Abstract
In the previous theory chapter, I have outlined how job loss for specific subgroups might lead to a decline of social activities in general and volunteer work in particular. Moreover, I have shown that volunteering activities for some unemployed can be expected to contribute to re-integration into the labour market, for others to encouraging their permanent exit from the labour market in order to assume caring responsibilities and use volunteering activities as an additional source of social recognition. I also argued that the institutional background is likely to play a major role in shaping these mechanisms, especially different degrees of labour market protection and different gender regimes in different types of political economies. In the present chapter, I give a more in-depth view on this institutional background, namely labour market and family policies as well as policies directly related to volunteering activities. I focus my analysis on labour market as well as family policies since especially women’s labour market integration does not only depend on the labour market but also on family related legislation as outlined in the theory chapter (Dingeldey 2000; Estevez-Abe 2005). As argued in the introduction, I will use a comparative approach in the tradition of societal analysis (Maurice 2000), analysing the social construction of different institutional surroundings via their historical development and their impact on the interrelation between unemployment and volunteering.
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References
The time period between the notice and the job interview has been extended — due to pressure from the non-profit sector on the British government — from 24 to 48 hours (Gaskin, et al. 1996: 55).
In Great Britain, where the average duration of unemployment spells is considerably lower than in Germany, Employment Service responses to long-term unemployment are initiated at six months already (Clasen, et al. 1998) which is why I decided to define long-term unemployment in my own multivariate analysis as unemployment spells which last longer than six months.
Pissarides (2003) claims, to the contrary, that the majority of jobs created have been full-time regular jobs. He downplays the role of temporary jobs which are below 8% as not being an “important ingredient of British labour markets”. At the same time, he admits that part-time jobs are an important element in the female labour market, accounting for about 45% of total employment. Part-time work in Britain is associated with a large pay penalty; unlike in full-time jobs there are no rewards for increased age and experience (Desai, et al. 1999).
Pissarides (2003) explains this sharp decline in unemployment rates by the decline of trade union power in combination with the change in the monetary policy regime. He does not attribute an influence to the reforms of the unemployment insurance system.
The second pillar of the German non-profit sector, the field of culture, leisure and sports, suffers from special financial hardship due to the biased understanding of subsidiarity in Germany which is mainly related to welfare and health provision; non-profit organisations in cultural or educational fields do not profit from the same privileged status. Consequently, this sub-sector pursues its function on a voluntary basis (Betzelt 2001).
The Labour Party changed their opinion on volunteering from overt rejection to an integral part of the mixed economy of welfare and essential part of the new alliance between citizens and state. This new approach was laid down in the document Building Bridges — Labour and the Voluntary Sector from 1992. The conservative position on volunteering was laid down in the document The Individual and the Community from 1992 (Gaskin, et al. 1996: 39).
Additionally, recipients are paid their rents for an “appropriate” accommodation (Steffen 2005: 72).
However, increasingly also high educated employees are employed in the secondary labour market segment, e.g. in fixed-term contracts or as self-employed (Roger 2006: 44).
Another strategy which was adopted to solve employment problems was to reduce the supply of labour power: A pre-pension allowance for unemployed people over 58 was introduced which allowed them to bridge the gap to retirement age. This instrument was widely used by employers (often with consent of the employees) to lay off older workers in a “socially compatible” (but dysfunctional for the BA’s budget) way in the years to come (Mohr 2005).
In 1994, rates of ALG for unemployed claimants without children were reduced from 63 to 60 percent and from 56 to 53 percent in ALH (Steffen 2005).
The reforms were strongly influenced by the concept of an “activating welfare state”, which had its origins in British debates about the “Third Way” and had also inspired New Labour’s welfare reform. The concept meant that the state would demand and enforce that the unemployed take steps to regain employment, but also grant support by offering individually tailored placement and activation services. The concept of “Fördern und Fordern” takes up the neo-liberal call for more self-responsibility of citizens, similar to the British idea of a new contract between the state and the citizens; however, it also stresses the role of the state in creating active and self-responsible citizens and thus exhibits recognizably social-democratic features (Mohr 2005).
With the Social Security Act of 1988, sixteen-and seventeen-year-olds were removed from eligibility of cash benefits which made participation in the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) effectively compulsory (Mohr 2005).
For an overview on the hours which volunteers spend with their engagement, see Gensicke (2001: 66) for Germany and Smith (1998: 27) for Great Britain.
The New Deal for Lone Parents restricts for example the group of people who is considered as not able to work by putting a strong focus on the integration of single parents into the labour market (Trickey and Walker 2001).
The half-day schooling system in Germany was ideologically based on a strict separation between childcare and education. The childcare for preschool children which developed during the German Empire was considered a stopgap measure for female workers in the context of poverty relief. West Germany followed this tradition after the Second World War, not least to distinguish from the monopolisation of the entire life by the National Socialists as well as from the socialist educational model of the GDR (Gottschall 2004: 131).
The historically rooted separation between childcare and education in Germany is reflected in different ministerial areas of responsibility for education and science on the one hand and childcare and social issues on the other hand. Moreover, it is reflected in the different professional training for pre-school teachers and school-teachers: While pre-school teacher is a low-paid semi-professional job almost exclusively taken by women, school-teachers are trained at universities and enjoy the privileges of the civil service such as high income and high job security (Gottschall and Hagemann 2002).
A similar recognition of caring activities as with parental leave was implemented in German pension insurance: Credits for child rearing were introduced within pension insurance from 1986 onwards (Clasen 2005). A so-called ‘baby-year’ was introduced which was equivalent to one year’s pension credit, equivalent to 75% of average waged of all insured employees, restricted to women not in insured employment during the respective year. In 1997, the child raising pension credit was gradually increased from 75% to 100% of average wage (fully implemented in 2000) for current pensioners as well as new entrants. Credits were made additional to actual contributions made (i.e. not discriminating against working parents).
Only since German unification, and under pressure from the extremely different starting situations in the two parts of Germany, did notable reforms in the area of elementary and primary schooling take place. In the early 1990s, the Child and Youth Assistance Law (Kinder-und Jugendhilfegesetz, KJHG) was revised and amended so that at least on paper local authorities are required to provide an adequate level of public childcare facilities. Furthermore, in 1996, children between three and six years of age received the right to attend kindergarten for one-half of the day, which has caused an expansion of facilities so that 80% of this age group can now be accommodated. However, in Western Germany, there are still very few facilities for children under three years of age, and the number of all-day facilities for pre-school and school children trails far behind the demand. In particular, the extension of school supervision to at least six hours a day and the provision of a meal are long awaited, but not yet realised reforms (Gottschall 2001, quoted in Gottschall and Bird 2003: 119). In West Germany the few full-time day childcare institutions are used mostly by children from high economic backgrounds and academic parents (Spies et al. 2002, quoted in Gottschall 2004: 136). In the second half of the 1990s we observe at least in some West German Federal states the offer of a “reliable half-day primary school” (verlässliche Halbtagsschule), offering a reliable childcare from 8am to 1pm (Gottschall 2004: 136; Gottschall and Hagemann 2002: 20).
The Employment Protection Act from 1975 had selectively improved financial support during maternity leave and introduced a job guarantee. Women with a continuous employment record of at least two years were paid a 90% gross wage replacement for six weeks, and were guaranteed that they could return to their previous job within twenty-nine weeks of confinement (Clasen 2005).
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(2008). The role of volunteering for labour market integration or exclusion — German and British social policies compared. In: Volunteering and Social Inclusion. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8350-5573-5_3
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