Communiqué, issue 4, 2003
Articles
- An abrupt halt to a brilliant career
- Monitoring industrial change in Europe
- Time for European-level workplace privacy regulation
- Northern Europeans most satisfied with leisure time
- Towards better living and working conditions in Europe
- Planning for the future
- Win-win effect possible with new working time arrangements
- Track record in monitoring working conditions
Previous issues of Communiqué
Pascal Paoli, research coordinator of the Working Conditions team, bids farewell to the Foundation after 17 years. His legacy is the working conditions survey, a unique monitoring tool which has inspired similar surveys around the world.
The Foundation’s method of monitoring working conditions in the European Union and the acceding and candidate countries is now used by government agencies in the European Union (notably Italy and Spain), Australia, Canada, and USA, as well as by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
‘We established the monitoring tool to map the current situation and keep an eye on developments in working conditions in Europe,’ says Pascal Paoli. ‘It is a unique source of information which we regularly use for primary and secondary analysis in our work.’
Changing face of working conditions
While working conditions in general and quality of work and employment in particular is high on today’s social policy agenda in the EU, this has not always been the case. During the 1980s and well into the 1990s, with the increasing use of technology and job creation in the fast-growing services industries, European socio-economic policymakers focused on other issues as they perceived the problem of poor working conditions as solved. However, the Lisbon Summit with its employment goals for Europe by 2010 has put the emphasis firmly back on this area again.
‘We have worked steadily since the early 1990s to put quality of work and employment back on the agenda,’ says Pascal Paoli.
Popular information source
A combination of current political focus across Europe and sound research and analysis over the past three years meant that reports originating from the working conditions team have been among the most downloaded publications on the Foundation’s website EuroFound.
‘I like to believe it shows that we produce reports on issues that are current and important to policymakers,’ comments Pascal Paoli.
Pastures new
Pascal Paoli leaves the Foundation to take up the post of programme manager for the Working Environment unit at the Foundation’s sister organisation, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in Bilbao, Spain.
‘Working in the Foundation and living in Ireland has been a pleasurable challenge,’ says Pascal Paoli. ‘The Foundation has come a long way since I joined in 1985, with its four research managers, nine translators, and very small administration. I wish it every success.’