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The scale of undeclared care work (paid care work that is lawful but not declared to public authorities) in the EU is considerable. Recent estimates suggest that 6.8 million undeclared workers provide care or household services across the EU, with 2.1 million specifically in the care sector. Undeclared care workers are predominantly women and often are migrants. They have poor working conditions and limited social protection and are at a heightened risk of exploitation.

This report examines undeclared care work in the EU, its characteristics and the challenges faced by people working in this sector. It briefly describes the complex drivers of undeclared care work and presents a range of policy responses implemented across the EU to tackle it. The findings underscore the need for a comprehensive policy framework that not only addresses immediate enforcement challenges but also tackles structural barriers to formalisation while ensuring good working conditions and social protection for care workers

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.

The debate about the posting of workers in the EU, its economic and social consequences, and ways to manage it is hampered by the fact that reliable, comparable data on the phenomenon are lacking. Accurate statistics on the number of posted workers, their characteristics and working conditions are simply not available. This report maps existing information sources at the European and Member State levels, and identifies the gaps in, and the limitations of, data currently available. The report outlines what kind of data would need to be collected to allow for a better monitoring of the situation of posted workers across Europe, as well as how this information could be collected and what kind of analysis would be possible based on these improved data sources.