Employment Policies in UK and Germany. An Important Aspect of Welfare State: The Labour Market

Abstract

The 1997 was an important year because, for the first time, in a treaty (Amsterdam treaty) was created a special section for the employment policies. From this moment on, employment policies become an important area of community interest. The analysis is based on the assumption that long-term unemployment has detrimental effects on individuals employability. In particular active labour market policies aim at ensuring full employment and equall access to the labour market for both man and women. So childcare facilities, health services and housing support are examples of new integration instruments, which complement classic labour market measures, for example vocational training and job counseling. Employment policies are important issues because they are associated with social outcomes and behaviors, so associated also with high levels of social cohesion. Precarious workers tend to participate less both socially and politically, which means a reduction of social and political participation. They also have less trust in the institutions and this is very serious because trust is the main component of social capital, in a comparative perspective. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, after lessons, readings of documents and articles, the employment policies of welfare state systems, with particular attention to the English and German areas. Particular importance is given to the policies of Tony Blair, his Third Way, and the Work Programme, in the English context, and to the Hartz reform, in the German context.