Effect of the liberalization and privatization of telecommunications on jobs
The European Commission, DG V, has published a call for tender for study on the effects the liberalization/privatization process in the telecommunications sector has on jobs. This study will be undertaken in the context of the emergence of an "information society" characterized by the production and consumption of an increasingly wide range of advanced information and communications services. These services stem from technical progress and the cooperation of telecommunications, electronic, computing and audiovisual industries. The rapid development of these services accompanies structural modifications, as much with tenders as with requests, expressed notably by job modifications, as much in quantitative (assessment of job creations and suppressions) as qualitative (modification of professional profiles and necessary qualifications) terms. This creates numerous uncertainties about future markets and anxiety amongst the workers involved. Setting up the infrastructure required by these services calls for significant investments on the European Union level. The responsibility for this lies mainly with the private sector via market mechanisms (multiplication of strategic alliances and cooperation between different sectors such as telecommunications, computing, audiovisual cable operators). To help European enterprises participate, actively and effectively, in the growth of these new markets, a series of structural adaptations must be undertaken such as the opening to competition of the infrastructures and services currently in a monopoly position in the EU. These structural adaptations, especially the privatization/liberalization process, will have negative consequences, in the short term, on jobs at the principal operators whereby the nature and extent may be evaluated in accordance with the specificities of the different Member States so as to minimize the social cost thereof. The short-term negative effects should be more than compensated for in the medium-term by the growth and diffusion of electronic services and telematics applications, linked to externalities generated by investment in information networks and technologies. This study places itself in the context of the development of tools and methodologies enabling the net balance, for jobs, to be evaluated from a wide range of technologies. Requests for further information should be addressed to: European Commission Directorate-General V Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs Unit V/B-5 "Adaptation to industrial transfers" Mr. Olivier Rouland 200 rue de la Loi (J-27 3/105) Tel. +32-2-2966218; Fax +32-2-2969771 or European Commission Directorate-General XIII (Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research) Mr. Alain Dumort 200 rue de la Loi Tel. +32-2-2968932; Fax +32-2-2961780 Completed tenders should be addressed to: European Commission Directorate-General V Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs Unit V/B-5 "Adaptation to industrial transfers" 200 rue de la Loi (J 27 3/105) B-1049 Brussels