Seniority is decisive redundancy selection criterion (WoL, V2)
| Quick info | |
|---|---|
| Data type | Numeric |
| Scale | Metric |
| Value labels | Not applicable in the strict sense since the scale is quasi-metric, but for coding the following values were used for orientation:
Seniority is
Further gradations between 0 and 1 reflect changes in the strength of the law. |
| Technical name | labor_priv_sen_sel |
| Category | Labour and labour market |
| Label | Seniority is a decisive redundancy selection criterion |
| Related indicators | |
This WoL indicator measures whether a social selection is made in the event of redundancies for operational reasons and whether length of service is a factor to be taken into account in such a selection.
Labour law not only protects, but also segments, by privileging the standard employment relationship through higher standards of protection. The standard employment relationship is the classic model of the permanent, full-time employee with long-term employment with one employer. Other forms of work – part-time, temporary agency work, work under a fixed-term contract, frequent changes of employee – receive less protection, even though the employment relationships in which they are found already inherently entail greater social risks. This leads to a further disadvantage for employees who are already in a precarious position.
Length of service is a common factor used for prioritisation. However, the purpose of prioritisation is not to protect older employees, who are assumed to have a harder time finding a new job – after all, the prioritisation of length of service is almost always capped after about ten years. The situation of employees who have to change employers frequently is socially more precarious than that of those with many years of service. The purpose of prioritisation is thus apparently not to provide special protection, but to cement the standard employment relationship.
Employees are existentially dependent on the income from their employment relationship, so termination of this by the employer also means the termination of the employee's ability to make a living. However, redundancies for operational reasons are not individually but economically justified, so the question arises as to which employee will be made redundant. If the law defines criteria that take into account special protection needs and on the basis of which the employer has to make a social selection when determining the order of redundancies, the arbitrary determination of redundancies is taken away from the employer.
Coding rules
Equals 1 if seniority is the only legally set factor to be taken into account for selection; equals 0.5 if seniority is one factor among several for selection; equals 0 if seniority is not to be taken into account for selection or if there is no selection regulation at all. Scope for further gradations between 0 and 1 to reflect changes in the strength of the statutory law.
For detailed coding rules, please consult Fechner/Carlino 2025.
Bibliographic info
Citation: Fechner, Heiner and Marina Carlino (2025). Worlds of Labour (WoL) Leximetric Dataset. University of Bremen.
Related publications:- Mückenberger, Ulrich, 1985. "Die Krise des Normalarbeitsverhältnisses - Hat das Arbeitsrecht noch Zukunft?" Zeitschrift für Sozialreform 31: 415-434; 457-475
- Mückenberger, Ulrich, and Simon Deakin. 1989. "From Deregulation to a European Floor of Rights: Labour Law, Flexibilisation and the European Single Market." Zeitschrift Für Ausländisches Und Internationales Arbeits- Und Sozialrecht 3: 153–207.
- Carlino, M., Fechner, H., & Schäfer, A. (2024). Using leximetrics for coding legal segmentation in employment law: The development and potential of the Worlds of Labour database. In I. Dingeldey, H. Fechner, & U. Mückenberger (Eds.), Constructing Worlds of Labour. Coverage and Generosity of Labour Law as Outcomes of Regulatory Social Policy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Misc
Project manager(s):
Responsible for data coding: Heiner Fechner (2018-2025)
Responsible for data editing and entry: Heiner Fechner (2024-2025), Andrea Schäfer (2021-2025), Jean-Yves Gerlitz (2018-2020)
Principal Investigators: Irene Dingeldey, Ulrich Mückenberger
Student assistants (2018-2025): Julia Bode, Jessica Bonn, Daniel Euler, Maxime Fischer, Jan-Christopher Floren, Jennifer Götte, Désirée Hoppe, Irina Kyburz, Alexandra Kojnow, Tarek Mahmalat, Karolin Meyer, Johanna Nold, Tanusha Pali, Johannes Ramsauer, Max Sudhoff, Kristina Walter, Caroline Zambiasi.
- Version 0.001: Initial release
Revisions: No revisions yet.
This is the first version of the dataset of the thoroughly revised Version 2 WoL template; for the first time, all variables including those originally stemming from CBR-LRI have been coded/revised under WoL criteria. A preliminary version with compiled data (CBR-LRI and WoL) has been published in WeSIS marked by "CBR-LRI-based" and "WoL, V1".
Sources
Own coding.
Fechner, Heiner, and Marina Carlino (2025). Coding Legal Segmentation in Employment Law. The Worlds of Labour (WoL) Dataset. SFB 1342 Technical Paper Series, 22. Bremen: SFB 1342. https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/4191
