Quality of work
Promoting quality of work is a key part of the Foundation's work. It drives forward the agenda for research into working conditions and was the main subject of the first Foundation paper, Quality of work and employment: issues and challenges.
In the present context of tougher worldwide competition, Europe needs to focus on the quality of the jobs it offers, to give itself an edge over its competitors. The European summit in Laeken called attention to the close links between quality of work and productivity.
One of the challenges in the European debate is to arrive at a definition of what constitutes job and employment quality. The next task will be to select the indicators required for measuring progress in this area. The Foundation has been making a contribution to these issues since the early 1990s.
It did so first by initiating surveys on working conditions (1990, 1995, 2000/2001, 2005), the purpose of which was to provide an inventory of working conditions in Europe and to enable changes and trends affecting work to be measured.
Subsequently, it embarked on a more global analysis of job quality indicators, which resulted in the creation, at the request of the Belgian Government, of a working group responsible for a report on quality of work and employment indicators.
A recently concluded Foundation project 'Attractive workplace for all: A contribution to the Lisbon Strategy at company level' looked at pioneer company practices, policies and agreements and showing how the Lisbon strategy is being implemented on the ground at company level.