Documents Eurofound 179 results

"The European Working Time Directive lays down minimum safety and health requirements for the organisation of working time in the EU by, for example, establishing that all workers have the right to a limit to weekly working time of 48 hours. However, it also contains the possibility for Member States to allow for the opting out of that maximum as long as the individual workers agree. This report looks at how the Member States make use of the possibility of opting out, the extent of its use and its main impacts. Although national data about its use are scarce, the opt-out and long working hours continue to be the subject of heated debates involving governments and social partners across the EU. According to the research currently available, there are strong reasons to think that the limitation of working time is beneficial for everyone, including workers, employers, patients and clients."

"This report summarises how minimum wage rates for 2021 were set during 2020 – the year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. It reviews the difficulties faced by national decision-makers and how they reacted to the challenges of the economic and social fall-out of the pandemic when making decisions regarding the minimum wage. It maps the extent to which minimum wages were referred to in COVID-19-related support measures. It discusses advances made on the EU initiative on adequate minimum wages and maps the reactions of the EU-level social partners and national decision-makers. The report is accompanied by two complementary working papers: one providing an analysis of developments for low-paid employees and minimum wage workers over the past decade; the other summarising the most recent research on minimum wages in EU countries, Norway and the UK."

'This paper presents an analytical summary of current academic and policy literature on the impact of climate change and policies to manage the transition to a carbon-neutral economy on four key domains: employment, working conditions, social dialogue and living conditions. It maps the main empirical findings around the impact of climate change and the green transition on jobs, sectors, regions and countries in Europe, identifying the opportunities and risks that climate change policies bring to European labour markets. It also develops a conceptual framework to outline the relevant drivers, relationships and outcomes of climate change and policies to ensure the transition to carbon neutrality, focusing on Eurofound's four strategic areas."

"The year 2022 opened with cautious optimism. Europe was emerging from two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with NextGenerationEU setting out a plan for a recovery that builds a strong and sustainable future. The Russian attack on Ukraine early in the year changed the situation dramatically, however, creating new turmoil across the continent. In its work during the year, Eurofound documented the impact of the rising cost of living and other developments arising from the war on the economic and psychological well-being of Europeans. This 2022 yearbook also summarises findings from the Agency's signature survey on working conditions during the pandemic, its reporting of trends in employment and its study of the potential role of social dialogue in the green and digital transition. Eurofound's research on working and living conditions in Europe provides a bedrock of evidence for input into social policymaking and achieving the Agency's vision ‘to be Europe's leading knowledge source for better life and work'."

"The term ‘hybrid work' was popularised with the upsurge of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, when companies and employees started to discuss ways of organising work after the crisis. The term has been increasingly used to refer to situations in which (teleworkable) work is carried out from two sites: at the usual place of work (normally the employer's premises) and from home (as experienced during the pandemic) or other locations. However, the concept of hybrid work is still fuzzy and various meanings are attributed to it. This report aims to bring clarity to this concept by exploring the available information from two main sources: recent literature and contributions provided by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents from across the European Union. It summarises the main debates around hybrid work in the Member States and shows how hybrid work has been implemented in practice across Europe. The main hindrances, challenges, benefits and opportunities of hybrid work are also discussed."

"The 2023 annual review of minimum wages was prepared in the context of unprecedented inflation across Europe. While this led to hefty increases in nominal wage rates in many countries, it was in many cases not enough to maintain workers' purchasing power. Based on developments over the last decade, this report shows that, overall, minimum wage earners in nearly all countries saw their purchasing power rising, the gap between their wages and average wages narrowing, and to some degree growth exceeding labour productivity development. Despite the short-term losses in real terms, these longer-term gains did not disappear in 2023. Even in the context of rising inflation, the processes of wage setting did not change substantially. But the early impacts of the EU directive on adequate minimum wages are noticeable, with more countries electing to use the international ‘indicative reference values' mentioned in the directive – 50% of the average or 60% of the median wage – when determining their targets for new levels. This year's report presents, for the first time, an in-depth insight into net minimum wages for single adults, through the EUROMOD tax–benefit microsimulation model, while presenting the latest research findings on minimum wages, published during 2022."

"The report explores plausible and imaginable scenarios examining how telework and hybrid work in the EU might have developed by 2035, and their implications for the world of work. How prepared are managers and employees, employer organisations and trade unions, and policymakers for the greater prevalence of these ways of organising work? How can they ensure that future telework and hybrid work arrangements benefit both employees and organisations? Using a foresight methodology, the report identifies blind spots, outlines emerging issues and assists policymakers in addressing key issues related to this form of work."

"One of the core strategic objectives of the EU is to ensure that Europe becomes the first climate-neutral continent, with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve this objective, EU policymakers adopted the Fit for 55 policy package in 2021, which contained more ambitious intermediate decarbonisation objectives aimed at reaching a 55% emission reduction target by 2030. In this report, we provide projections from a global macroeconomic model of how this complex policy package may affect the sectoral and occupational structure of employment in the EU by 2030, and the impacts across different regions and countries. A core finding is that the employment impacts of Fit for 55 are likely to be marginally positive at EU aggregate level but will vary across countries, regions and sectors based on their reliance on carbon-intensive industries on the one hand and their readiness to take advantage of greening opportunities on the other."