Werkclassificatie, een teken aan de wand?

Samenvatting

Job evaluation (JE) is a subject that has not received sufficient attention by sociologists. The problem of evaluation has become a national problem, which makes it desirable that JE becomes normalized. The consequences for the social structure are great. In capitalistic society the idea of a labor market developed more and more, and the factors of demand and supply became decisive for the determination of wages. JE affects a change in this respect. Actually it recalls the more constant wage-relations which were in vogue at the times of the guilds, and it shows supreme interest for the element of justice in wages, because it takes into account other factors besides those of demand and supply: Skill, the strain, responsibility, and the surroundings. It is relevant, from the sociological point of view, that trade, unions express doubts concerning JE. For they lose much of their importance in a situation in which the economic institutions no longer determine wages. Moreover JE does not accentuate the solidarity, but the differences of social groups and might force us to replace the idea of class. H.P.M. Goddijn.