DISLOCATED WORKER

An employee who has lost a job because of technological change or skill obsolescence, a plant closing or relocation, a company merger or reorganization, or the impact of imports.

"Globalisation can result in increasing inequality (relative poverty) and be associated with labour conditions which ‘use up' the capabilities of the poor, by depleting health in poor working conditions, for example. Investment attracted by low wages alone can leave as quickly as it materialised, leaving dislocated workers and structural unemployment in its wake. Women in Kenya and South Africa, making handicrafts and/or textiles and clothing, are finding their jobs being destroyed by cheaper imports from Asia. Women in South Korea are finding clothing jobs being lost as South Korean firms relocate to cheaper areas of Asia."
(Keller-Herzog, A., Globalisation and Gender. Development Perspectives and Interventions, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), 1996, visited 2009-06-17)

"Nationally, the number of jobs lost due to displacement has increased significantly since the late 1990s. From 1997 to 1999, 3.3 million workers lost jobs, but from 2001 to 2003 the number had increased to 5.3 million. Over the entire six year period more than 9.3 million workers were displaced. The rate of displacement – that is, the share of displaced workers relative to the workforce as a whole – went from 2.4 percent in the 1997 to 1999 period to 4.0 percent in the 2001 to 2003 period. It increased across all categories – gender, race, age, education, and household type. One-third of all jobs lost due to displacement in the 2001 to 2003 period were in manufacturing."
(Glasmeier, A. and P. Salant, Low-Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss, Carsey Institute, 2006, visited 2009-06-17)

"A worker is considered displaced if he or she loses a job held for at least three years because a company moves, a plant closes, work slacks off, or a job is eliminated. Job loss caused by displacement reflects changes in the industrial make-up of the economy, rather than ordinary economic cycles or temporary unemployment. Workers who are displaced are not expected to regain their previous jobs."
(Glasmeier, A. and P. Salant, Low-Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss, Carsey Institute, 2006, visited 2009-06-17)

Worker displacement in general, as well as displacement caused by plant closings in particular, is a common phenomenon and has a number of causes. Causes can include employer responses to economic concerns such as changes in factor prices, changes in market demand, import penetration, overcapacity, plants reaching the end of their useful life, new technology requiring new plant design, or changes in public policy such as cutbacks in a heavily government-funded industry.

Workers who are displaced are often unemployed for long periods of time, and when they do find a new job it is often at a lower wage. Workers also lose their fringe benefits when they are displaced, along with the seniority and other benefits that come with long tenure in a job.

The existence of a safety net to help workers who are displaced because of plant closings can be crucial to help ease their adjustment burden and their reintegration into the labour market. Although several federal, state, and provincial adjustment programs exist, many workers, for various reasons, never avail themselves of these programs.
(adapted from Commission for Labor Cooperation, Economic and Social Context, 2004-2006, visited 2009-06-17)

"Unions seek to safeguard workers against job loss through preservation clauses, transfer rights, early retirement plans, and advance notice of plant shutdowns."
(Roberts, H., S., Roberts' Dictionary of Industrial Relations, 4th edition, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1994)