Europäische Stiftung zur Verbesserung der Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen
Die dreigliedrige Agentur der Europäischen Union Eurofound unterstützt die Entwicklung besserer sozial-, beschäftigungs- und arbeitsmarktpolitischer Maßnahmen durch die Bereitstellung von Wissen
Die dreigliedrige Agentur der Europäischen Union Eurofound unterstützt die Entwicklung besserer sozial-, beschäftigungs- und arbeitsmarktpolitischer Maßnahmen durch die Bereitstellung von Wissen
Eurofound publishes its work in a range of publication formats to match audience needs and the nature of the output. These include flagship reports on a particular area of activity, research reports summarising the findings of a research project and policy briefs presenting policy pointers from
research projects or facts and figures relevant to policy debates. Also included are blog articles, regular articleson working life in Europe, presentations, working papers providing background material to ongoing or already concluded research, and reports arising from ad hoc requests by policymakers. Other corporate publications include annual reports, brochures and promotional publications. Web databases and online resources such as data visualisation applications are available in Data and resources.
At present, the government is aiming to increase Malta’s female employment
rate, from 32.8% to 41% by 2010. In recent years, a number of policies and
strategies have been introduced in an effort to reach this goal, such as the
promotion of childcare services as well as the reduction of taxes and
national insurance contributions.
The Institute of Labour of the Greek General Confederation of Labour
(INE/GSEE [1]) and Confederation of Public Servants (ADEDY [2]) has published
a study recording employment trends based on a division into permanent and
temporary employment in the broader public and private sector of the economy
during the period between 1999 and 2006. The data are taken from the second
quarter of the annual Labour Force Survey of the National Statistical Service
of Greece (Εθνική Στατιστική Υπηρεσία της
Ελλάδος, ESYE [3]).
[1] http://www.inegsee.gr/
[2] http://www.adedy.gr
[3] http://www.statistics.gr/
In recent years, several studies on the work environment have been carried
out by the Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket, WEA [1]) based on
interviews and reported cases of work-related diseases: Work-related
disorders 2006 (in Swedish) [2], Occupational accidents and work-related
diseases 2004 (in Swedish, 2.4Mb PDF) [3], The work environment 2003 (in
Swedish) [4]. The studies reveal that social workers report twice as many
work-related disorders than average, such as physical or psychological
problems caused by carrying out tasks that reduce the ability to work at the
workplace or in the household. This finding may be partly due to
higher-than-average exposure to psychosocial risk factors among this
occupational group, such as violence, threats or heavy workload. According to
the studies, not only do work-related disorders affect twice as many social
workers compared with other occupational groups, social workers are also
over-represented by about 39% in the category of workers most affected by
mental strain.
[1] http://www.av.se/
[2] http://www.av.se/statistik/officiellt/arbetsorsakade_besvar_2006.aspx
[3] http://www.av.se/dokument/statistik/officiell_stat/STAT2006_01.pdf
[4] http://www.av.se/arkiv/arkiv_statistik/arbetsmiljon_2003.aspx
The Fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) was conducted in the autumn of 2005 in 31 countries. An identical questionnaire, translated into the respective languages, was used across all the countries. Extensive quality control processes were undertaken not only in the preparatory phase but also during the data collection and processing stages. As one of these quality control measures, the Foundation decided to implement, for the first time, a qualitative post-test analysison the EWCS, thus combining qualitative methods with quantitative survey research. This post-test analysis was carried out in five countries representing different European realities: Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Portugal and the UK. In each of these countries, 20 survey respondents were interviewed.
The concept of ‘gazelle companies’ was first devised by the American
scientist David Birch in the 1980s, describing small, fast growing companies
that create many new job opportunities. They usually refer to companies with
annual sales revenue that has grown 20 percent or more for four straight
years. At this time, a large proportion of the American economic development
and increase in employment was created by a few high-achieving small flexible
enterprises. These companies were named ‘gazelles’ as opposed to the
large rigid ‘elephants’ and small defensive ‘mice’. As documented in
a Dagens Industri newspaper article (in Swedish) [1], a gazelle company must
meet the following criteria:
[1] http://di.se/Nyheter/?page=/Avdelningar/Gasell.aspx?gasellWhat=about&smallscreen=0
On 29 November 2007, the German coalition government – comprising the
conservative Christian Democratic Party (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU
[1]), its Bavarian associate party the Christian Social Union
(Christlich-Soziale Union, CSU [2]) and the Social Democratic Party
(Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD [3]) – announced its decision
to introduce a minimum wage for the postal services sector, with effect from
January 2008. This will be enabled by the inclusion of mail delivery services
in the Posted Workers Act; it is expected that the decision will be endorsed
by the two chambers of the German parliament before the end of 2007. In the
EU, Germany represents an unusual case as it does not have a statutory
national minimum wage. Instead, the government can set minimum wages on a
case-by-case basis for individual industry sectors by including these sectors
in the Posted Workers Act (*DE0710019I* [4]).
[1] http://www.cdu.de/
[2] http://www.csu.de/
[3] http://www.spd.de/menu/-1/
[4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/minimum-wages-extended-to-workers-in-six-sectors-under-posted-workers-act
The increased pressure being mounted by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions
(ICTU [1]) for temporary agency worker rights coincides with the failure of
EU ministers to reach agreement on the temporary agency workers’ directive
on 5 December 2007. However, the proposed directive could still be back on
the agenda sometime in 2008.
[1] http://www.ictu.ie/
In 2006, the International Research Institutes (IriS [1]), an international
association of market research companies, carried out a survey on work-life
balance [2] in 24 countries, including Portugal; see below for further
details about the survey methodology. The main objectives of the study were
to:
[1] http://www.irisnetwork.org/
[2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/worklife-balance-0
Casting the spotlight on the gender dimension in the workplace inevitably leads to an exploration of the different gendered elements of the experience of work in Europe. With this aim in mind, this paper will draw from the findings of the report Gender and working conditions in the European Union (Burchell et al, 2007). In turn, this report is based on secondary analysis of the data from the Foundation’s fourth European Working Conditions Survey, as well as on recently published research from the Eurofound’s observatories – the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO) and the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO).
MEMBER OF THE NETWORK OF EU AGENCIES
Eurofound ist eine Agentur der Europäischen Union