This report sets out to assess the initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment in Europe (up to Q2 2020), including its effects across sectors and on different categories of workers. It also looks at measures implemented by policymakers in a bid to limit the negative effects of the crisis. It first provides an overview of policy approaches adopted to mitigate the impact of the crisis on businesses, workers and citizens. The main focus is on the development, content and impact of short-time working schemes, income support measures for self-employed people, hardship funds and rent and mortgage deferrals. Finally, it explores the involvement of social partners in the development and implementation of such measures and the role of European funding in supporting these schemes.

The primary objective of this study was to support the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) by providing an evidence base for their forthcoming Opinion on the European Commission’s initiative on minimum wages. Specifically, the study examined the local and regional dimension of minimum wages, an area only briefly covered in the current literature. The Commission’s initiative includes a proposed Directive which has as its focus the promotion of collective bargaining and the adequacy of statutory minimum wages. The research for the report was undertaken by Metis GmbH, conducted between December 2020 and February 2021 and comprising a literature review, data analysis, stakeholder interviews and case studies.

The pandemic made us all familiar with ‘social distancing’. Employers are starting to glimpse a future where ‘contractual distancing’ is progressively normalised.

by Nicola Countouris and Valerio De Stefano on 14th April 2021

The growth of digital labour platforms is presenting opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses and a need for international policy dialogue.

Teleworking refers to a form of organising and/or performing work, using information technology, in the context of an employment contract/relationship, where work, which could also be performed at the employer’s premises, is carried out away from those premises, on a regular basis, as defined in the European framework agreement on telework. The characteristic feature of telework is the use of computers and telecommunications to change the usual location of work

Backed by a robust economic growth, employment in the EU continued to rise more strongly than expected in the third quarter of 2017, while unemployment figures declined further according to the latest Quarterly Review on Employment and Social Developments in Europe.

Some 1.9 million workers around the globe will benefit from a revised code of practice which takes account of dramatic changes in the industry by incorporating a systematic and preventative approach to safety and health management.

23/01/2018

Open Round Table on the Future of Work [21]

[21]

A public Round Table on the Future of Work takes place on 5 February 2018 in the European Commission's Berlaymont building in Brussels. The event is organised by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) and it is a step...

A decade after its accession to the European Union (EU), Bulgaria [24] took over the rotating EU Presidency for the first time on 1 January, and its programme f

26/04/2017

European Commission presents the European Pillar of Social Rights [27]

[28]

The European Commission flanks the European Pillar of Social Rights with a number of further concrete legislative and non-legislative initiatives . The following topics/areas are covered: the work-life balance of working parents and carers, the...