TOWARDS A NEW MOBILE MANAGEMENT ELITE FOR CONSTRUCTION IN EUROPE

By its very nature construction work is not a stationary kind of work. Thus employees in construction industry are used to being forced to pursue their work even at sites which are situated at longer or shorter distance from their place of residence. The money which they receive - at least under normal circumstances - as compensation for the burdens connected with this still represents a part of their income which is not to be underestimated. For some it might even constitute part of the attractiveness of the job. In the long-run this money does not, however, compensate for the resulting strain on their health, the expenditure in time, or the impairment of their family life and of the participation in social activities. Before the completion of the Single Market a general increase in the mobility of employees had been expected (Albert 1985 pp 129-30). For the employees in construction this could have meant that a state of affairs which at present is already stressful would have become insufferable. In the mean time these apprehensions have been diminished by differentiation - today we observe three quite different developments. Obviously quite obsolete is the expectation that with the internationalisation of construction activities the workforce of big construction enterprises (and in their wake that of small and medium-sized companies) would in future have to prepare for pursuing their work at construction sites all over Europe. For different reasons the posting of labour in this category is the exception. Against this there are considerations of costs as well as the availability of qualified labour for construction site activities at places in the European countries in which large construction projects of European dimensions are set up. In this situation little change may be expected in the foreseeable future. By now threats to the employees in these categories have emerged from quite different quarters. Of course the world-wide increase in economic problems and political instability has not passed Europe by. In consequence there has occurred an upswing in border-crossing labour migration, often more than on average aimed at construction sites. Construction companies and migrants meet in their complementary interests of low costs for construction work on the one hand and of a payment on the other which - be it ever so low - still secures subsistence for the worker and his family. Government regulations fall short of success. The ones who suffer are the construction workers forced into competitive conditions under which they can only lose. More professional opportunities than before are offered by the general development to cadres of managing staff as well as technical and commercial experts who take a leading role in construction projects. The increase in companies border-crossing construction activities and the execution of construction orders in international joint ventures imposes higher demands on them - especially on their mobility - but at the same time offers them new professional, social and cultural chances as well. Construction enterprises are dependent on them, if they want to be active across borders and want to acquire construction projects on foreign markets or execute them in joint ventures. On the one hand the development of the qualifications required for this will be the task of the companies which want to participate in the competition on foreign markets. Yet on the other hand it will depend on the employees themselves whether they make use of these opportunities. The chances, anyway, are good for a new category of labour, which as a mobile and qualified elite will ensure the success of construction projects in an ever more integrated Europe.