Mary McCaughey

Siden lanceringen i 1990 har European Working Conditions Survey givet et omfattende overblik over arbejdsvilkårene i Europa. EWCS 2024 hævder, at det europæiske arbejdsmarked er i en overgangsfase, hvilket peger på et fald i lange arbejdstider og ujævne forbedringer i jobkvaliteten. I dette afsnit af Eurofound Talks inviterer Mary McCaughey Senior Research Manager Agnès Parent-Thirion til at tale om undersøgelsen bag overskrifterne og det arbejde, der ligger bag den.

Den Europæiske Union navigerer gennem en periode med dybtgående forandringer – fra leveomkostningskrisen til grønne og digitale overgange, demografiske skift og geopolitisk usikkerhed. I hjertet af EU's svar på disse udfordringer står Europa-Parlamentets Udvalg for Beskæftigelse og Sociale Anliggender. Med 60 medlemmer spiller udvalget en central rolle i at sikre retfærdige arbejdsvilkår, stærk social beskyttelse og lige muligheder i hele unionen.

Mental sundhed i Europa står ved en kritisk skillevej. Mens nogle indikatorer er blevet bedre siden pandemien, afslører en ny Eurofound-rapport bekymrende tendenser, herunder et alarmerende stop for det årtier lange fald i selvmordsraten. I denne episode af Eurofound Talks taler Mary McCaughey med senior research manager Hans Dubois om dette komplekse problem og fremhæver, at dårlig mental sundhed påvirker sårbare grupper uforholdsmæssigt meget.

Mental sundhed i Europa står ved en kritisk skillevej. Mens nogle indikatorer er blevet bedre siden pandemien, afslører en ny Eurofound-rapport bekymrende tendenser, herunder et alarmerende stop for det årtier lange fald i selvmordsraten. I denne episode af Eurofound Talks taler Mary McCaughey med senior research manager Hans Dubois om dette komplekse problem og fremhæver, at dårlig mental sundhed påvirker sårbare grupper uforholdsmæssigt meget.

Mental sundhed i Europa står ved en kritisk skillevej. Mens nogle indikatorer er blevet bedre siden pandemien, afslører en ny Eurofound-rapport bekymrende tendenser, herunder et alarmerende stop for det årtier lange fald i selvmordsraten. I denne episode af Eurofound Talks taler Mary McCaughey med senior research manager Hans Dubois om dette komplekse problem og fremhæver, at dårlig mental sundhed påvirker sårbare grupper uforholdsmæssigt meget.

Mental sundhed i Europa står ved en kritisk skillevej. Mens nogle indikatorer er blevet bedre siden pandemien, afslører en ny Eurofound-rapport bekymrende tendenser, herunder et alarmerende stop for det årtier lange fald i selvmordsraten. I denne episode af Eurofound Talks taler Mary McCaughey med senior research manager Hans Dubois om dette komplekse problem og fremhæver, at dårlig mental sundhed påvirker sårbare grupper uforholdsmæssigt meget.

I denne episode sætter Mary McCaughey sig ned med Eurofound-ekspert Carlos Vacas Soriano for at undersøge, hvordan mindstelønningerne har ændret sig i Europa i løbet af det seneste år, samt konsekvenserne af disse ændringer. Lytterne opfordres til at dykke ned i de indviklede detaljer i Europas mindstelønsdynamik og de faktorer, der driver disse ændringer. Samtalen kaster også lys over de bredere implikationer af ændringer i mindstelønnen for indkomstuligheder og ligestilling mellem kønnene.

Denne særlige episode af Eurofound Talks, der er optaget i anledning af den internationale kvindedag 2025, ser på kvinders fremskridt på arbejdsmarkedet og i samfundet i løbet af de seneste fem årtier samt på vejen til ligestilling mellem kønnene i Europa, navnlig i forbindelse med kønsbestemte beskæftigelses- og lønforskelle. Eurofounds kontorchef for information og kommunikation, Mary McCaughey, taler med Maria Jepsen, vicedirektør for Eurofound, og Carlien Scheele, direktør for Det Europæiske Institut for Ligestilling mellem Mænd og Kvinder (EIGE).

I denne episode af Eurofound Talks-podcasten taler Mary McCaughey med Eurofounds vicedirektør Maria Jepsen og Barry Colfer, forskningsdirektør ved Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), om europæiske sociale forandringer i løbet af de sidste 50 år, Eurofounds rolle i disse forandringer, hvordan Irland selv har udviklet sig og ændret sig, og de udfordringer, der i øjeblikket er i horisonten.

I løbet af det sidste årti har informations- og kommunikationsteknologier ændret den måde, medarbejderne arbejder og kommunikerer med hinanden på. Selv om digitaliseringen af arbejdet giver mange fordele, har udbredt adgang til digitale enheder i arbejdslivet skabt grobund for fremkomsten af nye former for asocial adfærd, herunder cybermobning på arbejdspladsen. I denne episode af Eurofound Talks taler Mary McCaughey med Eurofounds Senior Research Manager Sara Riso om, hvad cybermobning er, hvor udbredt problemet med cybermobning på arbejdspladsen er, og om der er tilstrækkelig lovgivning og regler på arbejdspladsen til at håndtere det effektivt. De diskuterer, hvordan mobning og cybermobning er dukket op som fremtrædende emner i nationale politiske debatter, primært som problemer, der påvirker unge, snarere end som et mere generelt fænomen på arbejdspladsen og skadeligt for arbejdstagernes trivsel. Uanset om det er online eller ansigt til ansigt – det ser ud til, at mobning på arbejdspladsen er mere udbredt end almindeligt anerkendt.

I sine politiske retningslinjer for den kommende Europa-Kommission, der blev offentliggjort i juli, skitserede den tilbagevendende formand, Ursula von der Leyen, ambitiøse forslag for den næste femårige europæiske valgperiode. De omfattede udnævnelsen af det første medlem af Kommissionen, hvis ansvarsområder vil omfatte boliger, samt den første europæiske bolig til overkommelige priser nogensinde, Plan.In denne episode af Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey taler med Eurofounds seniorforskningschef Hans Dubois om den seneste udvikling inden for bolig- og boligpolitik i Europa. Dette andet afsnit af serien, der specifikt ser på boliger, diskuterer den kommende Kommissions rolle, hvad Eurofounds forskning kan bidrage med, og de forskellige politiske værktøjer, der kræves.

Mary McCaughey taler med Eurofounds forskningschef Carlos Vacas om middelklassens situation i Europa. De ser på udviklingen i de seneste to årtier, betydningen af tilstrækkelig indkomst og lighed i udviklingen af en robust middelklasse i Europa, velfærdsstatens indflydelse samt familiens underspillede rolle.

In a special edition of Eurofound Talks, Mary McCaughey is joined by Eurofound Executive Director Ivailo Kalfin and Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, to look at the political, social and economic drivers in Europe and how they might influence voters at the ballot box in the European Parliament elections on 6-9 June 2024.

In this episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Research Manager Daniel Molinuevo about the European Child Guarantee, how bad the situation is with regard to child poverty and social exclusion in Europe, what Member States have committed to doing about it, what the implications are for workers and civil society, and what prospects there are for the future.Fighting child poverty has become a central dimension of EU social policy. One of the European Commission’s flagship social policy initiatives is the European Child Guarantee: established in 2021 by Council Recommendation, the aim of the Guarantee is to tackle child poverty by ensuring access to key services (such as healthcare) and resources (such as decent housing) for children in need – defined as children at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

In this special episode of Eurofound Talks for International Women's Day 2024, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound researchers Carlos Vacas and Barbara Gerstenberger about the gender pay and employment gaps in Europe.Despite gender equality being a core principle of the EU, women are less likely to be in employment than men in all EU Member States and are paid less than men in almost every Member State, with the pay gap larger in higher paying jobs. Mary, Carlos, and Barbara discuss what progress has been made on these issues in recent years, the broader consequences of gender inequalities in the world of work, and the challenges that must be addressed if Europe is to meet gender equality targets.

Climate change objectives and decarbonisation measures are vital for the future of Europe. But how will these objectives impact employment and the labour market? In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast series, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Senior Research Manager John Hurley about new research which shows a marginal increase in net employment from EU decarbonisation measures, but also potentially broad shifts in the labour market that could have a profound impact in several areas.

In this episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Research Manager Tina Weber, Eurofound Senior Research Manager Gijs van Houten, and Giovanni Russo, Senior Expert at CEDEFOP, about Europe’s skills challenges and what can be done to help workers and businesses adapt to future skills demands.

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, recorded for International Women's Day 2023, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Working Life researchers Jorge Cabrita and Viginta Ivaškaitė-Tamošiūnė about how, when paid and unpaid work are combined, women do eight full-time weeks more work than men per year, and the broader implications of this for society. They also discuss how indicators of work-life balance and work-life conflict differ for women and men, as well as the policy action that can be taken to improve gender equality in Europe.

The COVID-19 pandemic had profound implications on the labour market and job quality in Europe, with some workers, particularly those providing frontline services, continuing to work from the workplace under heavy restrictions, while others worked from home also in radically different environments from which they were accustomed. Eurofound has been closely monitoring working conditions in Europe for over 30 years via the European Working Conditions Survey; in 2021, the Agency conducted the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), providing a detailed picture of the working lives of Europeans at an exceptional time. In this episode of Eurofound Talks, Eurofound Head of Unit for Working Life Barbara Gerstenberger discusses what the EWCTS reveals about job quality, the implications of poor-quality jobs on well-being and broader society, and what policymakers can do to improve the working lives of people in Europe.

Now that Europe moves beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, it is faced with a dilemma. Telework has worked well for many over the past few years, helped them reconcile work and family life, and brought greater autonomy and flexibility; but for others almost the opposite has been the case, with greater work intensification, longer working hours, and greater exposure to psychosocial risks. Is it time to get back to the office? Is telework here to stay? Is hybrid work the solution? In this episode of Eurofound Talks Oscar Vargas and Mary McCaughey use results from the Living, working and COVID-19 online surveys, the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey, and other analyses from Eurofound to investigate what the future holds for telework in Europe, whether the mass rollout of telework has been to the benefit of workers and businesses, and whether the teleworkability of jobs will become the key issue on the labour market in years to come.

In this episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with researcher Dragoș Adăscăliței about how platform work has developed over the past two decades, the profile of platform workers in Europe, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the development of platform work, the opportunities and risks platform work presents for workers, and how to protect platform workers while preserving the opportunities and benefits that are generated by the platform economy.

Minimum wages and minimum wage setting processes are not just issues of high political importance in Europe, but also everyday concerns for low-wage earners throughout the EU. In this episode of Eurofound Talks we speak with Senior Research Manager Christine Aumayr-Pintar on the importance of minimum wages in the EU, different processes in place, the latest EU developments in ensuring adequate minimum wages, and the growing issue of inflation for low-wage earners.

During his visit to Dublin, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit talks about using the European Pillar of Social Rights to make Europe a better, fairer, greener and more digital place to live and work. War had just commenced in Ukraine but we were hopeful of a solution. In the intervening period, however, things have deteriorated across a range of areas as revealed by the most recent results from Eurofound’s unique pan-European Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey.

New day, new data highlighting the devastating impact of COVID-19 on young people across the European Union – most recently Eurofound’s unique pan-European Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey. We know this has taken an unprecedented toll on young people particularly – their mental well-being, their independence and more broadly, inter-generational solidarity as a whole. This podcast drills down to what it means to be a young person in Europe today, their lives, work, opportunities and challenges in the European Year of Youth.

Never before have we had so much discussion about the way we work, the future of work and how this will impact our lives and those of the next generation. COVID-19 turned everything upside down as we have seen from the results of our unique pan-European Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey and we are still striving to make sense of the new hybrid, blended work experience. Will this in fact mean we can finally work longer and better while still maintaining a good quality of life? This podcast takes a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges associated with what we call ‘sustainable work’.