Welz, Christian

This topical update on the protection of whistle-blowers in the EU mainly covers developments that have taken place in the years 2013–2016. The update covers international, European and national level legislation, and includes two case studies on the protection for whistle-blowers in Ireland and Slovakia.

This report explores the involvement of peak social partners in the European Semester at EU and national level during the period 2011 to 2014. While their role in the European Semester is not set out in the European economic governance provisions (the so-called ‘Six-Pack’), the European institutional bodies view the two sides of industry as being key to the development of the Semester, and have called for their closer involvement.

This article synopsises the development of European social dialogue and then discusses some ideas that might guide the European institutions and the social partners as social dialogue within in the EU is relaunched, such as more autonomy for the social partners, better links between EU and national level, and greater involvement of the social partners in the European Semester.

The new European Commission (EC) under President Jean-Claude Juncker is committed to re-launching social dialogue and a first step was taken with the organisation of a high-level conference in Brussels on 5 March. The aim of the conference was to discuss concrete ways to strengthen social dialogue with EU cross-industry social partners and their national affiliates. On 21 and 22 April 2015 Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs in Riga again discussed informally ways towards a true and responsible social dialogue.  Juan Menéndez-Valdés, Eurofound Director, presented an overview of Eurofound’s recent research work, outlining steps towards a true and responsible social dialogue in Europe.

This article presents some of the key developments and research findings on EU level developments in industrial relations and working conditions during the last quarter of 2014. The European Commission's priorities for 2015, the economic outlook for Europe, and issues around working time are the main focus of this report.

This article presents some of the key developments and research findings on EU-level developments in industrial relations and working conditions during the third quarter of 2014. The new European Commission and its priorities, issues around working time and gender equality are the main focus of this report.

This article presents some of the key developments and research findings on industrial relations and working conditions in the EU during the first quarter of 2014. Institutional affairs, labour-related legislation and developments in collective bargaining and social dialogue are the main focus of the report.

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 study aims to provide an overview of European social partners at the cross-industry level. In common with all the studies in the representativeness study series, it adopts both a bottom-up and a top-down approach. It therefore includes...