Working conditions

Working conditions refer to the conditions in and under which work is performed. A working condition is a characteristic or a combination of characteristics of work that can be modified and improved. Current conceptions of working conditions incorporate considerations of wider factors, which may affect the employee psychosomatically. Thus, a broader definition of the term includes the economic dimension of work and effects on living conditions. Working conditions are a subject of labour law and are regulated by all of its various sources: legislation, collective agreements, works rules, the employment contract, as well as custom and practice.

Contruction workers renovating the facade of a building

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25 November 2025

Developments in working life in 2024
This publication comprises individual country reports on developments in working life in each of the 27 EU Member States and Norway in 2024, based on national research and survey results. The topics covered include the political context in 2024; updates on the social partners and social dialogue institutions; developments in collective bargaining; governmental responses to inflation; industrial action; and developments in working time.
Cikk

2 October 2025

Az alacsony fizetések évtizede: a szociális dolgozók még mindig körülbelül ötödével kevesebbet keresnek az átlagnál
Hans Dubois
A 2014 és 2024 közötti 10 évben a szociális szolgáltatók száma az EU-ban 8 millióról 10 millióra nőtt. Jelenleg az EU teljes munkaerő-állományának 5%-át teszik ki. Ugyanakkor az ágazat munkaerőhiánnyal küzd, és továbbra is alacsony bérek jellemzik – mintegy 20%-kal alacsonyabbak, mint a tagállamok gazdaságának egészében az átlagbérek.
Kutatási jelentés

10 December 2024

Young people in the Western Balkans
Cían Duffand 2 other authors

This report analyses data from Eurofound’s 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey and its 2022 Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, as well as data from official statistics, to examine employment trends, working conditions and the social situation of young people in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia). Employment trends are also presented for Türkiye. This report is part of Eurofound’s ongoing effort to support informed policymaking in EU accession countries through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). It is the first output from a project financed by the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) under the auspices of the IPA. Its aim is to provide knowledge that will support better-informed social, employment and work-related policies in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. It offers a comparative perspective between the countries and with the EU based on sound statistical analysis and expert consultation.

A témáról Working conditions

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Főbb pontok a(z) Working conditions

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29 November 2022

Kutatási jelentés

Working conditions in the time of COVID-19: Implications for the future

The strict public health restrictions implemented by governments in 2020 to control the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed working life and continued to shape it over the two years that followed. Between March and November 2021, over 70,000 interviews were carried out in 36 countries by the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), a high-quality probability-based survey. The aim was to provide a detailed picture of the working lives of Europeans in that exceptional time.

The report documents the working conditions of Europeans in 2021. It examines variation in job quality and identifies its positive association with well-being, health, work engagement and the financial sustainability of work. It highlights the divergences in the experiences of workers depending on workers’ own attributes and their place in the workforce. From this analysis, the report aims to derive lessons for the future, particularly in relation to the enduring marks on how we work and the implications for work organisation, the quality of work, and the interaction between work and private life.

7 December 2022

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Living, working and COVID-19 in the European Union and 10 EU neighbouring countries

The Living, working and COVID-19 survey, first launched by Eurofound in early 2020, aims to capture the wide-ranging impact of the pandemic on the work and lives of EU citizens. The fifth round of the Eurofound survey, which was implemented in spring 2022, also sheds light on a new uncertain reality caused by the war in Ukraine, record-high inflation and sharp rises in the cost of living. As a pilot survey, a shorter version of the questionnaire was fielded by the European Training Foundation (ETF) in 10 European Union (EU) neighbouring countries. This joint Eurofound-ETF factsheet presents a selection of results from the survey covering both the EU-27 and the 10 selected EU neighbouring countries.
The results reveal at least one clear commonality across respondents from all countries: serious concerns about the rising cost of living. At the same time, the results point to a large divergence in living and working conditions between respondents in the two groups of countries, but also show large differences within the EU itself and amongst the selected EU neighbouring countries.

19 May 2022

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Working life in the COVID-19 pandemic 2021

This publication consists of individual country reports on working life during 2021 for 28 countries – the 27 EU Member States and Norway. The country reports summarise evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on working life based on national research and survey results during 2021. They outline the policy responses of governments and social partners in their efforts to cushion the socioeconomic effects and include a focus on policy areas related to adapting to the pandemic and the return to work. This includes in particular a focus on new health and safety arrangements at work, new work arrangements, policies to address labour shortages and wages and wage setting. The reports also explore the impact of the pandemic on social dialogue, collective bargaining and industrial action.

Please note that there is no consolidated report on working life in the EU in 2021.

10 March 2022

Kutatási jelentés

Overtime in Europe: Regulation and practice

Despite the well-known adverse effects of regular long working hours on workers’ health, well-being and performance, many workers in the EU continue to work beyond their normal hours. Part of this additional working time is classified as overtime. This report takes a comparative overview of how overtime is regulated in the EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom, including its definition, the limits on its use and the compensation received by workers for working extra hours. The report assesses the extent of the phenomenon using national-level data, delves into the factors that explain it, and examines the potential consequences for workers and firms. Finally, the report summarises the current debate on the topic, as uncompensated working hours, structural overtime and monitoring of working hours are currently some of the most discussed work-related issues across the EU.

9 December 2020

Kutatási jelentés

Employee monitoring and surveillance: The challenges of digitalisation

New digital technologies have expanded the possibilities of employee monitoring and surveillance, both in and outside the workplace. In the context of the increasing digitalisation of work, there are many issues related to employee monitoring that warrant the attention of policymakers. As well as the often-cited privacy and ethical concerns, there are also important implications for worker–employer relations, as digitally enabled monitoring and surveillance inevitably shift power dynamics in the workplace. Based on input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, this report explores the regulatory approaches to workplace monitoring in Europe, and the many challenges arising from the use of new digital technologies. Drawing from empirical and qualitative research, the report also provides some insight into the extent of employee monitoring in Europe and the implications for job quality and work organisation.

16 January 2020

Kutatási jelentés

Telework and ICT-based mobile work: Flexible working in the digital age

Advances in ICT have opened the door to new ways of organising work. We are shifting from a regular, bureaucratic and ‘factory-based’ working time pattern towards a more flexible model of work. Telework and ICT-based mobile work (TICTM) has emerged in this transition, giving workers and employers the ability to adapt the time and location of work to their needs. Despite the flexibility and higher level of worker autonomy inherent in TICTM, there are risks that this work arrangement leads to the deterioration of work–life balance, higher stress levels and failing worker health. This report analyses the employment and working conditions of workers with TICTM arrangements, focusing on how it affects their work–life balance, health, performance and job prospects. While policymakers in many EU countries are debating TICTM and its implications, the study finds that only a few have implemented new regulations to prevent TICTM from having a negative impact on the well-being of workers.

Szakértők témában Working conditions

A Eurofound kutatói szakértelmet nyújtanak, és kérdésekkel vagy a média megkeresésével kapcsolatban is felvehető velük a kapcsolat.

Agnès Parent-Thirion

Senior research manager
Working life research

Agnès Parent-Thirion az Eurofound Munka Élet Osztályának vezető kutatási vezetője, akinek feladata a munkakörülményekkel kapcsolatos kutatási projektek, különösen az Európai Munkakörülmény-felmérés (EWCS) és annak elemzéseinek tervezése, fejlesztése és végrehajtása. Ő felel az európai munkakörülmény-felmérés 2021. évi rendkívüli kiadásáért és a 2024. évi munkakörülmény-felméréshez szükséges kérdőív elkészítéséért. Kutatási területei közé tartoznak a munkakörülmények, a munka minősége, a munkakörülmények nyomon követése, a munkaszervezés, a nemek, a munka jövője és az idő. Több mint egy évtizede dolgozik az európai összehasonlító felmérések területén, minden szempontból, beleértve a tervezést, a kérdőívek fejlesztését, a terepmunkát, a minőségellenőrzést és az elemzést. A Párizsi IX Dauphine és a Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne egyetemeken szerzett közgazdasági és menedzsment diplomát, a dublini Trinity College-ban pedig posztgraduális diplomát szerzett statisztikából. Nemrégiben végzett online kurzusokat a mesterséges intelligenciáról: kutatásvezérelt vezetés az MIT Sloan Executive Education-szel és a "Les grand enjeux de la transition: re-ouvrir l'horizon, comprendre pour agir" a Campus de la Transition-szel. Mielőtt csatlakozott volna az Eurofoundhoz, több évig az Európai Bizottságnál dolgozott.

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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