Working conditions

• Over the past 20 years, there has been upward convergence in six of seven selected dimensions of working conditions, in terms of poorer-performing Member States catching up with better-performing ones. There was downward convergence in the dimension on ‘prospects’ (job security and career advancement).
  • Publication: Upward convergence in working conditions
• Job quality supports well-being and a positive experience of working life through engagement, financial security, the development of skills and competences, health and well-being, the reconciliation of work and private life, and the sustainability of work.
  • Publication: Sixth European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report
• Women and men report systematic differences in their working conditions. Gender differences in labour market participation, gender roles and occupational segregation are crucial to understanding the pattern of differences in working conditions.
  • Publication: Gender equality - Women and men at work
• Reducing excessive demands on workers and limiting their exposure to risks can improve job quality. This is complemented by increasing access to work resources that help in achieving work goals or mitigate the effects of excessive demands.
  • Publication: Working conditions and workers' health
• A zero tolerance policy on harassment and violence at work can improve working conditions and job quality, reducing staff turnover and absenteeism.
  • Publication: Fifth European Working Conditions Survey - Overview report
• Diversification and fragmentation of the labour market call for more in-depth analysis on changes in employment status, as well as emerging work situations.
  • Publication: Does employment status matter for job quality?
  • Publication: Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work

Eurofound monitors the working conditions of employees and self-employed at work. It provides analyses focusing on work situations of interest – such as ICT mobile work and psychosocial risks at work – and addressing specific groups in the labour market. Research on sustainable work looks at the role of work and its conditions in supporting people’s participation in work across their life course in ways that accommodate individual preferences and enable them to experience a good quality of work.

Working conditions survey data

Since its launch in 1990, Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) has provided an overview of working conditions in Europe. The scope of the survey questionnaire has widened substantially since the first edition, aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of the everyday reality of men and women at work. The seventh EWCS takes place in 2020, covering 37 countries.

• Survey: European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS)

The EWCS covers a wide range of issues:

• job quality (physical environment, social environment, skills and discretion, work intensity, working time quality, prospects and earnings) and the risks and resources contributing to these aspects of work, including employment status
• work determinants and characteristics of work (working with customers, use of technology, where work takes place)
• workers and enterprise demographics (age, sex, seniority, enterprise size, industry)
• second jobs and multi-activity work
• organisational factors that can be validly captured through a workers’ questionnaire (work processes, work pace, pace determinants, employee participation, teamwork, workplace human resource policies and work organisation characteristics, trust, cooperation and organisational rewards)
• the quality of working life as assessed by workers (work–life balance, health and well-being, skills match, financial security, sustainability of work, absence and presenteeism, and outcomes such as engagement and motivation)

By including these multiple dimensions, the EWCS provides some insight into contemporary challenges in the world of work, for example the blurring of boundaries between working life and private life, the changing nature of work organisation or increased reliance on outsourcing. Further insights can be gained if surveys are regularly updated to integrate emerging risks, such as those related to workers’ privacy and collection of private data at the workplace.

Upward convergence in working conditions

Social convergence has gained an equal footing alongside economic convergence as an EU goal in the wake of the economic crisis. Eurofound research examines convergence in working conditions, looking at whether working conditions have improved over the past two decades in the EU and whether differences between Member States have narrowed. Globalisation and labour market institutions play a role in promoting convergence in working conditions.

• Analysis of how working conditions differ across sectors to provide evidence on working conditions and their implications for sustainable work
• Links between forms of work organisation and employee engagement and development of workers' knowledge and skills
• Flagship report on working conditions and sustainable work (including findings from ‘Differences in working conditions between various groups of workers – analysing trends over time’)
• Highlights of recent developments of selected features of working life in so-called topical updates, with one featuring statutory minimum wages