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"This paper explores the current landscape of collective bargaining agreements in Greece, alongside the broader legislative framework governing occupational heat stress. The findings reveal that the existing framework regulating occupational heat exposure remains general and insufficient. The specific circulars on heat stress prevention do not carry the same legal weight as laws or presidential decrees. Therefore, the adoption of dedicated legislation addressing occupational heat stress is considered essential. Effective protection requires the implementation of preventive measures across all sectors, for all categories of workers, and throughout all periods—not only during officially declared heatwaves. Labour inspectorate workplace inspections should be intensified, as enforcement remains limited. Heat stress provisions are rarely included in collective bargaining agreements. The weakening of collective bargaining following the economic crisis has contributed to this gap. The role of trade unions and workers' occupational safety and health (OSH) representatives is critical in strengthening collective bargaining and safeguarding workers from occupational risks. To improve heat stress management, the study highlights the need for expanded awareness-raising initiatives, sector-specific training, enhanced understanding and use of the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index, systematic recording of worker morbidity and mortality, and strengthened research efforts on heat stress prevention."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"As the first ever piece of EU legislation aimed explicitly at ensuring adequate minimum wages and promoting strong collective bargaining, the European Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the EU is a milestone in strengthening the social dimension of the European Union. Its ultimate policy objective is to reduce wage inequality and in-work poverty in order to advance upward social convergence and social cohesion across the EU. Because of the EU's limited competences on the issue of wages and collective bargaining, however, while the Directive is strong on procedural regulations it is weaker on substantive requirements, which are formulated mainly in terms of recommendations. This is why the real impact of the Directive in the sense of achieving its political objectives relies strongly on an ambitious transposition into national law that transforms the ‘soft law' of the Directive into hard law at national level.

One dimension of the analysis therefore concerns how the Member States have formally transposed the Directive into national law. However, the comprehensive formal transposition of the Directive is only one factor that will determine its success in realising its political objectives. The other important factor is the Directive's broader political implications as manifested in its influence on the political agenda and the political and public discourse about minimum wages and collective bargaining in the Member States. This report deals with both dimensions of the impact of the European Minimum Wage Directive."

"This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the contribution of the national RRPs to the 'Green Transition' pillar, focusing on the ‘sustainable mobility' theme. Based on an analysis of five measures, it finds that while the measures are generally coherent and balanced, their 'lasting impact' is not adequately assured. Moreover, the milestones and targets of the measures provide insufficient guarantees that the RRF objectives will be met. Finally, several sustainable transport policy areas were identified that deserve more attention in EU policy."'

"During the 2008 financial crisis, board-level employee representation (BLER) was touted as an institution that could counter mismanagement with a stakeholder approach and thus improve the quality of corporate governance.

After the experience of the socioeconomic consequences of the Covid-19 global pandemic, today's growing concerns over the crisis in liberal and representative democracies have once again put worker participation and voice at the centre of interdisciplinary debates. Yet codetermination rights remain largely underdeveloped as a key dimension of EU industrial relations, with the issue of harmonisation moving on and off the EU agenda since the 1970s. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Revisiting worker representation on boards addresses this conundrum and advances comparative knowledge of BLER in Europe – which previous empirical research has demonstrated is not exclusively a German idiosyncrasy – by examining its sociopolitical significance as a concept and practice. It focuses on ten Member States which have often been underexplored in codetermination studies.

The aim of this volume is to provide a deeper understanding of current debates and practices around BLER and to assess the general prospects for development in this area of social policy at national and EU level. The book does not limit itself to acknowledging that the perceptions and practices of BLER remain largely anchored in national institutions, ideas and policy debates, but goes further to uncover parts of the underlying rationale behind this diverse and complex reality. The contributions draw on the EU acquis on worker participation and use different methodologies to quantify, map and evaluate the implementation, enactment and potential deployment of BLER.

For trade unionists, policymakers and researchers looking to orient themselves within the current debates and promote policies around worker representation on company boards, this book will certainly provide an invaluable compass."

"The topic of statutory minimum wage has gained new relevance in the recent years, also at European level. Most European countries already have schemes for statutory minimum wage, while this has been an alien concept in the Nordic context. The report provides an overview of the designs and effects of such schemes, and of how minimum wages are determined in the Nordic countries and in the few other EU countries that still have no statutory minimum wage. The report also looks into factors that can explain the diverse views on statutory minimum wage regulation and why Nordic trade unions have offered resistance towards European initiatives in this area."