Publications

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world and the international community. Cities being destroyed, civilians wounded, innocent lives lost, refugees fleeing to other countries, and economic sanctions have become everyday news as this unprovoked and unlawful war unfolds.

Whether it is couch surfing, baby-sitting, pizza delivery or getting Ikea furniture assembled by somebody who can do it better, platforms can mediate all kinds of voluntary or professional services.

Platform work is at the heart of the ‘sharing economy’. But while this may sound like a new form of digital solidarity, recent focus on these platforms has fallen on the precarious social conditions of its micro-tasked workers: sham self-employment, high levels of income insecurity, a lack of adequate equipment for work, no access to social insurance and poor facilities. In an attempt to avoid these pitfalls, platform workers have started to establish cooperatives that are helping to ensure the sharing economy is also a caring economy.

O presente relatório analisa a qualidade da participação dos parceiros sociais nacionais na conceção e execução de reformas e políticas no contexto do ciclo do Semestre Europeu e na preparação dos Programas Nacionais de Reformas. No âmbito do NextGenerationEU, os Estados-Membros prepararam e apresentaram, em 2021, os seus planos de recuperação e resiliência (PRR) destinados a tornar as economias e as sociedades europeias mais sustentáveis e mais resilientes, bem como mais bem preparadas para os desafios e as oportunidades decorrentes das transições ecológica e digital.

A new European Disability Strategy was launched in 2021 with the aim of intensifying progress on ensuring the full participation of people with  disabilities in society. The increase of EU policy focus on people with disabilities is timely: the COVID-19 pandemic magnified the challenges they faced in many spheres of their lives.

When it comes to Europe’s COVID-19 recovery and its aspiration to build back a more resilient society, the so-called green and digital transitions have dominated EU policy discussions. And as Eurofound made preparations for the 2022 Foundation Forum – a unique occasion for high-level debate on the state of living and working in Europe – these twin transitions were at the forefront of people’s minds. That is, until one week before the event, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

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.

One of the most striking developments of the last half-century has been the huge rise in female labour market participation in advanced economies. More than two out of every three net new jobs created over the last two decades in the EU have been taken up by women, who now account for 46% of the workforce in the EU27. In 2002, the comparable figure was less than 43% and in the early 1990s it was less than 40%. This is a reflection of growing opportunities for women as well as the consolidation of a broader trend towards dual earner households.

This paper provides a context for the questions to be explored within the Foundation Forum 2022. Europe is emerging from the COVID-19 crisis having managed to protect its economy in the face of a major shock and prevent mass unemployment. However, challenges remain. While the Member States up to now appear to have diverged only moderately, at most, on key economic and social indicators, it seems that the pandemic has widened many social inequalities. The mass shift to telework has raised questions over how the world of work will look in the future.

The informal meeting of EU ministers responsible for employment and social policy (EPSCO) took place in Bordeaux on 14–15 February 2022. The meeting focused on the challenges posed by the major green and digital transitions to the labour market, and the way in which the European Union can support these transitions within the framework of the construction of a new European model of growth.

Nos últimos anos, para além de alguns picos intermitentes, tem havido uma diminuição geral das ações coletivas em todos os Estados-Membros da UE. Durante a pandemia de COVID-19, esta tendência manteve-se, tendo os conflitos laborais mais significativos ocorrido, sem surpresa, no setor da saúde humana e nos serviços sociais, no setor da educação e no setor dos transportes e logística. Este relatório analisa os dados recolhidos em 2018-2019, pela Eurofound, durante a fase piloto da sua base de dados «Industrial Action Monitor» (IAM).