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Leave

For workers, leave arrangements have a direct impact on quality of life, work-life balance and the overall sustainability of working life. The main leave entitlements of importance to workers are annual leave, maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave and sick leave, so that the worker can recover from being ill. The European Pillar of Social Rights encourages gender-balanced use of family-related leave and flexible working arrangements. Women and men shall have equal access to special leaves of absence in order to fulfil their caring responsibilities towards both children and ageing parents.

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Recent updates

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This report examines the average weekly working hours across Europe in 2021 and 2022. It covers important developments resulting from legislative reforms in collective bargaining at national or sectoral level...

24 October 2023
Publication
Research report
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The most relevant changes in working time regulation in Europe in 2019 and 2020 addressed challenges arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most focused on short-time working schemes...

14 October 2021
Publication
Research report

Eurofound expert(s)

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Jorge Cabrita is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit. He is responsible for formulating, coordinating and managing European-wide research, and promoting the...

Senior research manager,
Working life research unit
Publications results (14)

This report examines the average weekly working hours across Europe in 2021 and 2022. It covers important developments resulting from legislative reforms in collective bargaining at national or sectoral level, drawing on debates about the reduction of working time and the four-day working week.

24 October 2023

The most relevant changes in working time regulation in Europe in 2019 and 2020 addressed challenges arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most focused on short-time working schemes, on approaches to teleworking for those able to work from home and on regulations to ensure the safe provision

14 October 2021

This biennial review charts developments in a range of working time issues in the EU and Norway in 2017–2018. It finds that while the average collectively agreed working week across the EU remains unchanged since 2016 – at 38 hours – there was a slight decrease in the past two years in the 15 Member

03 October 2019

In the context of ongoing negotiations at EU level on adopting a work–life balance package for families and caregivers, Eurofound was requested by the European Commission to provide an update of the available data regarding paternity and parental leave for fathers. This report presents the currently

07 February 2019

This report examines the main trends and milestones characterising the evolution of the most important aspects of collectively agreed working time in the European Union during the first decade of the 21st century. Drawing primarily on information collected by Eurofound across all EU Member States

01 March 2016

The Commission has decided to withdraw its draft Maternity Leave Directive, which has been stuck in the legislative process since 2008. This article describes key developments and explores some of the contradictions that were predicted in the Commission’s 2015 Work Programme and the Better

14 July 2015

The Maternity Leave Directive (92/85/EEC) is concerned with improvements in the safety and health at work of women who are pregnant, have recently given birth or who are breastfeeding. This report finds that nearly all Member States comply with the directive’s provision of granting at least two

13 July 2015

The European Working Time Directive lays down minimum safety and health requirements for the organisation of working time in the EU by, for example, establishing that all workers have the right to a limit to weekly working time of 48 hours.

12 June 2015

The take-up rate of parental and paternity leave among fathers has been increasing in most Member States but it still remains relatively low. Covering all the EU Member States and Norway, this report looks at the most recent trends in terms of take-up of parental and paternity leave, existing

25 February 2015

This article presents some of the key developments and research findings on health and well-being in workplaces in the EU during the second quarter of 2014. The new strategic framework on health and safety, work–life balance, patterns of sick leave and initiatives to combat violence and harassment

18 February 2015

Online resources results (102)

Government unveils proposals for a fairer workplace

On 21 May 1998, the Government published a white paper entitled Fairness at work [1] setting out its legislative agenda in the area of industrial relations. As well as giving details of the Government's proposed statutory trade union recognition procedure, the white paper outlines a range of other

Company doctors criticise privatisation of Sickness Benefits Act

The Sickness Benefits Act (Ziektewet, ZW) has undergone a process of "privatisation" in recent years, with a new allocation of responsibilities and risks between the Government, employers and employees, and the transfer of the Act's financing and administration from the public to the private sector

Austrian survey reveals patterns of parental leave

Commissioned by the Public Employment Service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS), the Institute of Demographics at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, ÖAW) has produced a detailed study on the use and effects of parental leave. The legislation on parental leave has

Social partners accept joint mediation proposal for 1998 bargaining round

On 30 March 1998, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) and Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) accepted the Public Conciliator's joint mediation proposal for the entire LO/DA bargaining area. This followed the conclusion of an

New initiatives to grant employees the right to work part time

In February 1998, both the Christian Democrats and the left-wing Groenlinks party formulated new legislative proposals to give employees a right to work part time. The latter party's initial bill on this issue had been blocked by the Christian Democrats in late 1997.

Equal opportunities measures cause controversy

Each of the EU Member States have been drawing up national employment action plans based on the EU Guidelines for Member States' employment policies 1998 [1], following the Luxembourg"employment summit" in November 1997 (EU9711168F [2]). The plans are due to be submitted to the Cardiff European

The 1998 bargaining round will be at industry level

At its general council meeting on 10 February 1998, the LO trade union confederation voted in favour of industry-level settlements in the spring 1998 bargaining round in Norway's private sector. In addition, LO wants to bargain with the NHO employers' confederation over the principles which are to

Profit-sharing and personnel policy at Audi

In December 1997, management and company works council [1] at the German car producer Audi AG concluded a works agreement on the introduction of a new permanent profit-sharing system for all employees, which comes into effect from 1998. This is the latest in a number of new personnel policies that

Big pay gap remains between men and women

A report published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) on 9 December 1997 shows that, despite the adoption of equal pay legislation at European level more than 20 years ago, a large pay gap remains between men and women. The report (, Eurostat statistics in focus

Lightening the load of long working hours among Europe's managerial staff

EUROCADRES (the Council for European Professional and Managerial Staff) represents over 4 million professional and managerial staff in Europe who are members of trade unions affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation. The organisation hosted a conference on 2-3 December 1997 to showcase


Blogs results (1)
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Few events challenge the equilibrium between work and life like the arrival of a child. As gender roles continue to change in Europe, supporting the uptake of paternity and parental leave among fathers is fundamental, not just to close the ‘caring gap’ between men and women, but also to provide the

11 October 2018

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