Eurofound’s Management Board adopts new work programme for 2023, elects new Chair

Stefania Rossi has been elected Chair of Eurofound’s Management Board at the Agency’s annual Management Board meeting in Dublin on 18 November. She takes over from outgoing chair Jan Kouwenberg, representing the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) in Eurofound’s tripartite management structure. Ms Rossi represents Confindustria, the Confederation of Italian Industries. The annual gathering of Eurofound’s Management Board, with representatives from governments, employer organisations and trade unions in all EU 27 Member States, and the European Commission and the European Parliament, also approved Eurofound’s work programme for 2023.

During the coming year, Eurofound will continue to monitor developments in working conditions. Change over time and progress achieved in the various dimensions of job quality will be assessed, especially in relation to changes in work organisation such as telework, shift work and adapted workplaces. Non-standard forms of employment and the self-employed will be a specific focus. Building on the concept of sustainable work developed by Eurofound, the Agency will also provide evidence of the factors that allow more workers to stay in employment longer, which circumstances need to be improved, and how this can be achieved. The longer-term structural impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue.

Eurofound will continue to support the dialogue between management and labour and will analyse developments in industrial relations systems and social dialogue. Regular and timely updating of national industrial relations developments will be provided by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, including updates to the EU PolicyWatch database, which contains policy initiatives by governments, social partners and other actors. Data on wage and working time setting, including for minimum wages, will be reported regularly and findings will also be published on working time developments.

Focusing on employment and labour markets, Eurofound will continue to monitor and analyse how the labour market structure is changing, including as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine, in terms of net job creation and job loss by sector and occupation, as well as key characteristics of the job structure. The European Jobs Monitor EJM will continue to map job growth and decline across occupations and sectors and to identify shifts in the tasks profiles and some aspects of the quality of jobs, including educational attainment. The European Restructuring Monitor ERM will continue the examination of large-scale restructuring events and legislative measures.

It will also continue to monitor living conditions in the European Union, including the impact of the health and economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis and the implications of the war in Ukraine and will contribute to initiatives and assessments of the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and sustaining the European social model, with particular attention paid to the regional dimension. Specific findings regarding groups affected by demographic change, care responsibilities, developments in work–life balance, as well as regarding access to quality public services, could feed into the debate on the European Care Strategy and the Youth Guarantee

Eurofound´s priorities for 2021–2024 are shaped by the key challenges for social cohesion and just transitions in a changing environment in the context of the impact of the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis as outlined in the previous chapter. The Agency focuses on issues where it can draw on its core expertise in the areas of working conditions, industrial relations, employment, and living conditions to support its stakeholders, by providing evidence that can assist their policy action.

‘Bringing together all members of Eurofound’s Management Board in the tripartite setting in Dublin is a show of strength, and a welcome change from the way we have worked over the past couple of years,’ said Ivailo Kalfin, Eurofound’s Executive Director. ‘With our 2023 work programme firmly in place, we will work hard to deliver the research findings, data and analysis that our stakeholders have requested.’