*ETUI-Agnieszka Piasna 69 results

"Working time is a key dimension of work organisation and remains a contentious issue between employers and workers. Historically, in an effort to improve working conditions, trade unions have been at the forefront of the struggle for working time reduction (WTR); that is, the shortening of working hours without reduction in pay. However, after some remarkable achievements in the 19th and 20th centuries, in recent decades there has been little change in the length of the standard full-time working week in advanced economies.

This working paper addresses this issue by analysing the process and outcomes of collectively bargained WTR in two large manufacturing firms in Italy. The first objective is to analyse the steps leading to the agreement – that is, the motivation, the premise, the evolution of the proposals, the resources needed and the challenges faced by workers and unions. The second objective is to examine the outcomes of WTR in terms of their impact on the quality of work and the lives of workers. The results inform the debate on the most effective and favourable ways of reducing working time by identifying good practice and the challenges ahead."

"Given the political significance of this European election year, ETUI and ETUC have chosen to provide a retrospective assessment of the state of Social Europe. Using fact-based evidence and analysis, the new edition of the yearly Benchmarking working Europe demonstrates that the new impetus for Social Europe which we have witnessed over the past five years has led to important and long-awaited policy initiatives such as the adoption of the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in October 2022. However, progress in this field remains fragile.

According to the authors of the Benchmarking Working Europe, the 'revival' of Social Europe has been driven by three factors: the Social Pillar; a novel approach to EU spending and temporary relaxing of the EU fiscal framework; and the commitment of the European Green Deal to just transition. While each chapter in these reports highlights how each of these drivers has been essential in relaunching the process of a more social European integration, it also shows the inherent fragility of the project itself.

Among the relevant legislative decisions, initiated by the adoption of the European Socle of Social Rights in 2017 and taken in the context of unexpected events, such as the Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the inflation and cost-of-living crisis, the report quotes:

-the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive
-the Platform Worker Directive
-the Pay Transparency Directive
-the Women on Corporate Boards Directive
-the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
-the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
-and several Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Directives, including the revision of the Asbestos Directive.
Background
The yearly ETUI-ETUC report Benchmarking Working Europe (henceforth ‘Benchmarking') has the ambition, since 2001, to diminish the knowledge gap about the world of labour and social affairs by providing a genuine benchmarking exercise, with workers' concerns at the centre of its analysis and policy proposals. "

"Working for labour platforms is still relatively rare, but the generally poor working conditions and the impact on the world of work are the subject of much debate. Although data are scarce, there is a general consensus that migrants are overrepresented in this type of work. Platforms may well provide migrants with work opportunities, especially shortly after arrival, due to relatively lower entry barriers, including formal requirements, compared to the traditional economy. However, the entry of these more vulnerable groups into a segment of generally poor quality jobs poses serious challenges in terms of their potential exploitation and the longer-term negative effects on labour market integration and prospects.

The extent to which platforms rely on migrants and create the conditions for exploitation compared to other workers is an important question with clear policy implications. However, a lack of representative data has thus far limited understanding of the extent of migrants' involvement in platform work and their working conditions in relation to non-migrant groups.

This paper addresses this gap by analysing the presence of migrants and their work patterns in the European platform economy, using representative cross-national data for 14 European Union Member States collected in 2021. The analysis has three main objectives. First, it reveals the extent to which migrants are indeed overrepresented in platform work and whether this holds for different types of platform. Secondly, it explores whether there are substantial differences between migrant and non-migrant platform workers in their experiences with the platform economy in terms of earnings, hours worked and the use of one or several platforms (multi-apping). Third, by focusing on variations between migrants with different characteristics, it sheds some, primarily indirect, light on the mechanisms that guide migrants towards platform work. "

"This study contributes to the understanding of unionization in the platform economy, both in terms of membership rates among different groups of platform workers and the potential for unionization among those who are not yet members. The findings are based on a unique cross-national and comparative survey, dedicated to the analysis of various forms of digitally-mediated work and trade union-related behaviour, which allows for an explicit link between the platform economy and the conventional economy.
Embedded in the particular model of work organization of digital labour platforms, platform workers face several hurdles discouraging them from becoming trade union members. These relate to algorithmic management, regulatory arbitrage regarding the employment arrangements and the promotion of an entrepreneurial orientation among platform workers. Nevertheless, based on data from a representative survey in 14 European countries, union density in the platform economy stands at 13.4 per cent. This should be interpreted as a kind of “platform unionism” that exists by coincidence, however, as union membership is most likely rooted in the labour market status of platform workers in the conventional economy. Compared to the general population, platform workers have stronger pro-union attitudes and are more receptive to union membership. Probably partly reflecting difficulties in the ability to unionize, there is still a gap, though, between attitudes and willingness to unionize: whereas about two-thirds of platform workers hold positive attitudes towards unions, only over a quarter state that they would like to join a union. Apart from those positive pro-union attitudes, the propensity to unionize also seems to be determined by engagement in offline networks that promote a social norm of union membership and online participation in digital work-related communities. While these findings could inform union recruitment and organizing strategies, it is needless to say that the heterogeneity of the platform workforce, strongly influenced by the different ways in which workers participate in the platform economy, requires at the same time tailor-made strategies."

"This working paper examines the impact on job quality of new digital technologies at work. It applies the multidimensional framework of the ETUI Job Quality Index to an analysis of the 27 EU Member States and data from the 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey. The effects of digitalisation are conceptualised on the basis of two theoretical approaches: one considers the impact of computerised systems and algorithmic management on task allocation, working time and work intensity; the other looks at digitalisation at work in terms of job demands and resources. The analysis examines how the use of computerised systems at work and their influence on the content and organisation of work affect different dimensions of job quality and how this may differ across groups of workers."

"Digital labour platforms transform work and employment relations in many ways. Crucially, they renounce the role of the employer, leading to a redefinition of traditional categories of actors and their roles in social policy and dialogue. Using the example of the EU proposal for a directive on improving working conditions in platform work, this article examines how this redefinition is materialising in practice among social partners in order to understand its implications for the future of social dialogue and legislation. While previous research focused on the status of workers, this study takes a complementary view by considering the employer side as a key counterpart in a functioning employment relationship. The actor-approach is used to analyse the views and positions of EU social partners and how their prerogatives are affected by the blurring of the role of the employer and the redefinition of traditional categories of actors in social policy."

"Despite disruptive impact of internet work on labour markets little is known about what, beyond individual pull factors, drives its expansion. This article extends current frameworks by investigating the role of regional economic and employment conditions. The analysis covers 165 regions in 14 European countries using a representative cross-national data set on individual engagement in internet and offline work, augmented with aggregate data on the regional context. Our findings suggest that otherwise similar workers engage more in internet work where offline opportunities are worse—fewer jobs and of lower quality—with effects up to 10% for large regional differences. The increase mainly represents workers juggling offline and internet jobs under conditions of economic and job insecurity. These results imply that internet work is not exceptional or separate from the traditional labour market, challenging the narrative of platforms as outsiders to labour market regulation and justifying the expansion of regulatory efforts."

"This paper presents the latest results of the European Job Quality Index, updated with 2021 data, and compares the relative performance of EU countries on the Index over time. The study makes both a conceptual and an empirical contribution, by proposing an approach to measuring job quality suitable for comparative cross-national research, as well as for guiding policy by clearly indicating the desired direction for change.

Moreover, the study reviews evidence in support of the synergy between job quantity and quality, and also reveals the positive relationship between collective interest representation and several other dimensions of job quality. Finally, it illustrates the unequal distribution of job quality across different groups of the European workforce."