Publications

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György Dalos, Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Jean-Yves Potel

On a long way to democracy: from Berlin to Gdansk via Budapest and Prague

This book is of notable interest. It reconstructs the history of the dramatic events of the second half of the 20th century that took place in certain eastern European countries, rocking the regimes that had been installed there on the Soviet model in the aftermath of the Second World War. The timeline covers a 40-year period from the 1953 workers’... Find out more

Béla Galgóczi, Tommaso Pardi, Wolfgang Schade, ...

On the way to electromobility - a green(er) but more unequal future?

As it becomes clearer and clearer that none of the 14 million jobs in the broad automobile industry will remain unaffected by the transition to e-mobility, less attention has been paid to what would happen if Europe’s car industry failed to keep pace with the global competition in fast-evolving zero emission technologies. A new book from ETUI... Find out more

Minimum wage developments in 2022

Key points and policy recommendations Despite substantial minimum wage increases, in almost half of the Member States with a statutory minimum wage, these were not sufficient to safeguard the purchasing power of minimum-wage earners in the current cost-of-living crisis. In order to better mitigate the negative effects of high inflation on the lives... Find out more

Benchmarking Working Europe 2023

The central questions and main contextual background explored by this year’s issue of Benchmarking are, at their core, fairly straightforward. Europe is at a crossroads, painfully navigating four transitions at once: a (perhaps less than obvious) economic policy transition best exemplified by the debates surrounding the EU economic governance... Find out more

An untapped resource for trade unions

Policy recommendations • A critical mass of trade union members, i.e. beyond union activists, are willing to perform less-demanding tasks in support of their union; this is an internal union resource that is currently underutilised. As union tasks differ in terms of effort and time, they should be tested beforehand to estimate which kinds appeal to... Find out more

Juggling online gigs with offline jobs

Online labour platforms are redefining the world of work, but little is known even now about the drivers of worker engagement in this type of activity. Earlier studies focused on individual preferences and job characteristics such as flexibility or low entry barriers, but the relative role of such pull factors is limited given widespread worker... Find out more

Tommaso Pardi

Heavier, faster and less affordable cars

Between 1990 and 2019, the European transport sector was expected to reduce its CO2 emissions by 40 per cent to keep track with the 100 per cent CO2 reduction target on the 1990 level set by the European Commission for 2050. But, in fact, the transport sector has increased its CO2 emissions by 32 per cent during these last 30 years, with passenger... Find out more

Mariagrazia Lamannis

Collective bargaining in the platform economy

This paper presents the results of a mapping of social dialogue and collective bargaining experiences in the European platform economy. Building on a descriptive analysis of the initiatives, the report provides insights into collective bargaining strategies and factors that have led platforms to negotiate. It focuses on empirical and legal... Find out more

Bart Vanhercke, Sebastiano Sabato, Slavina Spasova, ...

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

At the beginning of 2022, hopes were high that the Covid-19 pandemic was on the ebb and that the European Union (EU) would be able to focus again on the main challenge of this century: how to proactively tackle the green and digital transition in a socially fair and inclusive way. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine dashed these hopes. Realpolitik... Find out more

The EU recovery strategy

This paper explores the EU recovery strategy with a specific focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and on its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. It aims, in particular, to provide a reflection on whether the established measures put forward sufficient safeguards... Find out more

Latest news

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May 23, 2023

Collective bargaining news highlights - April 2023

Denmark: new collective agreement for private sector approved A new collective bargaining agreement was approved by trade union members, securing employment conditions for around 600,000 private... Find out more

May 18, 2023

Amazon pushed to sign the International Accord for health and safety

On the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, the Make Amazon Pay coalition is urging Amazon to sign the International Accord for health and safety in the textile and garment industry... Find out more

May 15, 2023

UK government fails to protect workers from being exploited by AI technologies

On 18 April 2023, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) warned that the UK government is failing to protect workers from being ‘exploited’ by new AI technologies. The warning came as politicians, tech... Find out more

May 08, 2023

Labour shortages: not a shortage of skills so much as a shortage of pay

The European Year of Skills will be officially launched on 9 May 2023, but debates about labour shortages should not be focusing only on skills. Labour shortages in the European Union (EU) are... Find out more