Online event

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Beyond the data - Uncovering persistent inequalities in European working conditions

Eurofound organised an interactive webinar looking at the first findings of its European Working Conditions Survey 2024, with a live Q&A, on 24 September 2025.

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Beyond the data - Uncovering persistent inequalities in European working conditions
When?

Wednesday, 24 September 2025

Irish local time

Start

15:00

End

16:00

Brussels time

Start

16:00

End

17:00

Organised by
Eurofound

Watch the webinar

About the debate

The first findings from Eurofound’s pan-European Working Conditions Survey 2024, published at the beginning of September 2025, showed significant improvements in job quality over the past decade but also highlighted stark inequalities between women and men, as well as radically different situations for workers in different parts of Europe.  

Based on interviews with over 36,000 workers across 35 countries, the flagship survey points to positive shifts in areas like working hours and skill development, but not everyone is benefitting equally. For example, women face deteriorating standards in areas such social environment and work intensity, and gender gaps persist in job security and career prospects. 

In addition, the workforce is grappling with new and persistent health challenges and divergent approaches to the technological change reshaping workplaces across the EU. 

In this webinar, Mary McCaughey, Head of Information and Communication, spoke with Barbara Gerstenberger, Head of Unit for Working Life, about how working conditions are changing in Europe post-pandemic, who is gaining the most and who potentially is losing out, and whether workers are benefitting from the rapid technological change seen over the past decade. 

This is a unique opportunity for you to ask questions about the survey and engage with our experts. The event has been livestreamed exclusively on the Livestorm platform, but you can watch the full recording below.


Image © Jacob Lund/Adobe Stock

Agenda

Speakers

Mary McCaughey

Head of Information & Communication
Moderator

Mary McCaughey is Head of Information and Communication in Eurofound. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the College of Europe, Bruges, she started work in Brussels with Europolitics and the Wall Street Journal Europe. She worked with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) in South Africa during the country’s transition to democracy, and in 1998 she took up the post of spokesperson with the Delegation of the European Union in Pretoria, heading up its press and information department during the negotiation of the EU–South Africa free trade agreement. Following the end of the Kosovo War, she worked as a communications consultant for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Serbia. She took up the post of Editor-in-Chief in Eurofound in 2003.

Barbara Gerstenberger

Head of Working Life unit
Speaker

Barbara Gerstenberger is Head of the Working Life unit at Eurofound. In this role, she coordinates the research teams investigating job quality in Europe based on the European Working Conditions Survey and industrial relations in the EU. She joined Eurofound in 2001 as a research manager in the then newly established European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). In 2007, she moved to Eurofound’s Information and Communication unit as Head of Communication Products, before being appointed Coordinator in the Directorate in 2011. Previously, she worked as senior research officer in the European Metalworkers’ Federation in Brussels. A graduate in political science from Hamburg University, she completed a Master's degree in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

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This episode examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). This survey series offers a granular perspective on the longitudinal shifts in European labour.The discussion assesses how artificial intelligence and digitalisation are reshaping employment, drawing parallels with historical industrial shifts, while acknowledging the continuous adaptive capacity of the world of work.

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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies