Sustainable work
Sustainable work means achieving living and working conditions that support people in engaging and remaining in work throughout an extended working life. Work must be transformed to eliminate the factors that discourage or hinder workers from staying in or entering the workforce. But also individual circumstances have to be taken into account. Availability for work differs and is likely to change over the life course. The challenge is to match the needs and abilities of the individual with the quality of jobs on offer.
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Employment and working conditions of the most vulnerable workers: Addressing an ongoing policy challenge
Over the past two decades, labour markets across the EU have seen a marked rise in non-standard employment. While such arrangements can offer flexibility and better work–life balance, vulnerability arises when they are involuntary or when multiple non-standard characteristics intersect. This report analyses the prevalence of employment vulnerability across the EU-27 from 2009 to 2021, examining its links to working conditions, health outcomes and policy responses. The findings show that women, young people and migrants face the highest risk, with those experiencing multiple dimensions of vulnerability reporting poorer job prospects, limited training opportunities, less autonomy and higher rates of anxiety and depression. The report also reviews EU and national policy measures aimed at strengthening contractual certainty and supporting transitions to more secure employment.Employment and working conditions of the most vulnerable workers
Over the past two decades, European labour markets have undergone significant transformation, with a marked rise in non-standard forms of employment such as part-time and temporary work. In this episode of Eurofound Talks, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Karel Fric to explore the employment and working conditions of the most vulnerable workers.The never-ending workday in flexible-working Europe
One in five workers across the EU reports being contacted for work-related reasons outside their working hours several times a month. This article explores the links between after-hours contact and the increasing digitalisation of work.Making work sustainable requires:
The multifaceted nature of the sustainable work concept means that it intersects with many key areas of Eurofound’s work. Eurofound has created a framework for understanding the concept of sustainable work, which is used as a reference point for a range of research projects on this topic.
Publication: Sustainable work over the life course: Concept paper
Demographic ageing is one of the driving forces behind the ambition to increase labour force participation. This is reflected in the new 2030 EU headline target on employment proposed in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (at least 78% of the population aged 20–64). With the numbers of retirees rising and the working population declining, social protection systems could become threatened. For social support systems to remain viable as Europe’s population ages, more people need to work and stay in work for longer over their lifetimes.
These goals will be achieved only if workers are in good health, qualified and employable, and motivated to stay in work for longer. Wider societal supports must be in place to enable people to access work and have a good work–life balance. Job quality and the work environment are key components of allowing all workers to remain longer in the labour market. But the interaction between these components and individual circumstances, such as health and motivation to continue working, is also a major factor and needs to be better understood.
At EU level, concerns about the sustainability of pensions, economic growth and labour supply have triggered policy responses to support the goals of longer working lives and later retirement. The main thrust of the European Commission's active ageing policy is helping people to stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible as they age and, where possible, to contribute to the economy and to society.
The European Green Deal is the new European Sustainable Growth Strategy which aims to enable European citizens to benefit from sustainable green transition. This means investing in research and innovation and improving the well-being of people via a path that is just and socially fair, leaving no individual or region behind.
European Commission: The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Planopens in new tab
European Commission: The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA)opens in new tab
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
26 February 2021
Working conditions and sustainable work: An analysis using the job quality framework
This flagship report summarises the key findings of Eurofound’s research on working conditions conducted over the programming period 2017–2020. It maps the progress achieved since 2000 in improving working conditions and examines whether all workers have benefited equally from positive change. It highlights which groups are the most at risk of experiencing poor working conditions and being left behind. Given the changes in the world of work, emerging challenges for good job quality are identified. The report also provides evidence for measures that could lead to the further improvement of work and the achievement of fair working conditions for all in the EU. The analysis shows that, overall, job quality in the EU is improving, if slowly. Not all workers are benefiting to the same extent, however. Furthermore, gender, age and contractual status have a significant bearing on a person’s working conditions. And while digitalisation helps to address some job quality issues, it also creates new challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated trends, reinforcing concerns and highlighting the importance of achieving job quality for all.
2 March 2020
Gender equality at work
Gender inequality at work persists across Europe, despite the long standing attention paid and efforts made to tackle it. This Eurofound report presents a closer look at women’s and men’s working conditions, using data from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and complementing previous Eurofound research on, among other things, working time patterns, work–life balance and workers’ health. Beyond the general differences in the labour market, it highlights many important gaps in men’s and women’s working conditions and job quality which require specific attention. According to the EWCS data, the reduction of gender gaps in those areas showing improvement over the last 5 to 10 years remains limited. European and national strategies aimed at achieving job quality for all, that seek to mainstream gender equality, could help address persistent inequalities between men and women.
17 April 2019
Seniority-based entitlements: Extent, policy debates and research
Seniority systems – schemes that allot improving employment rights or benefits to employees as their length of employment increases – have not been widely studied. This report provides the first comprehensive study comparing the design and spread of seniority-based entitlements (SBEs) in Europe and mapping related policy debates. It is primarily based on contributions from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, covering the 28 EU Member States and Norway, but also presents aggregate seniority-earnings curves for the EU based on data from the Structure of Earnings Survey. The aim of the report is to take stock of the currently existing different types of SBEs in the private and public sectors. It concludes that despite an obvious trend to remove them from regulations or reform them, a substantial amount of such entitlements is here to stay. Paradoxically, countries which have regulations on seniority pay in place tend to have flatter aggregate seniority-earnings curves than countries without such regulations.
21 December 2017
Working conditions of workers of different ages
Demographic change is changing the face of working life across the EU. The increased demand on a shrinking pool of workers to provide for the social needs of an ageing population is leading to increases in the employment rate of older workers and a lengthening of working life. Policy reforms have – on the whole – focused on raising the statutory retirement age and providing financial incentives for older workers to remain in work beyond retirement age. However, a range of other factors also influence workers’ decision to continue working into old age – including health and well-being, work–life balance, career prospects and job security, and working conditions such as autonomy, hours of work and psychosocial aspects of the workplace. This report analyses these factors in depth for the 28 EU Member States, using data from the latest European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS 2015) and in the context of Eurofound’s concept of ‘sustainable work over the life course’.
18 September 2017
Working time patterns for sustainable work
Working time is a recurrent topic of study because the nature of work, its content, the conditions under which it is performed and the labour market itself keep changing. This report provides an overview of the recent evolution of working time duration and organisation in the EU and highlights the most important trends and differences between Member States. Through an in-depth analysis of data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey carried out in 2015, it examines – from a gender and life course perspective – the links between working time patterns, work–life balance and working time preferences, on the one hand, and workers’ health and well-being on the other. Finally, the report explores the extent to which prevailing working conditions and working time patterns in EU Member States are sustainable in the long term.
17 November 2016
Sixth European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report
9 September 2016
Extending working lives through flexible retirement schemes: Partial retirement
Many EU Member States have implemented reforms to improve the sustainability of their pension systems. However, the impact of discouraging early retirement and increasing the pension age on effective retirement ages is limited, as many people are unable or unmotivated to work until pension age. Reduction of working time is one approach to enabling people to work longer than would have been feasible if they continued working full time. But a barrier to reduction of hours is the loss of income. Partial retirement schemes address this barrier by substituting part of the income loss with a partial pension or benefits. This report investigates how partial retirement schemes can contribute to sustainable and adequate pension systems by enabling and motivating people to extend their working lives. It maps schemes at the national and sector levels in the EU and Norway, examines their characteristics and assesses their impact on the extension of working lives. An executive summary is available - see Related content.
27 July 2016
Sustainable work throughout the life course: National policies and strategies
European countries face the challenges of ageing populations supported by shrinking workforces, more precarious types of employment, and in many cases, a decreasing number of jobs in the wake of the economic crisis. As a result, the issue of how to enable more people to participate in the labour market and to continue to do so until an older age has become a key policy issue in all EU Member States. These challenges might be met by adopting an approach to work that puts sustainability at its centre. Sustainable work means that ‘living and working conditions are such that they support people in engaging and remaining in work throughout an extended working life’. This study analyses national policies that help to achieve sustainable work in 10 EU Member States. It looks at how these policies are being implemented, whether they are integrated into a coherent framework, and whether they are complementary or contradictory.
19 June 2015
Sustainable work over the life course: Concept paper
Ageing of the population is likely to threaten the ability of states to finance welfare states and social protection systems in the future. A viable solution is to increase employment rates and to lengthen working life. To achieve this dual goal requires devising new solutions for working conditions and career paths that help workers to retain their physical and mental health, motivation and productivity over an extended working life. In other words, work must be made sustainable over the life course. Identifying and analysing the factors and actions underpinning sustainable work throughout working life is a research priority for Eurofound in the 2013–2016 programming period. This paper sets out to clarify and illuminate Eurofound’s framework for understanding the rather expansive concept of sustainable work. It can be used as a reference point for a range of Eurofound research projects that examine different aspects of sustainable work.
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Barbara Gerstenberger
Head of UnitBarbara 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.
Franz Ferdinand Eiffe
Research managerFranz Eiffe is a research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. He is involved in projects on sustainable work, quantitative analyses and upward convergence in the EU, as well as in the preparation of the fourth European Company Survey. Before joining Eurofound in 2016, he was Head of Unit ‘Analysis’ at Statistics Austria in Vienna and project leader of ‘How is Austria? Measuring wealth and progress beyond GDP’. He holds a PhD in Economics from Vienna University of Economics (WU), where he also worked as research associate from 2005 to 2009 and lecturer until 2016.
This section provides access to all content that has been published on the topic.
