Conditions d’une politique de la main-d’oeuvre Manpower Policy Requisites

Résumé

Dans cet article, l’auteur rappelle d’abord brièvement les principales implications du changement technique pour la société et plus particulièrement pour les travailleurs. Il propose et explique ensuite ses quatre conditions d'une politique de la main-d’oeuvre: la grande condition: L’intéressement des travailleurs; les conditions dictées par le milieu; les conditions administratives et budgétaires; et enfin la condition éducative: une nouvelle pédagogie.

Abstract

Rapid technological changes are presently causing an industrial revolution that constitutes a challenge to relations between the economic partners involved and to the status and role of the worker. Technological changes affect man not only as a worker in his place of employment, but also as a member of his community and of society in general. Indeed, every aspect of man's life is affected.

Because of the important consequences of technological changes in production methods, overall solutions must be found to ensure the individual's security of employment as well as his integration with his surroundings. The only way technological evolution will be accepted as a necessary consequence of the modem industrial world is to entirely revise the legal concept of man in the labour world. Therefore, only through far-reaching manpower and employment security policies will the conflicts attending technological changes in production methods be avoided. Adequate policies on such matters will ensure the continuity of professional activity, the acceptance of modifications and even the advantages to be reaped from compliance with technological evolution.

Under such circumstances, a manpower policy is no longer a mere series of technological and financial assistance measures, but an entirely new concept of man in the field of labour. The policy is to be implemented not only to satisfy the needs of industry but above all, to meet the needs of the individual.

An eventual and adequate manpower policy must rest on certain basic conditions or requisites.

The involvement of workers stands out as the first and most important condition. An industrial world where workers are constantly being victimized by technological changes is subject to numerous conflicts and injustice. It is therefore imperative that the rapid changes in production methods be integrated into the workers' lives. This can be accomplished by making workers partake in the modification-producing decisions and in the adaptation measures required to meet new situations ensuing from progress. Such involvement goes beyond mere information and eventually entails his participation in new business structures and in the public bodies that advise the government on manpower policy decisions.

A second but less important condition is environment. This means that the manpower policy must integrate itself into the worker's social environment and take into account his basic values. Human conduct is determined by the experience gained through physical circumstances, accepted ways of life and available resources. No manpower policy may afford to ignore the worker's social, economic and cultural environment. It must also give serious consideration to the individual's characteristics such as age, sex, race, etc., over which the individual has no control.

The third condition is the effort society wants to give to this sector. The difficulties entailed by new production methods and the remedial measures to be taken must be crystal-clear in everyone's mind.

A manpower policy is synonymous with thorough administrative revampment, the creation of new public services, implementation of costly and perfected measures, not to mention considerable public expense. As there is a question of attaining goals which come under the government's general responsibility, adequate administrative measures are to be adopted. Squabbling over such measures condems a manpower policy to the theoretical-discussion stage and a speculation topic for intellectuals. A manpower policy also entails an information network that will disseminate valuable data on the labour force and the labour world. The information required for the rational use of human resources is intimately connected with man and the economy.

The fourth condition is the updating of the educational system to meet the ever-increasing need for adult education. Man constantly has to be informed of the latest requirements of industry. Today's knowledge may not meet tomorrow's challenge. Future training must stress the continual updating of the worker's knowledge, not of a specialty but of a whole sector. Education and the economy are now entwined and learning is a life-long process. Adults devote as much time to education as they do to work, recreation and politics.

The above mentioned conditions or requisites are the basis of a manpower policy that will prove adequate to both man and society. It calls for a pioneering spirit, the desire for greater industrial democracy and Sociology's patience for details. Such a policy is exacting but it constitutes one of the main building-blocks of modern statehood.