy tools being employed to address it are scrutinised and found wanting. A variety of factors are identified as having contributed to debate in this area: historical legacy; social policy path-dependency; social partner identity and agency; a ‘dead letter’ approach to EU policies and the limited role of civil society organisations. We examine the potential of the concept of sustainable work, more commonly found in Northern Europe, to influence alternative approaches to the employment of disabled and older people in countries where state, labour and employment relations differ.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Additional Information:	Released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0959-6801
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 October 2020
Date of Acceptance:	14 October 2020
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2024 03:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/135596

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