Vargas Llave, Oscar

The sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) builds on the lessons learned from the previous five surveys to paint a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. EU employment policy priorities aim to boost employment levels, prolong working life, increase the participation of women, develop productivity and innovation and adapt to the digital challenge.

Occupation is a critical factor in determining the type of working conditions a person will experience during their professional life. This report explores the working conditions of workers – particularly medium-to-low skilled and unskilled – in occupations that are found to have low levels of job quality as measured by four key indicators: earnings, prospects, working time and intrinsic job quality.

Collective bargaining has been crucial in developing recent initiatives on flexible working time in many countries, both at sectoral and at company level. Such agreements, together with some legislation, also cover working with ICT outside an employer’s premises (such as telework). This topical update singles out some original examples in companies in Europe.

An increasing number of European workers have part-time jobs or non-standard types of work, such as the zero-hours employment contracts that have become common in the UK. Yet most European workers with temporary contracts would like permanent jobs, and one third of people working part time would like a full-time job.

Across Europe, new forms of employment are emerging that are different from traditional standard or non-standard employment in a number of ways. Some transform the relationship between employer and employee, some change work organisation and work patterns, and some do both. This report identifies nine forms of employment that are new or have become increasingly important in Europe since the year 2000.

This report maps the impact of the global financial, economic and public debt crisis on industrial relations and working conditions at national level in the EU Member States from 2008 to end 2012. The impact of the crisis on industrial relations is mapped with regard to the actors, processes and outcomes. Working conditions, covering the EU27 and Norway, maps the impact on employment conditions, working time arrangements and work–life balance, work organisation and psychosocial risks and on health and well-being at work. It uses comparative national-level information and data from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), the European Social Survey (ESS) and the EU Labour Force Surveys (EU LFS).

This report and the accompanying 33 sectoral information sheets aim to capture the diversity prevalent across sectors in Europe in terms of working conditions and job quality. The information sheets indicate how workers in each sector compa...

With the average age of the population rising, people aged 55–64 make up an increasing share of workers in Europe. This demographic shift, as well as ongoing threats to the sustainability of national welfare and pension systems, has increased pressure for reforms to encourage longer careers. This report maps initiatives at national or sectoral level taken by governments and social partners to keep older workers in the labour market. Some measures involve financial incentives to work longer while others look at ways to enhance working conditions.

With a particular focus on the crisis and responses to it, this annual review highlights developments in working conditions and industrial relations in the EU Member States and Norway in 2010, both at national and EU level. At national level, the report examines key issues covered by collective bargaining (pay and working time) and looks at developments in social partner activity and industrial action. It also looks at company restructuring, the impact of the crisis and approaches to pension reform in light of demographic change. At European level, it reviews the year’s main events and trends in employment legislation and policy (in areas like paternity/maternity leave and working time), as well as in the European social dialogue at crosssectoral, sectoral and company levels. The final chapter focuses on training initiatives provided or supported by enterprises for their employees during the recession.

This country report identifies and outlines regulation on liability in subcontracting processes in Spain. It is based on an analysis of secondary literary sources of information and on the results of interviews with key players in the field. The introduction briefly describes the broad political, legal and economic context in which the national laws on ‘joint and several liability’ in subcontracting have been developed. Joint and several liability refers to cases where two or more people enter into an obligation together, and where the claimant can recover the full obligation from any one of them; the cooperating parties are then left to decide their respective contributions between themselves. An overview report is available.