Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88) - Germany (Ratification: 1954)

Articles 1 to 10 of the Convention. Organization and functions of the employment service. Encouragement of full use of services by employers and workers. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the preventive approach of its active labour market policy was strengthened through the Act on the Improvement of Integration Opportunities in the Labour Market of 1 April 2012. The Act aims at accelerating the integration of jobseekers into gainful employment and reorganizing the field of state-subsidized employment, while continuing the core role of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) to support employers in the search of workers. To increase customer value and market proximity, this development of the legislative framework was accompanied by changing the BA’s organizational and management structures in 2012 and 2013, undertaken in close cooperation and consultation with a wide range of partners at the regional and local levels, to focus on diverse, interconnected and tailored activities of labour market actors instead of programmes to combat mass unemployment. As a result of these measures and due to the requirement for staff in the field of qualifications to be certified trainers since 2013, the integration rate has increased to 37 per cent in May 2015, when compared to 21 per cent until May 2013, while sustainable integrations have marginally increased from 69.6 per cent in 2013 to 71.1 per cent in 2015. The Committee notes that, following the merger of agencies and the streamlining of internal processes, there are currently around 1,070 employment agencies operating in the country, out of which 423 offices are administered by local authorities. The Committee notes the findings of the 2013 “BA 2020 – Answers from the BA to Questions about the Future”, which identifies eight areas of action to meet the six major labour market trends. In 2015, BA 2020 was extended to include “world of work 4.0/digitalization”. The Government states that approximately 970,000 job vacancies are published on its website in six languages. The website also contains about 3 million jobseeker profiles and is visited by up to 1.4 million visitors per day. Since the beginning of 2013, all BA services are also accessible through a mobile application which has been installed on 750,000 devices as of mid-2015. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the impact of measures implemented to enhance the capacity of the Federal Employment Agency to achieve the best possible organization of the employment market.

Articles 6(b) and 8. Migrant workers and young people. The Committee notes with interest that, in order to facilitate the professional integration of refugees, the BA intends to extend its support for language courses through a special measure financed through an intervention reserve. As regards young people, the Government reports that since 2010, the BA, together with umbrella associations and ministries, launched the project “Working Alliances – Youth and Work” aimed at improving the integration of young people with increased needs for support using a decentralized, regional and local approach. The Government indicates that actions under this project include joint labour market measures, one-stop government approaches or improvements to cross-agency communication and information, generally referred to as “youth employment agencies”. By the end of September 2014, 186 youth employment agencies had been set up. Three quarters of all employment agencies (118) and over half of the joint institutions (166) already offer these specialized services for youth, as well as nearly one in three approved local authority providers (34). The Government further states that, on 1 May 2015, assisted vocational training to support disadvantaged young people during their vocational training and the relevant training providers was introduced. In addition, the target group for training support measures has been extended. These measures are designed to prevent young people from dropping out of training and to ensure that more young people obtain a vocational qualification. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the impact of the measures taken by the Federal Employment Agency to assist migrant workers and young people.