Monitoring living and working conditions in the European Union

1. Monitoring living and working conditions in the European Union Robert Anderson Eurofound Centre for Workforce Futures Macquarie University, Sydney 20 September 2013

2. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions • A decentralised agency of the EU established in 1975 • Administered by a Governing Board • composed of national representatives of the social partners, national governments and the European Commission • Generates policy-relevant research and findings which contribute to improving the quality of work and life in Europe, through: • Comparative research and analysis of developments affecting living and working conditions • Monitoring of trends in living and working conditions • Identification of emerging issues

3. European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 1990/91; 1995/96; 2000; 2005; 2010; 2015 Monitoring living and working conditions: Surveys and Network of observatories European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) 2003; 2007; 2011/12; 2016 European Company Survey (ECS) 2004; 2009; 2013

4. Eurofound surveys: country coverage

5. Survey implementation • Eurofound develops questionnaires • Questionnaire translation and fieldwork tendered out • Tender specifications: balance between prescribing ‘best practice’ and inviting contractors to outline merits of their approach • Explicit quality assurance plan to accompany tender • Main difficulties • Limited number of potential contractors • Multi-level management structure (contractor and sub-contractors) • Budgetary constraints

6. Key elements of the quality assurance strategy for Eurofound surveys • Planning: using a systematic Quality Control Framework developed specifically for each survey • Consultation: experts and users of the survey participate in the development of the questionnaire, concepts and methodology • Transparency: opening up the process both internally and externally • Documentation: keeping track of everything, making sure that interventions can be traced back • Assessment of the quality of the process and output: EF surveys subscribe to the quality criteria of European Statistical System. External quality assessments are carried out after each round.

7. Extensive quality control • Careful selection of sampling frames • Separate enumeration in case of random route • State-of-the-art procedures for questionnaire translation • Explicit procedures for respondent selection • Experienced, well trained field force • Systematic monitoring as well as local spot checks of fieldwork • Elaborate procedures for coding and data cleaning • External data quality assessment

8. European Working Conditions Survey • Five waves: 1991, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 • 5th EWCS - 34 countries: EU27, NO, TR, HR, MK, MO, AL, XK • Employees and self-employed (15+; ILO definition) • Register based stratified random sampling • Random routes if no register available • Stratification by urbanisation and region • 43816 interviews • 1000-4000 interviews per country • Response rate (RR3) 44.2% (between 31.3% (ES) and 73.5% (LV)) • 40 minute ‘face to face’ interviews at peoples’ homes • 2010: 25 language versions of same questionnaire

9. Core surveyed aspects of working conditions working time, pay work organisation precarious employment work-related health risks cognitive and psychosocial factors work-life balance access to training leadership styles worker participation European Working Conditions Survey EWCS 2010: 120 questions 288 items

10. Selected highlights fromEuropean Working Conditions Survey

11. Exposure to physical risks (at least one quarter of the time) EWCS, 2010

12. Exposure to physical risks, 1991-2010

13. Psychosocial risks • High demands and work intensity • Emotional demands • Lack of autonomy • Ethical conflicts • Poor social relationships • Job and work insecurity

14. High demands and work intensity • Work intensity is measured using three questions • The number of determinants of the pace of work • Frequency of having to work at high speed • Frequency of having to work to tight deadlines • Work intensity increased over the last two decades but the increase slowed down since 2005 • 62% of workers report to be working to tight deadlines and 59% of workers report to be working at high speed (almost) all of the time

15. Lack of autonomy • Ability to change or choose • Order of tasks • Speed or rate of work • Method of work • 53% of workers control all these aspects • Autonomy increases with age • On aggregate, men and women do not differ

16. Work intensity and job autonomy by sector and occupation, EU27

17. Research on job quality Job level characteristics of work associated with health, well being in a positive or negative way See results: Eurofound (2012) Trends in job quality in Europe

18. Average job quality by establishment size

19. Four job quality clusters Score highest in terms of earnings, intrinsic job quality and prospects, but lower than cluster 2 on working time quality Rank lowest on earnings, intrinsic job quality and prospects but better on working time quality than cluster 3 Have the highest level of working time quality and the second-highest levels of intrinsic job quality and prospects; they score slightly lower than cluster 3 in terms of earnings Have the second-highest level of earnings, but rank third in terms of intrinsic job quality and prospects and lowest on working time quality

20. Low-quality jobs by Member State (%) (Eurofound, Fifth European Working Conditions Survey)

21. Capacity to change: Job quality indices in EU 15 countries, 1995-2010

22. To sum up, job quality over time in Europe Working Conditions: • Physical environment has hardly improved – in spite of efforts • Increase in index for skills and discretion in some countries is positive • Working Time Quality has improved in all countries • Evidence of work intensification is confirmed • Countries/groups exposed to different trade-offs • (Approach can be narrowed to employment quality or enlarged) One-fifth ‘at risk’ jobs: How acceptable and sustainable? This calls for a wide front of actions … in improving working conditions Changes in: • Work organisation and HRM practices may be necessary (the quest for the win-win practices) • As well as in developing the public authorities actions in relation to limiting externalities, promoting good practice etc. Monitoring is important

23. Selected highlights fromEuropean Quality of Life Survey

24. European Quality of Life Survey • Three waves: 2003, 2007 and 2012 • 3rd EQLS – 34 countries (EU27, TR, HR, MK, IS, ME, RS, XK) • Residents (18+) • Register based stratified random sampling • Random routes if no register available • Stratification by urbanisation and region • 43636 interviews • 1000-3000 interviews per country • Response rate (RR3) 41.3% (EU27) & 44.7% (non-EU) • 38 minute ‘face to face’ interviews at peoples’ homes • 25 languages and 13 language variants

25. Eurofound’s conceptual framework for measuring quality of life in EQLS • Scope that people have to attain their goals. • Quality of life is measured by objective as well subjective indicators. • Quality of life as overarching frame that entails concepts at level of individual, family, community, and society. • EQLS is based on a multi-dimensional concept of QoL: • Goes beyond focus on living conditions or resources, • The survey covers broad spectrum of domains of life (employment, housing, family, health, community, participation in society, socioeconomic (in)security); • and analyses interrelationship between domains (such as work, family, health and wellbeing); • Addresses quality of society: trust, intergroup relations, quality of public and neighbourhood services.

26. Core surveyed aspects of quality of life Subjective well-being Living standards and deprivation Home, housing, local environment Employment and work-life balance Family and social life Social exclusion and community involvement Public services, health, healthcare Quality of society European Quality of Life Survey EQLS 2011: 73 questions 183 items

27. Monitoring change over time:Happiness

28. Consistent social inequalities: health satisfaction (scale 1-10), EU27, EQLS

29. Views on the quality of long-term care services In general, how would you rate the quality of long-term care services in your country? (on a scale of 1-10, where 1 means very poor and 10 means very high quality) EQLS, 2012 More and Better Jobs in Home Care Services - Brussels, 12 September 2013

30. Difficulties in accessing long-term care (%) More and Better Jobs in Home Care Services - Brussels, 12 September 2013

31. Unpaid work Source: EQLS 2011

32. Challenges for work-life balanceby working hours (% at least several times a month) Too tired to do household jobs Family responsibilities suffer Difficult to concentrate at work

33. Family life and work – Pressures at home and at work

37. Social exclusion among people of working age (18-64)

38. Social exclusion index

39. More of EQLS

40. Data and background information • Eurofound Survey web pages • http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/index.htm • Technical reports • http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/eqls/2011/documents/technicalreport.pdf • External Quality Assessment reports • http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/ewcs/2010/documents/qualityassessment.pdf • Survey mapping tool on Eurofound website • http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/smt/eqls/results.htm • Data sets freely available on the UK Data archive • http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/availability/index.htm

41. Thank you Contact: rma@eurofound.europa.eu