Workplace cyberbullying or ‘digital harassment’ is only explicitly covered in regulatory frameworks in Denmark in the EU, with other Member States either attempting to extend legal definitions to include misconduct occurring through information and communication technologies (ICTs) or outside of the physical workplace; or lacking any definition of workplace bullying or harassment in law.
Urban and capital areas have disproportionately benefitted from the digital revolution in Europe, with a high rate of knowledge and service-based jobs. By comparison, many rural areas risk being left behind, with unbalanced urban economic dominance further deepening urban-rural divides.
In a new episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Research Manager Tina Weber about the evolution of the right to disconnect in Europe, the reasons why legislative and procedural actions are being called for, the impacts that effective right to disconnect policies can have, and what the debate indicates about the post-pandemic world of work.
The growth of platform work has highlighted its potential for those that require more flexible work arrangements but has also raised concerns about working conditions and exposing the vulnerability of platform workers with respect to access to safe working environments and social protection.
Eurofound research has demonstrated that existing initiatives often fail to provide both platform workers and platform companies with the regulatory predictability and legal certainty needed for ensuring good working conditions and a level playing field.
Platform work is on the rise across Europe, bringing new pressures to bear on working conditions and labour markets and putting a spotlight on the wide-ranging individual risks. Who are these workers, what do they do and how can we ensure they are protected while we grow this new form of employment? This is the focus of the latest episode of Eurofound Talks.
New technologies such as the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and virtual and augmented reality can help put greater emphasis on managerial and analytical tasks, reduce physically demanding tasks, drive the upgrading of skills and increase job discretion. However, some aspects of these technologies, particularly the Internet of Things, raise concerns that employee performance could be excessively
The shift to telework during the pandemic, and increased demand for more hybrid working arrangements in the future, is putting the spotlight on whether existing labour legislation is fit for purpose in post-pandemic Europe, according to Eurofound’s new report Right to disconnect: Exploring company practices.
Eurofound Research Managers Tina Weber and Oscar Vargas will explore developments in teleworking in Europe and present latest data at a LIVE #AskTheExpert webinar on Thursday 3 June 2021 at 10:00 – 11:00 IST/11:00 – 12:00 CEST.
In the most successful businesses, managers were found to facilitate employees to work independently rather than to focus on controlling whether they carried out their tasks. Closely monitoring employee behaviour might indeed ensure that workers do their job but is unlikely to motivate them to go beyond their job description.
Standard employment is not simply being replaced by non-standard work; employment is becoming more diverse, and policy must accordingly become more tailored.
Continued dominance of large non-EU service and work platforms could result in an oligopolistic market situation in the EU in the future. This could hamper the market entry of new players, endangering healthy competition and economic and labour market innovation to the detriment of platform workers and consumers, as well as the broader economy.
Platform work is still small in scale in Europe, but it is increasing – and this not only in terms of the number of platforms, workers and tasks, but also the diversity of business models, matching mechanisms and types of tasks that are mediated through an online platform or an app.
On 8 November 2018 from 14:00 to 16:00 CET, Eurofound will host the webinar ‘Making the platform economy work well for workers’. This two-hour webinar will go beyond the debate about the challenges inherent in this new form of employment and focus on possible solutions to tackle the work and employment-related implications of platform work.
The onset of the digital revolution has resulted in technological advances that are constantly evolving. This report reviews the history of the digital revolution to date, placing it in the context of other periods of marked technological advances and examining how technological change interacts with changes in institutions.
The new report Game changing technologies: Exploring the impact on production processes and work summarises the findings of five case studies on the likely impact of game changing technologies on production and employment in the manufacturing sector in Europe up to 2025.
Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) is a tripartite EU body, whose mission is to provide knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies.
