Recalls – Flexibility at the Expense or to the Benefit of Employees

Recalls (also known as ‘temporary layoffs’) are used as employment strategy in the German labor market for handling fluctuations in the need of labor. Susanne Edler presents research that reveals that employment relations after recalls are less protected by labor market regulations and more exposed to the competitive market processes than continuously employed workers that grant wage premiums (rents) due to their higher shielding from the competitive labor market. However, compared to other discontinuous employment relations temporary layoffs can be the better alternative since employers as well as employees make use of their transaction-specific investments in human capital and thereby generate ‘composite rents.’