This report examines the quality of the national social partners’ involvement in designing and implementing reforms and policies in the context of the European Semester cycle and in the preparation of the national reform programmes. Within the framework of NextGenerationEU, Member States in 2021 prepared and submitted recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) aimed at making European economies and societies more sustainable and resilient, as well as better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. Social partners reported that, despite their obligatory involvement in the preparation and implementation of the RRPs, the consultation process could have been better planned and organised, as the quality and intensity of involvement in a number of countries were quite low. This situation could be improved by ensuring more timely and meaningful involvement of social partners in the implementation of the RRPs. This would not only boost ownership in the process but also enhance the effectiveness of the policy actions and reforms envisaged.

Despite the well-known adverse effects of regular long working hours on workers’ health, well-being and performance, many workers in the EU continue to work beyond their normal hours. Part of this additional working time is classified as overtime. This report takes a comparative overview of how overtime is regulated in the EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom, including its definition, the limits on its use and the compensation received by workers for working extra hours. The report assesses the extent of the phenomenon using national-level data, delves into the factors that explain it, and examines the potential consequences for workers and firms. Finally, the report summarises the current debate on the topic, as uncompensated working hours, structural overtime and monitoring of working hours are currently some of the most discussed work-related issues across the EU.

As labour increasingly transcends the national container, a European layer of social insurance is increasingly necessary.

The agreement follows a critical Supreme Court judgment and the ‘riders’ law’ deriving from social dialogue.

The Council today (6/12/2021) agreed its position on a Commission proposal for an EU law on adequate minimum wages in the EU. Fair wages that provide for a decent standard of living are one of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. To improve working and living conditions, this draft law establishes a framework to promote adequate levels of statutory minimum wages, to promote collective bargaining on wage setting and to improve the effective access to minimum wage protection of those workers who are entitled to a minimum wage.

On 21 October, the European Commission hosted its first technical seminar focusing on social partners’ contribution to policy making. It forms part of the review aiming to support the EU sectoral social dialogue to better embrace challenges in the world of work, such as digitalisation and new forms of work.

The European Commission sponsors the “European Pillar of Social Rights” Award at the International Social Film Festival of Castilla-La Mancha (FECISO), taking place in Toledo.

A new report by the Expert Group on the transposition of Directive on transparent and predictable working conditions has been published.

The massive and rapid adoption of telework in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns exposed gaps in the legislation governing telework arrangements across the EU Member States. In some cases, there was no regulation in place; in others, it was too restrictive. Governments scrambled to put temporary measures in place to cover the emergency situation and the urgent need to enable workers to work from home. Now that the pandemic is receding and wholesale telework seems to be here to stay, governments are faced with the need to properly regulate such arrangements. Member States are following different paths, but the EU might step in to promote some level of standardisation.

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.