The Policy Analysis Group of the EU Employment Committee (EMCO) organised on 24 and 25 March a tripartite meeting with social partners to discuss the gender dimensions of job quality. It gathered Member States, the Commission and social partners at cross-industry EU level - ETUC, BusinessEurope, SGI Europe, and SMEunited - and national level. 

Pay gaps between men and women – that is, when women earn less than men for doing the same work or work of equal value, or when the set-up of pay structures and career progression disadvantages one gender over another ‒ can arise for a variety of reasons, including direct and indirect discrimination. They can also stem from an undervaluation of work traditionally carried out by women.

This report analyses and compares the content of 94 collective agreements in three low-paid sectors – manufacture of food, leather, textiles and clothes; residential and social care; and retail – across 11 EU Member States and Norway. The report examines how collective bargaining regulates working conditions beyond wages and how these topics have evolved between 2015 and 2022. The findings show that collective agreements improve the job quality of workers in low-paid sectors beyond their pay.

This article provides an update of some of the most important aspects of working time regulation in the European Union, including:

• statutory limits on weekly working time
• annual leave entitlements, as set by law and collective agreements
• estimates of average collectively agreed normal working time, including examples in five specific sectors: chemicals, metalworking, banking, retail and public administration.