Demand side: Business employment perspectives Hypothesis
2009 2010 2011 2012 Number of project contracts 8 48 110
Number of integration work hours 42,000 195,000 275,500
Number of full-time equivalents 23 109 153
Indirect integration purchases €1.3 M €5.5 M €8.3 M €6.1 M
Source: Pour la Solidarité, 2013b
18 i.e. disabled persons 19 Pour la Solidarité, 2013b
Since September 2012 discussion has been going on within SNCF about the creation of a specific integration subsidiary. Such a solution would greatly endorse the provision of employment perspectives for marginalised groups and more specifically, of homeless people.
Yet another innovative project is being developed at Gare de Lyon, using mixed profiles and options available for target group A to also support target group B members. As around 75% of the homeless people do work at least occasionally, the newly developed project offering services for travellers and support for people in need shall combine more and less integrated people from groups A and B, respectively. Together with 10 people capable of ful- filling the criteria of working part-time (26 hours), about half the number of excluded shall work on the same ‘mixed-profile’ project. While the latter can contribute to the project and thus be stabilised, they would not hinder the projects’ success if they would not appear for work.
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. is the largest Italian enterprise comprising 11 companies operating the different segments. What shall be highlighted here is the groups’ long-term policy regarding social inclusion and diversity. A specific function for “Social Policy and Relationship with Associations” was founded already years ago, and is dealing with social issues not only at local and national levels, but also in European and international bodies. Its activities can be summarised as follows (Europe Consulting, 2012):
• “guaranteeing accessibility to trains to everyone, from persons with lim- ited mobility to the disabled and the elderly;
• guaranteeing the safety and dignity of railway stations that, especially in big cities, often become places of refuge for persons in situations of poverty and deprivation;
• promoting initiatives associated with social integration of people in
need, in synergy with local entities and associations;
• contributing to the optimisation of property assets, with a view to creat- ing solidarity and attention to the environment and in conjunction with other socially-responsible companies;
• strengthening cooperation with European rail companies, through con- tinuous exchange of experience and good practices in social issues; • studying social phenomena.”
Somehow contradicting these targets indicating openness towards integra- tion measures there seem to be legal restrictions that deny the possibility of specific integration employment. Any form of integration would have to come via standard schemes, like internships, or training. This option seems highly unrealistic for the WORK in stations target groups, so that employ- ment at FSI can be ruled out as an option. This includes also the service sec- tor provided by Reti Ferroviarie Italiane, responsible inter alia for cleaning and maintenance.
B Employment in contracted services
As outlined above, more and more tasks are being contracted out to external market companies. This is especially true for some of the lower-skilled ser- vices like cleaning, and security. For some of the job-profiles, these compa- nies would therefore be the appropriate address. The company responsible for cleaning at Gare du Nord in Paris, for example, owns more than 70 com- panies with a turnover of € 1 billion in 2010 and employing some 57.000 people20. As this company is already recruiting people with disabilities as well as young and older workers, it could be open to collaboration also for this target group. The same seems to be true for the company responsible for these services at Gare de Lyon.
Social clauses for integration enterprises
- Reserving clause, limiting contracts in services and works to social economy enterprises;
- Integration clause, whereby a certain share of a contract has to be sub-contracted to the social economy; - Youth social clause, requiring the training of young people.
20 According to an article published in Le Parisien on 17 January 2011 (http://www.lepa- risien.fr/economie/max-massa-l-onet-homme-17-01-2011-1229848.php), quoted from Pour la Solidarité, 2012
For SNCB in Brussels, sub-contracting with work-integration enterprises seems to be much easier to accomplish than to hire people on integration schemes individually and then recruit them, if possible21.
They have some tradition in sub-contracting to NGOs: the bike-parking facil- ity is managed by the non-profit association “Cyclo”22, maintenance and site
cleaning were done by “Groep Intro”. There are further tasks where limited calls for tenders (3 offers) including only work-integration enterprises could be issued. Still another opportunity would be to include social clauses in service and work contracts.
Again in Rome this does not seem to be an option as some of these tasks like cleaning are done internally by Reti Ferroviarie Italiane, and others are contracted out to companies which have to follow market requirements in performance as well as in wage-terms.
C Employment at independent companies
There are 74 shops at Gare du Nord, 44 at Gare de Lyon, and 44 also at Brussels-Central. Typical railway shops range from food/supermarket, gift shops, travel agencies, bank, post office, pharmacy and other service shops. They are all confronted to the presence of itinerant people, sometimes with the consequences of alcohol and drug abuse, sometimes thefts will occur attributed to them.
To what extent could they support the integration of WORK in station target groups? Many, but not all of these shops are small which will limit their pos- sibility to employ additional personnel, especially with doubts about their regular performance. To exploit this potential would require support; finan- cial but even more so by social workers from the stations or from NGOs. Information collected by Pour la Solidarité (2013a & b) showed that shop owners lacked information about public support programmes. Their experi- ence with hiring marginalised people was mostly negative. Positive response came from the human resource management of two bigger shops at Brussels-
21 Interview with SNCB representative, quoted from Pour la Solidarité 2013a 22 See chapter 2
Central23, which is more open to employ unskilled and vulnerable people, as “their primary selection criteria… is … people’s motivation to work” (Pour la Solidarité, 2013a). 5% of their personnel of app. 150 are/were marginalised people. A similar signal came from a parking company, another typical busi- ness found close to stations, where no specific qualifications are required for many of their jobs. This confirms that it is easier for bigger entities to employ a certain percentage of the target group members. They are able to divide their tasks between their employees, and for many of these tasks no specific skills are needed.
Another company strategy to cover (short-term) requirements of low-skilled personnel is to use temporary work agencies, and this opens up possibilities for social temporary work agencies to place their clients, and perhaps help them to a permanent job. Such collaboration already exists between one such agency and several enterprises at Brussels-Central.
Partial confirmation of hypothesis 1
Railway companies, station operators and private enterprises at railway sta- tions have certain job profiles within their overall personnel that would be suitable for homeless and similar marginalised groups. This was confirmed by the study results from Paris and Brussels (though to a lesser extent), but not for Rome. The most promising ways to employ these target groups do not so much lie with the companies themselves, but with the service providers they contract. Some of the services are offered by NGOs working with simi- lar target groups, but also by private companies which employ low-qualified people. In both cases there is pressure on the performance and reliability of the people employed. Solutions could especially be opened for target group A – people with lesser problems who are closer to the labour market. The only partial confirmation of work opportunities by Brussels SNCB is due to the fact that vacancies are filled from official recruitment lists in agreement with trade unions. This implies that also WORK in stations target groups would not only have to be on the list, but to be on top of it. Marginalised
groups cannot compete for jobs on the open labour market, at least for initial employment. To open up vacancies for this target group requires a separate strategy, i.e. bypassing the list or defining jobs that are not on the list. This highlights a second ‘standard’ problem in integration that was also men- tioned by SNCB representatives: some of the jobs that would be best suited for low qualified people were cut and are no longer available (e.g. certain basic services like porters). To create them again for this specific group might lead to tension with trade unions.
Employment opportunities with private enterprises located at the stations are limited to bigger entities, but could be exploited further by using social tem- porary work agencies.