Europeiska fonden för förbättring av levnads- och arbetsvillkor
Eurofound är ett trepartsorgan inom EU som förmedlar kunskap för att stödja utvecklingen av en bättre social-, sysselsättnings- och arbetsmarknadspolitik
Eurofound är ett trepartsorgan inom EU som förmedlar kunskap för att stödja utvecklingen av en bättre social-, sysselsättnings- och arbetsmarknadspolitik
On 29 January 1997, Tele Danmark informed its employees of its decision to
reduce staff by 2,500 and take on 500 new employees. The decision, which was
due to come into effect by mid-1998, is part of an efficiency plan, which
will cut annual costs by DKK 600 million and implement major organisational
changes.
On 19 February, Arbio, the employers' association for the forestry industry,
sued the Swedish Paper Workers' Union before the Labour Court. Formally, the
parties are arguing over a sum of less than SEK 50, though in practice the
case concerns an unlimited amount of money. This is a test case, and the
question that the Court has to address is: how is the collective agreement on
sick pay for employees in the paper industry to be interpreted?
Three independent pay review bodies were created more than 25 years ago in
what has been described as an attempt "to remove a range of highly sensitive
settlements from the political arena" (P Bassett, /The Times,/ 7 February
1997). They recommended pay increases for doctors and dentists, the most
senior grades in the armed forces, the civil service and the judiciary, and
for the rest of the armed forces. The pay review system assumed greater
importance when it was extended to cover nearly 500,000 nurses, midwives and
other health service professionals in 1983 and a similar number of
schoolteachers in England and Wales in 1992. In both cases, the creation of
pay review bodies followed lengthy disputes and a history of repeated failure
of the negotiating machinery to produce agreement on pay settlements without
frequent arbitration or periodic special enquiries.
At a special Social Dialogue Committee meeting held on 29 November 1996, the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and
Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), and the European Centre of
Enterprises with Public Participation (CEEP) adopted a joint contribution to
the /Confidence Pact for Action on Employment in Europe,/ in preparation for
the Dublin European Council summit held in December. In their statement, the
social partners express their deepest concern at the high level of
unemployment which continues to prevail across the EU, and criticise what
they perceive as a lack of coordination and implementation of a Europe-wide
strategy to combat the problem effectively. They pronounce themselves in
favour of Commission President Santer's proposal for a Confidence Pact, and
see their declaration as "a committed response to his proposals on the themes
of youth unemployment, lifelong learning, and better use of Structural Funds
for job creation, in a macroeconomic environment conducive to growth and
employment".
On 6 February 1997, the Bundesverband Druck employers' association and the
Industriegewerkschaft Medien trade union signed two new nationwide collective
agreements for the 130,000 manual workers in the German printing industry.
The first agreement covers the general developments of wages, and the second
agreement is a renewal of the sector's general framework agreement on
employment conditions [1] (Manteltarifvertrag).
The survey presented here was carried out in 1991. It was based on direct interviews with 12,500 workers, both employees and the self-employed, throughout the 12 member states of the European Community. The sample is representative of the distribution of the labour force between sectors, males and females, age groups and by professional status. As social integration moves forward, and as the number of initiatives dealing with the work environment at Community level increase, more comprehensive and homogeneous data on working conditions in the Community is required. The present survey is a step in this direction.
The report aims to investigate the social aspects of telemedicine and telehealth systems in the electronic home. Telemedicine home systems intend to provide care in the familiar home environment. In most developed countries, they represent a reaction to increased demand for hospital services due to chronic illnesses in ageing populations and injuries from accidents. Telemedicine is also a major market for advanced technology products.
Eurofound’s work on COVID-19 examines the far-reaching socioeconomic implications of the pandemic across Europe as they continue to impact living and working conditions. A key element of the research is the e-survey, launched in April 2020, with five rounds completed at different stages during 2020, 2021 and 2022. This is complemented by the inclusion of research into the ongoing effects of the pandemic in much of Eurofound’s other areas of work.
Eurofound's representativeness studies are designed to allow the European Commission to identify the ‘management and labour’ whom it must consult under article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This series consists of studies of the representativeness of employer and worker organisations in various sectors.
This series reports on developments in minimum wage rates across the EU, including how they are set and how they have developed over time in nominal and real terms. The series explores where there are statutory minimum wages or collectively agreed minimum wages in the Member States, as well as minimum wage coverage rates by gender.
The European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) launched in 1990 and is carried out every five years, with the latest edition in 2015. It provides an overview of trends in working conditions and quality of employment for the last 30 years. It covers issues such as employment status, working time duration and organisation, work organisation, learning and training, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, work–life balance, worker participation, earnings and financial security, work and health, and most recently also the future of work.
The European Restructuring Monitor has reported on the employment impact of large-scale business restructuring since 2002. This series includes its restructuring-related databases (events, support instruments and legislation) as well as case studies and publications.
Eurofound’s Flagship report series 'Challenges and prospects in the EU' comprise research reports that contain the key results of multiannual research activities and incorporate findings from different related research projects. Flagship reports are the major output of each of Eurofound’s strategic areas of intervention and have as their objective to contribute to current policy debates.
Eurofound’s European Company Survey (ECS) maps and analyses company policies and practices which can have an impact on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as the development of social dialogue in companies. This series consists of outputs from the ECS 2019, the fourth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 2004–2005 as the European Survey on Working Time and Work-Life Balance.
This series reports on and updates latest information on the involvement of national social partners in policymaking. The series analyses the involvement of national social partners in the implementation of policy reforms within the framework of social dialogue practices, including their involvement in elaborating the National Reform Programmes (NRPs).
This series reports on the new forms of employment emerging across Europe that are driven by societal, economic and technological developments and are different from traditional standard or non-standard employment in a number of ways. This series explores what characterises these new employment forms and what implications they have for working conditions and the labour market.
The European Company Survey (ECS) is carried out every four to five years since its inception in 2004–2005, with the latest edition in 2019. The survey is designed to provide information on workplace practices to develop and evaluate socioeconomic policy in the EU. It covers issues around work organisation, working time arrangements and work–life balance, flexibility, workplace innovation, employee involvement, human resource management, social dialogue, and most recently also skills use, skills strategies and digitalisation.
Given that compliance with lockdown measures is a first line of defence against COVID-19, maintaining trust in institutions is vital to ensure a coordinated, comprehensive and effective response to the pandemic. This report investigates developments in institutional and interpersonal trust across time, with a particular emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic period and its impact. It examines the link between trust and discontent and investigates the effect of multidimensional inequalities as a driver of distrust.
This paper provides an analytical summary of state of the art academic and policy literature on the impact of climate change and policies to manage transitions to a carbon neutral economy on employment, working conditions, social dialogue and living conditions. It maps the key empirical findings around the impact of climate change and the green transitions on jobs, sectors, regions and countries in Europe, identifying the opportunities and risks that climate change policies bring to European labour markets.
Between 2021 and 2023 Eurofound is carrying out a pilot project on minimum wage on behalf of the European Commission. The question of how minimum wages and other forms of pay can be fixed for the self-employed is investigated as a part of this project through mapping national and sectoral approaches. Out of concern for the challenging conditions that the self-employed face, some Member States have established or are discussing establishing statutory forms of minimum pay for certain categories of self-employed.
The civil aviation sector has been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is one of the most severe crises the sector has ever experienced, giving rise to a number of significant challenges for companies and workers alike. This study will explore the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining in how the sector is adapting to the pandemic. What kinds of changes have been introduced, either through social dialogue or collective bargaining? Are the changes temporary or permanent?
Lockdown measures and the economic shift following the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a widening of the gender divide between men and women, putting at risk some of the gender equality gains that had been made in previous years. This report analyses changes in the distribution of paid and unpaid work, along with care and domestic responsibilities, among men and women during the crisis. It also explores the impact of the pandemic on the well-being of women and men.
The report provides an overview of the scale of teleworking before and during the COVID-19 crisis and gives an indication of ‘teleworkability’ across sectors and occupations. Building on previous Eurofound research on remote work, the report investigates the way businesses introduced and supported teleworking during the pandemic, as well as the experience of workers who were working from home during the crisis. The report also looks at developments in regulations related to telework in Member States and provides a review of stakeholders’ positions.
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied across sectors, occupations and categories of worker (for instance, according to gender, age or employment status). Hours worked have declined the most in sectors such as accommodation services and food and beverage services, and in occupations heavily reliant on in-person interaction, such as sales work. At the same time, it’s in these sectors that labour shortages have become increasingly evident as labour markets have begun to normalise.
The COVID-19 crisis has increased inequality between social groups in health, housing, employment, income and well-being. While a small part of society was able to hold on to or increase its wealth, other groups such as women, young people, older people, people with disabilities, low- and middle-income earners and those with young children were acutely affected by the pandemic. Drawing on current research on how to best measure multidimensional inequality, this report highlights recent trends in inequality in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.
This report analyses how working conditions, job quality and working life outcomes – such as work–life balance, health and well-being, and sustainability of work – changed between February 2020 and spring 2021. Following up on responses to the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2020, it explores the differences between three distinct groups of workers: those teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic, those who continued to work on their employers' premises as frontline staff, and those who were furloughed or worked reduced hours.
This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in European sectoral social dialogue taking place at cross-sectoral level. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in the European sectoral social dialogue and their capacity to negotiate agreements. The aim of this Eurofound’s study on representativeness is to identify the relevant national and European social partner organisations at cross-sectoral level in the EU Member States.
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Eurofound is an agency of the European Union