WORKERS' SAVINGS AND THE RIGHT TO MANAGE

Abstract.  Most Western capitalist institutions are islands of fascism in a sea of democracy. But democracy can be introduced from the political to the economic sphere by re-assigning the right to manage from capital owners to workers, thereby creating a sector consisting of self-managed firms. Such firms require external finance for efficiency; this can be supplied via a new form of financial asset (performance bonds), to be held by wage-earners' investment funds. Reforms such as these could improve productivity and the quality of working life, strengthen the role of markets and help to deal with the so-called pensions crisis. These reforms would threaten the interests of private capital owners and would therefore require decisive political action: they can thus be differentiated sharply from voluntary, enterprise-level schemes for introducing profit-sharing, employee share-ownership or industrial democracy.     

Changing the Rules of the Game

Abstract

This article examines the impact of privatization on the relative bargaining strength of management and trade unions. Findings are based on a study of Ireland's largest telecoms provider, Eircom, which has been privatized since 1999. The privatization of Eircom adopted a stakeholder approach, under which employee share-ownership and management–union partnership played an important role in firm restructuring. Findings show that despite this approach privatization has resulted in a significant decrease in the perceived bargaining strength of unions and an increase in the perceived bargaining strength of management.     

Workers' Companies in Turkey

In a free market employees can become owners of their firms. Diana Spearman shows how Turkish workers have pioneered the creation of new worker-controlled companies as an even better way of worker participation than the share-ownership favoured in Britain.     

Promises and practices: job evaluation and equal pay forty years on!

This article examines the claim made by Barbara Castle when introducing the Equal Pay Act (EPA) in 1970 that there is nothing preventing unions pressing for job evaluation schemes to achieve equal pay. It does this by examining the research on potential hurdles to job evaluation and those that can be found in the UK law since the introduction of the EPA. The article concludes that the standards for selecting job evaluation and the obstacles of introducing job evaluation have significantly changed over the period, leaving little promise of an extension of its use to achieve equal pay.     

Regulation without Reason: The Deleterious Effects of Government Regulation on Private Pension Provision

In this article, the history of regulation in pensions in the United Kingdom is analysed, in particular with respect to defined benefit occupational pension schemes. A framework of criteria for effective legislation is developed. The original prudent person rule provided a good framework for legislation, but most subsequent regulation that has been enacted does not meet our criteria. Recently regulation has increased the cost and risk of individual schemes and the systemic risk in the system as a whole. The article finds that, in totality, regulation has been disastrous for these schemes, contributing to their demise. The article concludes by briefly outlining how effective regulation might have developed to produce a flexible and resilient system.     

LEARNING TO WALK BEFORE WE CAN PRICE: THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF ROAD PRICING POLICIES

The introduction of widespread road pricing is being considered in the UK and abroad as a means to allocate scarce road space. By looking at the economic costs and benefits of both national and local road pricing schemes, this paper seeks to examine how widely charging should be implemented.     

Characteristics of workplaces with financial participation: evidence from the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey

This article assesses the theory and evidence for the adoption and use of financial participation. It reports finding of a comparison of the characteristics of workplaces with profit sharing, employee share schemes and those with no schemes at all, using data from WIRS3     

富水粉细砂地层条件下旅客地道施工工艺

结合通辽至新民北客运专线旅客地道的施工,介绍了在富水及粉细砂地层条件下,邻近车站站房深基坑的施工方案。通过方案的比选、施工工艺的介绍、施工过程的总结,积累了一定的施工经验,为同类工程提供一定的借鉴意义。     

The transition from social insecurity

The paper analyses the insecurity of state relative to private pensions. It considers issues such as moral hazard, policy-induced risk and the way in which property rights accrue to a scheme's beneficiaries. The article concludes that state schemes are fundamentally more insecure than private schemes and that the difficulties of state schemes have not arisen simply because of an accident of demographics. The difficulties of private pension schemes are also discussed as well as the transition problems arising from moving from state to private arrangements.     

Vertical externality and strategic delegation

This paper examines the effects of vertical externality generated by the upstream monopoly on the incentives that owners of competing downstream firms give their managers. It is shown that the introduction of the upstream monopoly may have significant effects on the incentive schemes for the downstream firms' managers. In particular, it is shown that in equilibrium, each owner obtains the simple Nash equilibrium outcome regardless of the mode of competition (quantity or price) in the downstream market. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introducing benchmarking in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

In many cases the introduction of performance evaluation, performance management and performance financing schemes do not produce the expected results and even create perverse effects. The risks connected with their improper implementation are much higher in developing and transition countries, where the public sector is over-politicized, policy and management capacities are inadequate and resources and experience are limited or often almost absent.

Our study provides basic selected data on the use of benchmarking in public administration bodies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings are clear. In spite of its high potential, benchmarking is not used regularly and properly either in Slovakia or in Czechia. Subjective barriers of its implementation, for example lack of accountability, the rent seeking attitudes of elected politicians and ineffective public services schemes might be most important limits. The situation is slowly improving, but the progress will be naturally limited by territorial fragmentation.     

浅谈高校高层次人才引进工作

高层次人才是高校,乃至国家最重要的人力资源。文章介绍了目前我国高层次人才引进的现状及出现的问题,并从国家主管部门、高校和引进人才自身3个方面的因素进行解析,简要提出了改善高层次人才引进工作的几点建议。     

Practische [berekening van de standaardafwijking van de constante term bij regressie-analyse

The formula arrived at in a previous article [1] is adapted to the usual computation schemes of regression analysis.     

The EU policy for a plastic economy: Reflections on a sectoral implementation strategy

After reviewing the main EU policy documents on the plastic waste issue, this work conceptualises an analysis framework to investigate farmers' attitudes to market‐based tools (i.e., subsidies, tax‐credits, and payback mechanisms in extended producer responsibility schemes) through which the introduction of an operational scheme for a better management of their plastic waste can be incentivised in line with the 2018 European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy. A total number of 1,783 farmers responded to a purpose‐built questionnaire. Results show that most of the plastic waste they produce is piping and packaging and that tax credit represents their most favoured incentivising tool.     

广西蒙山县新古排水电站工程隧洞塌方处理措施

文章在简要介绍广西蒙山新古排水电站工程概况的基础上,对引水隧洞开挖过程中遇到的各类隧洞塌方原因作了详细的分析,并对塌方分类、预防和处理措施作了论述。针对隧洞施工中发生的大塌方问题,监理工程师根据设计图纸文件及水工支护施工技术规范,提出了“超前临时支撑法”施工处理措施,且对该施工处理技术进行简要概述,这在引水隧洞开挖过程中起到了参谋和决策作用。     

An optimisation strategy for concurrent Supply Chain Finance schemes

The uncertainty and financial instability that has plagued companies and industries in the last decade is one of the root causes behind the development of Supply Chain Finance (SCF), a set of schemes aiming to optimise the management of financial flows at the supply chain level. Recent years have seen a proliferation of different SCF schemes, with different impacts on working capital costs and requirements throughout the supply chain. The practicality of SCF usage indicates that the concurrent adoption of multiple schemes is not only possible, but even likely. However, literature on SCF still focuses on individual SCF schemes, while the concurrent adoption of multiple SCF schemes remains largely unaddressed. Thus, the objective of this paper is to assess the tangible benefits deriving from a multi-scheme SCF strategy. Based on the analytical formulation of the benefits of three relevant SCF schemes (Reverse Factoring, Inventory Financing and Dynamic Discounting), the paper formalises a model that investigates the benefits that a buyer can achieve by onboarding suppliers onto these three schemes. The results show how working capital requirements and the cost of finance represent the key parameters to assessing the benefits of the concurrent adoption of multiple SCF schemes. Moreover, the funding limits of the SCF schemes themselves strongly affect the relevance of such strategies; strict limits will increase the relevance of having ‘alternative’ schemes available to onboard suppliers. To highlight the managerial relevance of the model, the article provides a numerical example based on a real-world application.     

Rewarding employee performance: line managers' values,beliefs and perspectives

This article explores managerial perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of individual performance-related pay schemes. It draws upon findings from a two-part study of middle managers' interpretation and application of performance-related pay processes in a variety of organizational contexts. The analysis reveals that middle managers all too often do not share the principles or the stated objectives of the schemes they are required to operationalize. It concludes that the importance of managerial values and beliefs about rewarding individual contribution has been an overlooked and underestimated dimension in the design and application of individual performancerelated pay schemes (IPRP) despite the significance of the manager's role in their organizational effectiveness.     

半导体照明产品美国市场技术准入要求

文章详细介绍了半导体照明产品进入美国市场的安全、电磁兼容、能效要求。     

Performance Pay,Union Bargaining and Within‐Firm Wage Inequality*

Theory predicts that performance pay boosts wage dispersion. Workers retain a share of individual productivity shocks and high‐efficiency workers receive compensation for greater effort. Collective bargaining can mitigate the effect of performance pay on wage inequality by easing monitoring of common effort standards and group‐based pay schemes. Analyses of longitudinal employer–employee data show that the introduction of performance‐related pay raises wage inequality in non‐union firms, but not in firms with high union density. Although performance‐related pay appears to be on the rise, the overall impact on wage dispersion is likely to be small, particularly in European countries with influential unions.     

清水混凝土楼板的施工质量控制

文章着重介绍清水混凝土楼板的施工质量控制,运用PDCA方法结合工程实际情况来阐述清水混凝土楼板施工的过程控制及常见问题的处理措施。