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 manager InGRID 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 questionnaire / translated in all the languages  2010: 25 languages and 16 variants Country coverage: EU + neighbour countries  5 th EWCS (2010): 34 countries covered : EU27 + NO + ACC3 + IPA3  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 analysisExamples of topic and roles The workerFit, able to combine work with care, equipped with marketable skills skills, motivated to work, preferences The jobWhat quality ? The companyHR and other policies and practices, work organisation practices, trade Union role, collaboration between workers The labour marketUnemployment and participation rates, transitions etc The legal and regulatory framework Rights and duties, financial incentives, promoting good practice, collective agreements The welfare stateSafety 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 EWCS

Change of working hours in the past year, by country, 2010 (%) Trying to capture the recession…

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

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

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

‘Job security’

inclusive labour market or the exhaustion of labour ( eg work producing bad health ) ? Poor self reported healthLow mental well being

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

ClustersEarningsWTQIJQProspectsPercent High-Paid Good Jobs Well-Balanced Good Jobs Poorly-Balanced Jobs ‘At risk’ jobs Total 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 Datasets of surveys available through Essex data archive