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  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    Luxembourg's Economic and Social Council has recently responded to a
    government request for its opinion, with a view to reforming the Law of 12
    June 1965 relating to collective agreements and of the Grand-Ducal Order of 6
    October 1945 dealing with the National Conciliation Office (Office National
    de Conciliation).

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    A two-year collective agreement was approved by the 225,000 employees in the
    government sector (DK9702103N [1]) and the 662,000 employees in the county
    and municipal bargaining area, offering a 4.25% pay increase, wage adjustment
    schemes, and improved pension and maternity leave provisions. However the
    1997 collective bargaining rounds represented more than adjustments of pay,
    pensions and maternity leave; it was, as the Minister of Finance, Mogens
    Lykketoft said, "a peaceful wage revolution", introducing a more flexible and
    decentralised salary-scale system.

    [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/two-year-collective-agreement-for-government-employees

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    On 7 May, the Dutch Government withdrew a bill that would have allowed
    employers exemptions from paying the statutory national minimum wage [1]
    (NL9702103F [2]). Discussions in Parliament had arrived at a political
    impasse.

    [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/minimum-wage-4
    [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/proposal-to-exempt-long-term-unemployed-people-from-legal-minimum-wage

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    In November 1996, the brewing group Interbrew, the still-expanding leader in
    the market, announced the ending of bottling activities at its Belle Vue
    Brewery in Molenbeek, an industrial district of Brussels. It meant the loss
    of 103 jobs out of 167 in the company's bottling section. Since then,
    management had been negotiating a company plan with the unions to avoid
    redundancies, and an original solution was eventually found and approved in a
    company referendum on 18 April 1997. This solution is based on the terms of a
    legislative measure that had been ratified on 13 March 1997, called the
    Vandelanotte order after the Flemish Socialist minister: it allows companies
    facing difficulties or restructuring to preserve jobs through a reduction of
    working time linked to the reduction of social security contributions over
    two years.

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    On 28 April 1997, the German Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union
    (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) and the
    German White-Collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft, DAG)
    announced the foundation of a new joint subsidiary union for the employees of
    international and European organisations which are located in Germany.
    Through the newly established "International Public Servants Organisation"
    (IPSO), both unions want to create an effective interest representation for
    the employees working in organisations like the European Monetary Institute
    in Frankfurt or the European Patent Office in Munich. The foundation of IPSO
    should also avoid competition between ÖTV and DAG in the recruitment of
    members in international and European organisations, and should lead to a
    closer cooperation between the unions. The latter is particularly important
    because of the fact that the DAG is the only significant German trade union
    which is not a member of the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher
    Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB).

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    In Greece, temporary work, especially in the form of fixed-term contracts,
    constitutes a policy widespread amongst enterprises in both private and
    public sectors. Although the phenomenon of temporary work has decreased
    considerably in comparison with the early 1990s, when its incidence was twice
    that of the EU average (18% and 9% respectively), it is still quite high
    (10.5% and 11% respectively). A factor contributing to this decrease was the
    decision of the Government in the course of 1990 to dismiss 50,000 temporary
    public employees as part of its attempt to rationalise the functioning of the
    public sector.

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    One of Ireland's smallest banks, the Ulster Bank, is seeking to replace its
    incremental-based pay system with a new performance-related reward scheme for
    most of its 1,000 staff in the Republic of Ireland. The bank's proposals have
    been resisted by members of the banking union, the Irish Bank Officials
    Association (IBOA). They have, however, been accepted by its staff in
    Northern Ireland who are part of the British industrial relations system.

  • Article
    27 svibnja 1997

    Total Quality Management (TQM) has been a leading development of the 1990s in
    Britain. Surveys find that almost three-quarters of organisations claim to
    have formal quality programmes, which are believed to work by increasing
    employees' interest in their jobs and their understanding of how their work
    contributes to organisational goals. Many of these programmes have been
    introduced in the past five years. Definitions of TQM vary but its core
    comprises: a focus on the customer; the improvement and inter-linking of
    business processes; and continuous improvement ("Making quality critical", A
    Wilkinson and H Willmott, eds, London, Routledge, 1995.).

  • Article
    27 travnja 1997

    The sabbatical leave pilot scheme, which was agreed as part of Finland's last
    incomes policy agreement, has begun as planned. So far, 5,500 employees have
    taken advantage of the scheme. The Ministry of Labour's target of
    5,000-10,000 employees per year appears likely to be achieved.

Series

  • New forms of employment

    This series reports on the new forms of employment emerging across Europe that are driven by societal, economic and technological developments and are different from traditional standard or non-standard employment in a number of ways. This series explores what characterises these new employment forms and what implications they have for working conditions and the labour market.

  • European Company Surveys

    The European Company Survey (ECS) is carried out every four to five years since its inception in 2004–2005, with the latest edition in 2019. The survey is designed to provide information on workplace practices to develop and evaluate socioeconomic policy in the EU. It covers issues around work organisation, working time arrangements and work–life balance, flexibility, workplace innovation, employee involvement, human resource management, social dialogue, and most recently also skills use, skills strategies and digitalisation.

  • European Quality of Life Surveys

    The European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) is carried out every four to five years since its inception in 2003, with the latest edition in 2016. It examines both the objective circumstances of people's lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It covers issues around employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work–life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness and life satisfaction, and perceptions of the quality of society.

  • European Jobs Monitor

    This series brings together publications and other outputs of the European Jobs Monitor (EJM), which tracks structural change in European labour markets. The EJM analyses shifts in the employment structure in the EU in terms of occupation and sector and gives a qualitative assessment of these shifts using various proxies of job quality – wages, skill-levels, etc.

  • European Quality of Life Survey 2016

    Eurofound's European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. This series consists of outputs from the EQLS 2016, the fourth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 2003. 

  • European Working Conditions Survey 2015

    Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. This series consists of findings from the EWCS 2015, the sixth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 1990.

  • European Working Conditions Survey 1996

    Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. This series consists of findings from the EWCS 1996, the second edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 1990.

  • European Working Conditions Survey 2001

    Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. This series consists of findings from the EWCS 2001, which was an extension of the EWCS 2000 to cover the then 12 acceding and candidate countries. The survey was first carried out in 1990.

  • European Working Conditions Survey 2000

    Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. This series consists of findings from the EWCS 2000, the third edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 1990.

  • European Company Survey 2004

    Eurofound’s European Company Survey (ECS) maps and analyses company policies and practices which can have an impact on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as the development of social dialogue in companies. This series consists of outputs from the first edition of the survey carried out in 2004–2005 under the name European Establishment Survey on Working Time and Work-Life Balance. 

Forthcoming publications