Documents Iceland 147 results

"This discussion of the Cross-Border Merger Directive and its implementing legislation in each Member State of the European Union and the European Economic Area provides companies and their advisors with useful insight into the legal framework applicable to, and the tax treatment of, cross-border mergers throughout the European Economic Area. Analysis of the Community rules laid down in the Cross-Border Merger Directive and the Community rules on the tax treatment of cross-border mergers is complemented by chapters on the implementing legislation in each Member State, prepared in accordance with a common format and contributed by a practitioner from each state. Annexes contain the Cross-Border Merger Directive (Annex I), the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (Annex II) and a list of the implementing legislation in each Member State (Annex III)."

"This report outlines how the authorities in the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, carry out their inspections of the psychosocial working environment at the enterprises. Starting out with a description of the psychosocial risks, the report proceeds with a comparison of the differences between the different national regulations as well as an outline of the similarities. The report offers a comparison of the Nordic working environment strategies and a detailed presentation of the different targets and areas of initiative. It also presents how different methods are used in the selection of enterprises, sectors and job groups for inspection and how the inspectors are trained to carry out the inspections. The report rounds off with a description of the different national inspection methods and how to measure their effects."

"Exposure to endocrine disruptors(EDs) is suspected to lead to a number of negative effects on human health and for wildlife. In this report the costs for effects on male reproductive health (testicular cancer, hypospadias, cryptorchidism and infertility) are estimated. The model used is built on incidence of disease in the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and cost per case based on cost per patient data from Sweden. Extrapolation to EU28 is made based on population size. Assuming that EDs constitute 2, 20 or 40% the total costs for the selected health effects are 3.6, 36.1 or 72.3 million Euros/year of exposure in the Nordic countries, this corresponds to 59, 592 and 1,184 million Euros/year at EU-level. As these costs only represent a fraction of the endocrine related diseases there are good reasons to continue the work to minimize exposure to EDs."

"In 2008 it was decided by the Nordic Working Environment Committee under the Nordic Council of Ministers that an overview was needed on fatal occupational accidents in the Nordic countries. A selected group from agencies in all the Nordic countries maintaining the occupational accident registries was formed. It should provide a report that would give a review of systems involved concerning occupational accidents, i.e. the reporting process, the investigation process, the registration process, the registries and legal statutes. On the basis of this the numbers of fatal occupational accidents in the Nordic countries during the time period 2003 to 2008 would be studied.

The comparison between the Nordic countries concerning the systems showed relatively minor differences. However, as these small differences involve all or nearly all aspects of the system process in occupational accidents, comparison of occupational accidents in the Nordic countries should be approached with care.

The total number of fatal occupational accidents in the time period was 1243. That is between 1.51 to 2.49 fatal occupational accidents per 100,000 workers per year, varying between countries. Over 93% of these accidents involved males. This no doubt reflects the predominance of men in the most dangerous branches, i.e. agriculture, construction, and transport and communication. This is in accordance with that “land vehicles” are the leading material agent involved, and that the leading factor going wrong is loss of control, breaking or bursting of material agent and falls.

In order to make data on occupational accidents more comparable a closer collaboration between the Nordic countries, in the field of occupational accident investigation and registration, is called for. This would make the database for the battle against fatal occupational accidents and occupational accidents in the Nordic countries more effective and improve our common ability to identify prevention strategies."

"This report provides new projections, to 2026, of remote work rates and the accompanying macroeconomic implications for the EU27, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Republic of North Macedonia, Turkey and the UK.
Remote work covers a range of practices but few are straightforward to quantify consistently. The definition of remote work used in this report is working from home (WFH), matching the Eurostat Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) definition. The EU-LFS is the principal data source for this exercise. The literature review identified a range of drivers (e.g. sectoral composition of the economy) and potential outcomes (e.g. changes in expenditures on information and communications technologies (ICT)). Using a conceptual framework developed from the literature review, we modelled a baseline projection and three alternative scenarios: one that projected lower rates of WFH by 2026 compared to the baseline (Unwinding of WFH); and two that projected higher rates of WFH
(Acceleration of WFH and Acceleration of WFH with contract changes).By 2026, the baseline projects that 18% of workers in the EU27, and 19.6% of workers in all 33 study countries, will be working from home. There is substantial variation in these rates by individual country, from a 2026 rate of 42% in Luxembourg to 1% in Bulgaria and Romania. Compared to the baseline, the Unwinding of WFH scenario projects nearly 350 000 fewer total workers and more than 10 million fewer WFH workers by 2026, with the reduction concentrated mostly in services. The Acceleration of WFH scenario projects more than 830 000 additional workers in total and more
than 24 million more WFH workers by 2026, employed mostly in service sectors. The Acceleration of WFH with contract changes scenario projects nearly one million more total workers and more than 24 million more WFH workers by 2026. In this scenario, workers are assumed to shift from permanent to self-employed contract positions, leading to a projected increase in the rate of self-employment of 3.7 percentage points compared to the baseline. An unwinding of WFH in Europe would generate modest increases in costs for firms, mild decreases in total employment for workers and small aggregate output reductions. An acceleration of WFH, coupled with an increase in digital development in Europe, would provide benefits in terms of cost savings to firms,
higher employment and higher output. However, there is a risk that higher levels of WFH could lead to contract changes that, while providing benefits to firms, could undermine workers' power, pay and benefits. This has not been explicitly modelled in these projections but warrants deeper consideration."

"In August 2014, the US aluminium giant, Alcoa, decided to permanently close its Portovesme plant in the poorest province of Italy, Carbonia-Iglesias, in southern Sardinia. With the loss of several thousand jobs, the region is now a social desert … and an ecological one too, given that the waters around the industrial site are contaminated with heavy metals and chemical residues. Struck by this disaster, the Italian writer Angelo Ferracuti undertook a journey to Iceland to meet residents and workers at one of the sites that took over from the Sardinian plant."

"Large-scale migration of workers from new EU member states to the Nordic countries, mostly to fill relatively low-skilled jobs in construction, manufacturing and services, has raised concerns of low-wage competition and the ability of the Nordic social model to uphold labour standards. This article explores variations in wages and working conditions among Polish migrant workers in Oslo, Copenhagen and Reykjavik. The analysis highlights how different institutional configurations within the Nordic labour markets shape the outcomes for migrant workers, and raises questions regarding the ability of the different variations of the Nordic labour market regime to protect workers in an open, unequal and mobile European labour market."

"The aims of this special issue were twofold: to provide international research evidence of child maintenance schemes in five countries and to produce a comparative analysis of that research, to show how child maintenance outcomes differ across countries. The research data were collected using a vignette technique. This set up two fictional families, specifying sets of characteristics in order to explore how child maintenance schemes deal with key factors. Decision processes and payment outcomes are explored for applicants who are, for example, lone parent families on low incomes, divorcing families on middle incomes or reconstituted cohabiting families where a new child is born to the non-resident parent; the effects of changes in employment status and shared care arrangements are also considered. This final paper provides a comparative analysis of the vignettes to show how child maintenance outcomes differ across countries, and summarises the key themes that emerge from the individual country papers. Ultimately, the comparative analysis demonstrates that we have only scratched the surface in understanding similarities and differences internationally across child maintenance schemes. This is partly because of the complex interaction between child maintenance schemes and social security systems, which is not always transparent."