by CLAIRE FIELD
The Swedes show us the way to help redundant workers
Last week’s Federal Budget included changes to the Local Jobs scheme which “supports the development and implementation of tailored approaches to accelerate reskilling, upskilling and employment across Australia.”
The changes will provide a flexible funding pool for “small scale local activities that help address community identified needs” and additional Employment Facilitators being placed into regions “experiencing rapid and significant challenges, including as part of the transition to a clean energy future.”
The Australian government is to be commended for adding greater flexibility to the scheme and for funding more facilitators. However, even with these changes, Australia is still a long way from OECD best practice.
Sweden’s job security councils, which specifically support retrenched workers, are organisations Australia could learn a lot from.
Tryghetsfonden TSL is the job security council for many blue collar trades. Founded in 2004 by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation it covers two million workers in 80 000 companies and helps them find new roles if they are made redundant or reach the end of a fixed term contract. Funded through an employer payroll levy TSL has assisted 300 000 people – 15,000 on average per annum.
Swedish employers and unions have accepted that the Swedish economy must inevitably change as the world of work changes and that the focus needs to be “on saving the people not the jobs” – by helping workers transition to a new job with tailored individual support, education opportunities and generous financial support up to 80 per cent of their former salaries during their retraining.
TSL and other similar organisations take away the stigma of redundancy in Sweden and help workers successfully transition to new roles and occupations.
For TSL – they have an impressive record of achievement:
* 90 per cent get jobs after receiving support from TSL and are happy with the support provided, and
* 80 per cent get a job at the same level or higher.
Historically Australia has not been as successful in assisting redundant workers – the closure of car manufacturing plants in Victoria and South Australia saw only one-third of workers find full-time paid work despite the efforts of governments, unions, employers and community organisations.
As the House Select Committee considers changes to Workforce Australia – what reforms should Australia make to “save people not jobs”?
Could, for example, Australia’s industry super funds be allowed to expand their focus to supporting workers both during and after their careers, by also offering job transition support…?
Claire Field visited TSL with representatives of MEGT and wishes to thank TSL CEO, Caroline Söder for her time and valuable insights