Working conditions and vulnerability: setting the agenda and challenges in the crisis:

Working conditions and the crisis : some findings from the European Working

Conditions Survey

Greet Vermeylen, research managerInGRID kick-off meeting, Leuven, 9 April 2013

Eurofound surveys and observatories

European Working Conditions Survey

’91,’ 95, ‘00, ‘05, ’10, ‘15

European Industrial Relations Observatory

(EIRO)

European Restructuring Monitor

(ERM/EMCC)

European Working Conditions Observatory

(EWCO)

Monitoring living and working conditions

in the EU

European Quality of Life Survey

‘03, ‘07, (’09, ‘10 (EB)), ‘11

European Company Survey

’04/’05, ’09, ‘13

European Jobs Monitor

European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS)

• European wide survey – 5 waves already: 1991, 1995, 2000 (+01/02), 2005 and 2010 – currently preparing 2015

• 1 questionnaire / translated in all the languages 2010: 25 languages and 16 variants

• Country coverage: EU + neighbour countries 5th EWCS (2010): 34 countries covered : EU27 + NO + ACC3 + IPA3 43000 interviews in total (1000/4000 interview per country)

• Workers survey: employees and self-employed (15+) (LFS def) face to face interviews

• Covers many different aspects of the conditions of work and employment of European workers (more than 100 questions) Demographics, structure of workforce, job characteristics, household info (incl work at home) Working time : duration, organisation Physical and psychosocial work factors Nature of work / place of work / work organisation Job content and training Work-life balance Information and consultation Outcomes : health, job satisfaction Earnings

• Gender mainstreaming : central in reflection on questionnaire

A few pointers on quality of work

• Quality of work and employment Multidimensional framework

• Capture the ‘world of work’ for all employees Taking into consideration :

different sectors / public/private / different jobs / gender / different job status / self-employed and employees

• The context matters: legislation, labour market, employment policies, social protection and social provisions, infrastructure…

• Context: Sustainability, ageing workforce, lifecourse and … the crisis

Talking about working conditions: multilevel and multiactor perspective

(not all covered by EWCS)

Level of analysis Examples of topic and roles

The worker Fit, able to combine work with care, equipped with marketable skills skills, motivated to work, preferences

The job What quality ?

The company HR and other policies and practices, work organisation practices, trade Union role, collaboration between workers

The labour market Unemployment and participation rates, transitions etc

The legal and regulatory framework

Rights and duties, financial incentives, promoting good practice, collective agreements

The welfare state Safety net, developing capacities, supporting social infrastructure

Working conditions and the crisis • Limitations of the instrument

Only those who are currently in employment – so not those who have lost their job

Limited information on their employment career• Impact of crisis not so easy to disentangle

What is (bad) evolution of working conditions, what is effect of crisis? Some effects might not be easy to interpret:

Work intensity : more work intensity because colleagues are laid off, less work intensity because there is less work…

Less temporary contracts / part time work (unvoluntary) Some questions however do reveal some effects :

Job insecurity, decrease in salary/working time in last yr, overall job quality and well being

Some results of the EWCS:working time: reduction over time

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1991199520002005201019911995200020052010

EC

12 (/

EU

15fro

m 1

995)

EU

27

20 or less 21 to 34 35 to 38 39 to 41 42 to 48 more than 48

EWCS

Change of working hours in the past year, by country, 2010 (%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

CY

BG

LT TR

ME

EL

KO

HR

LV EE

RO

MK

IE ES

PL

MT

IT AL

CZ

HU

AT

EU

FI

UK

SK

PT

SI

NO

BE

DK

FR

NL

SE

LU DE

DecreaseNo changeIncrease

Trying to capture the recession…

change of salary in the past year, by country, 2010 (%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

LV LT ME

IE EE

RO

BG

HR

EL

MK

AL

SI

IT ES

SK

HU

CZ

KO

TR PL

EU

27D

EFR P

TA

TB

EC

YU

KLU M

TD

KN

LFI N

OS

E

Decrease

No change

Increase

Working to tight deadlines, EC12, EU15 and EU27, 1991-2010 (%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1991 1995 2000 2005 2010

EU12

EU15

EU27

‘I might lose my job in the next 6 months’

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

LT EE CZ LV BG SI IE ES RO HU SE EL CY MT PT PL BE FINL IT SK UK FR DE AT DK LU

EU27

Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree

‘Job security’

inclusive labour market or the exhaustion of labour ( eg work

producing bad health ) ?

Poor self reported health Low mental well being

Managers

Professionals

Technicians and associate professionals

Clerical support workers

Service and sales workers

Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers

Craft and related trades workers

Plant and machine operators, and assemblers

Elementary occupations

0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40

Women Men

Managers

Professionals

Technicians and associate professionals

Clerical support workers

Service and sales workers

Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers

Craft and related trades workers

Plant and machine operators, and assemblers

Elementary occupations

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60

poor self reported health Women poor self reported health Men

Job quality (Green and Mostafa 2013)

• Builds on Eurofound (2002): - “career and employment security”, “health and well-being”, “reconciliation of working and non-

working life” and “skills development”- Development of 4 indicators -> dimensions that have detrimental or positive relations with well-being • Earnings: monthly earnings• Prospects : Job security, career progression, contract• Intrinsic Job Quality

- Skills and Discretion- skills use (problem-solving, complexity), learning and training, discretion and

influence over own work, occupation (incl. average education level in occupation)- Good Social Environment

- good support, absence of bad social relationships- Good Physical Environment

- inverted count of environmental and posture-related hazards- Work Intensity

- high effort requirements (including emotional demands), multiple work pressure sources

• Working Time Quality : length of working week, weekend, evening & night work, time discretion, time flexibility

Clusters Earnings WTQ IJQ Prospects Percent

High-Paid Good Jobs 2786.5 63.7 74.6 78.9 13.6

Well-Balanced Good Jobs 1029.7 68.4 74.3 71.0 37.2

Poorly-Balanced Jobs 1160.1 42.9 61.4 70.5 28.9

‘At risk’ jobs 726.9 52.7 57.3 34.4 20.2

Total 1245.7 57.2 67.2 64.5 100.0

Clusters of job quality & vulnerable workers …

Some reflections• EWCS: (only) those who are (still) in work

Quite coherent picture of working conditions Complement with information on employment / legislative framework /

social systems / … (/multilevel analysis) Important to consider working conditions over time

• Quality of work: a multidimensional framework is necessary• Some workers score negatively on all indicators

20% of workers score low on all 4 indicators: ‘at risk’, trapped ? -> vulnerable workers

• Impact on sustainability … • Tackle this: important for policy makers to disentangle the

different aspect which might lead to vulnerability…

Thank you

www.eurofound.europa.eugve@eurofound.europa.eu

Datasets of surveys available through Essex data archive