Author: doc. RNDr. Miloslav Hetteš, CSc.

Unemployment is one of the modern phenomena. Unemployment arose at a specific time as a social order caused by the needs of factory production. Its existence takes on a different weight in accordance with development. Unemployment can be understood as survival, as it is currently unsolvable using traditional approaches. We can ask questions. Is it a disaster that we need fewer people for a profit-oriented economy? Isn't unemployment a sign of something good?

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this work dedicated to social work with the unemployed is to provide an educational aid and orientation for students of social work, to provide social workers with a broader knowledge of issues of work, employment and related problems. The publication is intended to address a wider professional public as well. They can benefit from it for their practice, but also for their own better life. It is difficult to find a family in Slovakia where someone close to them has not experienced a worsening work situation. Social workers themselves are also among the unemployed and need to help themselves first.

In Slovakia, we have at our disposal professional literature, handbooks and manuals in the field of economic and legal sciences. There are also textbooks that explain the procedure of social work with the unemployed. (Kasanová, 2013, Jusko, Halásková, 2012)

However, there is a lack of literary sources devoted to the broader background and impact of unemployment and ways out of it in accordance with the current knowledge of social sciences, especially social work, and with regard to global changes in this important social area. We will try to address this gap in our work.

The work does not focus on employment policy, but on impacts, assistance and lasting solutions for the individual, group and society. The chosen problem of unemployment is solved in different ways from the point of view of economics, law and other approaches. Current economic theory does not provide solutions focused on people's needs and cannot provide a permanent solution to unemployment. In the economic point of view, either opinions about the need for constant economic growth prevail, or opinions about the need to admit the intractability of unemployment or about the "eternity" of unemployment. The law cannot solve the problem of unemployment beyond its regulatory-parametric possibilities, which are currently unable to change the growing employment crisis.

It is recorded in the Old Testament that man sinned and one of the consequences of his defiance is that work became his yoke. In the book of Genesis, we read: "Therefore... cursed be the ground for you, with toil you will feed on it all the days of your life..." "In the sweat of your face you will eat your bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken" (Genesis 3,17-19). Work has become a burden (burden). Man fell prey to work, became a slave to it, and through work enslaved others as well - both man and animal.

It is necessary to know the nature and history of unemployment. According to the International Labor Organization resolution of 1982, an unemployed person is a person who has the ability to work, the willingness to be employed, and yet is unemployed. So he is without paid work. (Resolution, 1982, p. 4)

Unemployment is one of the modern phenomena. Unemployment arose at a specific time as a social order caused by the needs of factory production. Its existence takes on a different weight in accordance with development. Unemployment can be understood as survival, as it is currently unsolvable using traditional approaches. We can ask questions. Is it a disaster that we need fewer people for a profit-oriented economy? Isn't unemployment a sign of something good? In the text, we will deal with the temporality of this phenomenon, its transience, its influence on human life. Some of these ideas are apparently presumptuous and incomprehensible, as long as we are in the grip of traditional thinking. Next, we will focus on the important possibilities, tasks and mission of social work in connection with employment. Unemployment appeared in connection with industrialization mainly in the course of the 19th century. Unemployment as such was unknown until then. Each member of the community, slave, subject or otherwise, worked according to his abilities until death. There was no reason for Social Security for old age. Because the problem of aging and old age was not in a state of necessity before industrialization, or considered serious. The advent of the new social order freed the subjects from their obligations to their feudal lord and exposed them to "freedom". In history, there have been rebellions "against progress" (e.g. in Haiti). The people demanded a return to feudalism and drove out the capitalists. The previous system provided greater certainty than the new one. He did not need old age or unemployment benefits. Irish nomads ("Travellers") are the descendants of such "freedmen", who lost their source of livelihood and became nomads. For this period, whoever did not work should not eat, literally. Old age and unemployment were viewed similarly as an objective state. The elderly cannot work because they are weak and the unemployed do not work because they do not want to, and that cannot be changed. Unemployment is indeed a result of progress, a consequence of the fact that technical development no longer needed the previous number of people. Similarly, only a fraction of the workforce currently works in agriculture, and yet farmers provide food for the non-agricultural majority as well. The International Labor Organization has adopted a global recommendation on the right to a social minimum. There are universal benefits that are not tied to almost any conditions. Is it an undeserved waste?

Human needs are limitless. Today, the need for the number of people to perform work for profit and for wages is limited. How to look at those that production "doesn't need"? Are they socially unnecessary? People without paid work are not unnecessary and do not live at the expense of those who are still paid by the labor market. Current changes in society point to the need to strengthen the position of human rights, including in social work. The situation that unemployment has become a standard situation is evidence of overcoming the persistent system and not evidence of the neediness of people, or about their redundancy. Ideas about the need to adjust the conditions in working relationships so that people are rewarded or wanted to work as we stated, are overcome today. They cannot identify, name, and therefore not solve these problems of lack of work. People were and will be interested in being valid and useful members of the whole (society), they want to create, help and be loved. The right to work, the right to freely choose a profession, must therefore be exercised as the right to choose the use of time, time that is not intended for immediate physical survival. The real problem today is how to achieve a sustainable way of living with dignity. Social work will have to respond to the changed situation and solve the problem of an early shortage of its professionals in connection with aging and the associated population decline locally and globally.

In April 2011, social workers associated in the European organization of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW Europe) made a clear statement about the current crisis in society in such a way that those who did not cause it should not suffer for it. (Social Consequences, 2011)

There is artificial tension and discrimination against the so-called marginalized groups (which are sometimes seen almost as unnecessary). To these excluded we can assign the elderly, women, the young and the modern working poor. Being employed does not automatically mean an escape from poverty. The number of people working in part-time jobs is growing. Millions of people currently e.g. they work under the conditions of an employment relationship without a fixed amount of work ("Zero Hour Contract"). The problem of lack of employment is artificial. The problem is socially recognizable, explainable, unacceptable and at the same time solvable.

Social work itself has practically unlimited possibilities of job opportunities for every member of human society. In the case of unemployment, current social problems manifest themselves with varying degrees of strength in Europe. Unemployment has a common basis, which is why a unified solidarity approach is needed. The solution cannot be implemented by an egoistic (individual) procedure optimal for one component of society at the expense of others. Joint action is also necessary in the international community between states.

The procedures used to solve the crisis so far bring social work to the limits of its possibilities and threaten the standards of social work. Solving unemployment, aging, crisis with constant austerity measures of social investments threatens the future and the very essence of society. Underestimating the importance of social investments (spending) permanently worsens the social situation in society. The problem cannot be solved by improving traditional financial indicators, regardless of social cohesion, social justice and social development. The International Federation called on social workers to actively participate in a sustainable way out of the crisis. In global society, the sense of common good and solidarity is disappearing. (Social Consequences, 2011)

Currently, social work should emphasize effective community work and effective social models. Social workers who help the most vulnerable members of society really help not only the needy members of society, but the whole society. Our society, with the help of its organized formal form (the state), must recognize and realistically appreciate the impact of social work for the good of the whole.

In Iceland, in connection with the financial crisis, there was a loss of savings, unemployment and the inability to repay loans. The biggest social revolt took place here. Disgruntled citizens damaged the windows of the parliament. In which they have Slovak crystal chandeliers that were produced by defunct glassworks. The state allowed people to withdraw money from private pension funds and began paying off citizens' mortgages.

After joining the European Union, the Slovak Republic experienced relatively successful years before the outbreak of the financial crisis at the end of 2008. There was even a shortage of some specializations. In the fall of 2008, a European ministerial conference was held in Slovakia on the topic of the transition from a lack of job opportunities to a lack of certain professions and the need to use foreign labor. Soon everything was the other way around. This was followed by an increased increase in job losses, and the situation on the Slovak labor market remains in a negative state for a longer time.

Reviews *** doc. RNDr. Milan Šimek, PhD., Ostrava*** The topic is conceived and processed in a very interesting way. In this context, I appreciate the non-traditional approach chosen. The author used different types of sources and tried to cover individual areas of the researched issue. I consider the use of this approach very successful. The work is also notable for its breadth of coverage.

prof. JUDr. Vojtech Tkáč, CSc., Košice In terms of competence, the author is an extremely recognized expert not only in Slovakia, but also in relation to all relevant international organizations, especially the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, the Council of Europe, the European Union and international organizations in the field of social work. His international experience and knowledge were reflected in the publication, which in several cases brings new perspectives on the issue of human rights, work and business, and employment/unemployment for the first time in our country.

The publication is "charged" with information, presented in an understandable form. It is written easily, so the reader will find not only a lot of information, but also materials for preparing for individual forms of teaching, for seminars, consultations, for state final exams, for doctoral studies, as well as for writing final theses, not only in the field of social work.

Doc. PaedDr. Peter Jusko, PhD., Banská Bystrica I positively assess that the author also undertook to process the difficult and reflective issue of social work in this area. The positive aspects of the parts of the text focused in this way include the emphasis on the consultation skills of social counselors working in the field of work with the unemployed, the inclusion of the little-processed issue of the work potential of social work, and the evaluation of the importance of social work in solving unemployment in a wider, societal context.

The entire text is "interwoven" with a lot of interesting and little published information, individual statements are documented with relevant statistical indicators and illustrated with tabular and graphical representations of relevant data.

CONTENT

  1. WORK, ITS MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING

  2. THE RIGHT TO WORK

  3. EMPLOYMENT POLICY

  4. LABOR MARKET 4.1. Liberal approach 4.2. Keynesianism 4.3. Monetarism (neoliberalism) 4.4. Marxism

  5. UNEMPLOYMENT 5.1. Causes of unemployment 5.2. Forms of unemployment 5.3. Unemployment rate 5.4. Unemployment support

  6. EMPLOYMENT POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

  7. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 7.1. Employment situation 7.2. Social protection 7.3. Political tools 7.4. Legal instruments 7.5. Financial instruments 7.6. Next steps

  8. ACCESS TO THE LABOR MARKET IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC 8.1. Public employment services 8.2. Legal establishment of employment services 8.3. State administration bodies in the field of employment services

  9. WORKING WITH THE UNEMPLOYED 9.1. Counseling for the unemployed 9.2. Consulting skills of advisors 9.3. Verbal and non-verbal communication

  10. CONSULTANCY PROCESS

  11. ASSISTANCE IN SEARCHING FOR EMPLOYMENT

  12. SOCIAL EXCLUSION 12.1. Functional literacy 12.2. Work with the target group

  13. LABOR MARKET REQUIREMENTS

  14. MANAGEMENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT

  15. SOCIAL ECONOMY 15.1. Social economy and social market economy 15.2. Social enterprises 15.3. The importance of social economy 15.4. Social business and socially responsible business

  16. WORK POTENTIAL OF SOCIAL WORK

  17. UNEMPLOYMENT – PROBLEM AND SUCCESS 17.1. Unemployment as a standard situation 17.2. Non-employment stress 17.3. Consequences of unemployment 17.4. Help when you lose your job 17.5. Social work and unemployment

Title: Employment and social work (Selected problems of work and unemployment for social workers) © Author: doc. RNDr. Miloslav Hetteš, CSc.

Reviewers: prof. JUDr. Vojtech Tkáč, CSc. doc. PaedDr. Peter Jusko, PhD. doc. RNDr. Milan Šimek, PhD. Publisher: University of Health and Social Work St. Elizabeth, Bratislava Release year: 2013 Quantity: 300 pieces Number of pages: 130 ISBN 978-80-8132-089-7