New technologies, employment and skills in the fertiliser industry

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The Institute of Labour of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (INE/GSEE) presented a survey on "technological changes in jobs and skills in the Greek fertiliser industry" in March 1999. We summarise the key results of the survey, mainly as regards the characteristics of work in the industry, the relationships between technological changes and changes in work organisation, and between skills, education and training.

On 31 March 1999, at a special seminar, the Institute of Labour of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (INE/GSEE) presented a survey on the subject of "technological changes in jobs and skills in the Greek fertiliser industry", carried out with funding from the European Community ADAPT initiative. Its overall objective was to investigate ways to achieve the best possible adaptation of workers to "industrial changes", and in particular to prepare them so that the effects of these changes on employment levels are kept to a minimum. The survey was conducted in two companies in the sector, Chemical Industries of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki and Phosphoric Fertilisers Industry in Kavala. It sought to obtain information on all three aspects of the production process - technology, work organisation and required skills - with the aim of evaluating past, present and anticipated future changes.

As regards the economic situation of the sector, the survey notes that in companies located in Greece demand is on the decline and fertiliser production remains an activity strongly tied to the geographical area in which its products are consumed. In these conditions, most companies practice a defensive strategy combining cost-reduction and product-differentiation objectives at the level of production. Such objectives are achieved through gradual technological modernisation and rationalisation of systems of organisation of production. There are, however, two dangers. One lies in coping with the declining internal market through competition among enterprises and efforts to gain market share. The second concerns modernising the enterprise and increasing its "knowledge capital" through a process of marginal adjustments not requiring important initiatives in the areas of investment or workforce training.

Features of work in the industry

Work organisation in the fertiliser industry is based on an "old-fashioned" rigid division of labour. This model makes use of low-skilled staff in production, where jobs are rigidly defined. Such jobs have no specific occupational characteristics, but of course this is not the case for maintenance, which relies on professional technicians who carry out work of a different nature. It should be noted that the Greek chemicals industry was created from the very beginning as a large-scale industry. Unlike other industries, it had no history of small enterprises from which a skilled workforce could be drawn. The results of the survey show that what happened in Greece was that the units which were set up employed unskilled workers, who during the initial period worked in a strictly "Taylorist" environment, the only solution for using such workers.

Organisational and technological changes

A comparison of the two companies in which the survey was conducted highlights the importance of their history, both in shaping the occupational profile of production workers and in determining the way work is organised. Despite the fact that one of the companies is clearly more advanced with regard to use of new technologies, no essential difference was noted in the content or division of jobs. It was also noted that the changes which may come about with further automation of production do not constitute one of the main issues or problems, because it is not on this level that tensions relating to work organisation have developed or will develop.

The survey notes that both companies are taking very careful steps to deal with a serious contradiction. On the one hand, the gradual introduction of technological innovations is leading to an enhancement of the role of machine operators, but on the other this category of workers remains clearly distinct from the category of chemical engineers, on the level both of control and of knowledge of the production process. Machine operators have no recognised occupational status and, what is more, are not associated with any schools of technical education. The companies are addressing this contradiction by offering good wages and a sense of employment security, thus compensating for the gap between the role of the machine operators and the occupational recognition of that role.

In these conditions, the move towards full and/or stepped-up automation presents a great difficulty, because after production is automated to a certain point, an operator requires a very thorough theoretical knowledge of the production process which cannot be acquired through in-company training. On the other hand, the traditional hierarchical model in production units creates yet another obstacle to the company's efforts to enhance the content of knowledge. According to the survey, both companies, in their efforts to resolve the above problem, made two types of changes to the traditional system. The first option involves efforts to do away with the jobs of managers originating in the lower hierarchy, combined with placement of assistants to the head chemical engineer who themselves are chemical engineers. The second option involves seeking to hire tertiary education graduates to fill new jobs, with the aim of upgrading low-skilled jobs (operators, supervisors) without changing the system of work organisation and hierarchical advancement. Although there are no indications that either company is taking forward a strategy of full automation, such changes in the way units are organised may be regarded as moves ushering in a future new model of division of labour which will include upgraded jobs for managers and supervisors and will retain operators in their present status of workers with no occupational rights. This may create the conditions for lowering the requirements for knowledge in this category. The form the future model of division of labour will take will depend on whether or not workers are able to influence it, to resist the downgrading of present jobs and to seek the stability of jobs with recognised occupational rights and knowledge.

Skills, education and training

First of all, the survey highlights the fundamental importance of skills in meeting job requirements, and notes that widespread use of automation and digital technology creates a new profile for technical staff, who must combine thorough familiarity with the plant with high-level technical and theoretical knowledge. However, the important development in job content which is taking place is not accompanied by enhancement of workers' knowledge or by occupational safeguarding of skilled labour. These are serious obstacles to industrial development and continued improvement of the competitiveness of the sector. It is pointed out that the main issue for the trade unions in the sector is the failure to recognise and make statutory the occupational rights of some categories of skilled workers, such as machine operators.

Commentary

In the chemicals industry, and in particular the fertiliser industry to which the present survey refers, the ability of the educational system to supply the operators and technicians required in the new technological conditions is clearly one of the bases upon which the continuation of technological and organisational modernisation must be supported in the future. In particular, in the manufacture of fertiliser which is being modernised in order to cope with heightened international competition, future developments will depend to a decisive degree on the ability of companies to hire and integrate workers with technical qualifications commensurate with the needs of the new technology. Therefore, it is evident that for this sector productivity as well as employment will be directly affected by the ability of the educational system to meet existing and emerging needs in the medium term. However, as has already been noted above, these needs cannot be met solely by in-company training. What is needed is a gradual shift from a rationale of providing funds to individual companies for training programmes to a rationale of planning for medium-term educational needs in collaboration with the employers' and trade union bodies concerned. (Petros Linardos-Rylmon, scientific advisor, INE/GSEE)