Transeuroworks project

TransEuroWorkS brings together knowledge from several disciplines such as economics, political science, social psychology, and sociology, including sub-disciplines in social policy, political economy, and comparative welfare states. Thus, we are able to provide a multi-disciplinary approach that is essential to understanding the full impacts of the new forms of non-standard work and labour market changes on workers, institutions, work relations, and policymaking.

Motivation

For the last two decades, European countries have faced unprecedented structural changes due to digitalisation, automation; the internationalisation of the workforce; and the transition towards a green economy. How national and EU-level interventions will mediate the effects of these transformations will profoundly impact the future of European citizens, the economy, and political stability.

Aim

At the centre of TransEuroWorkS are three critical structural labour market transformations: green transition and decarbonisation, technological change, and the internationalisation of the workforce. With an attention to the effects of these changes on inequality, poverty, education, skill demand, and social exclusion, TransEuroWorkS addresses three main questions:

How do decarbonisation, technological change, and internationalisation of the workforce impact the world of work in Europe?

How can the EU and member states become more resilient and responsive to these changes and their impacts?

What are the implications of the changing forms of work and work relations on European citizens’ well-being and social protection?

To do so, TransEuroWorkS provides a practical theoretical approach and innovative empirical tools to produce insights, new data, original knowledge, and social innovations to identify the impact of labour market changes and new kinds of work forms on workers. The project then maps the social protection gaps and suggests potential new pathways for policy adjustments.

To achieve this goal, the research focuses on eight key policy areas:

Unemployment insurance

Sickness insurance and health policies

Upskilling and retraining, retirement policy

Work-life balance

Family and care policies

Gender equality

Foreign labour recruitment and freedom of movement.

The ambition of TransEuroWorkS is to contribute to strengthening the region’s position globally and improving social cohesion and democracy, by supporting and improving the capacity of Europe to evaluate and proactively respond to these future transformations through evidence-based approaches.

Methodology

TransEuroWorkS proposes a comprehensive and multi-level approach to the world of work and social protection that guides the project’s design and implementation.

TransEuroWorkS proposes a comprehensive and multi-level approach to the world of work and social protection that guides the project’s design and implementation.

World of work:

TransEuroWorkS proposes to study the world of work in two interacting dimensions: workforce and labour markets.
We propose to study the workforce concentrating on economic, social, political, and psycho-social outcomes at the individual level and their implications for household poverty, well-being, and family relations. The project also considers heterogeneities based on non-standard forms of work, especially taking into consideration gender, nationality, and employment contracts and forms outside of the full-time male-breadwinner view of workers and households. This also includes new forms of digital work.

Workforce:

TransEuroWorkS will, conceptually and empirically, map the different categories of individuals and households potentially affected by these changes in work.

The project considers different subgroups of workers focusing on various forms of heterogeneities within these groups based on gender, age, immigration background, employment type, and disability. In addition, the research tries to understand the future of social protection for those workers outside of the traditional scope of active workers, which relates to the unemployed, those seeking additional training, retirees, and individuals who perform unpaid work.

Labour market:

TransEuroWorkS concentrates on labour markets with a focus on exploring the impact of the three labour market transformations at the national and EU-level labour

markets, and how existing regulations and policies have mitigated or amortized workers and economies in facing such changes. Overall, the project approaches the labour markets and combines the analyses of Employers and firms/corporate governance, Trade unions and collective bargaining, and National and EU-level employment regulation, policy, and macroeconomic dynamics.

Social protection:

TransEuroWorkS understands the current labour market transformations not only as posing risks to the workforce
but also as providing opportunities to redesign and strengthen social protection policies as proactive interventions that seek to mitigate the negative effects of these transformations. TransEuroWorkS aims to trace a new conceptual and empirical direction for social protection whereby new forms of work can be reconciled with the welfare state within the current and future transformative contexts. The research proposes three conceptual pillars on which its new social protection paradigm provides the basis of its analytical framework.

Sustainable social protection:

Concerning the sustainability dimension, TransEuroWorkS highlights three different aspects:

-Environmental sustainability of social protection in helping adapt the labour markets to the green transition and the associated surge in green jobs and skills
– Political sustainability for a cohesive and harmonious implementation of the decarbonization processes and other transformations. The project understood that it has become a fundamental aspect to take into consideration the variation among citizens concerning welfare policy preferences and their antecedents to understand the political consensus around the welfare state and social protection
– Budgetary sustainability of social protection. An inclusive decarbonization policy means considering principles of environmental justice, ensuring that greater responsibility lies with those industries that most contribute to climate change while, at the same time, creating new revenue mechanisms that can finance this transition.

Mobile social protection:

There are two critical types of mobilities in today’s world of work where existing social protection appears

insufficient in providing adequate support: geographical mobility intensified by the internationalisation of the workforce and the within-EU human mobility, and the job transitions and occupational/sectoral mobility, both accelerated by the technological changes and the green transition policies.

Inclusive social protection:

Workers in sectors that are impacted by immigration, technological advancements, and decarbonization

have a disproportionate risk of economic vulnerability due to the increasing difficulties associated with skill adaptation and obtaining secure employment. Among these groups, some employees are more affected than others, including those who are younger and older, women, and those who are responsible for caring for others in a workplace that emphasizes flexibility and the need for new skills across extended working lifetimes. If only a certain privileged portion of the population can assume the expenses of reskilling, job transitions, and mobility, adaption to the new skills runs the risk of further escalating inequalities based on immigration background, gender, and socioeconomic class cleavages.