COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch

18 May 2020

The disruption of work and life as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic across the EU is unprecedented. All countries have implemented regulations or recommendations to apply social/physical distancing such as teleworking or more stringent workplace health and safety measures. These have impacted first on businesses with direct face-to-face or client contacts, gradually forcing other business activities to turn to short-time work schemes, shut down or re-orient their working arrangements. Consequently, a growing number of businesses are coming under threat, putting the jobs of more and more workers at risk.

Policymakers – including governments, support institutions, social partners and other social actors – moved swiftly to mitigate the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens. Eurofound’s COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch aims to map measures introduced to cushion the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens. It also includes information on the role played by social partners in the design and implementation of the measures.

Eurofound’s database of national-level responses is available:  search the database

Background

Eurofound’s COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts. The aims are:

  • to give an overview of policy measures introduced in EU Member States (as well as Norway and the United Kingdom which also participate in Eurofound’s network of correspondents.)
  • to create a shared pool of information for Eurofound, its stakeholders and users
  • to record selected examples of company practices
  • to identify cross-country trends regarding policy measures as the crisis evolves

Data have been mainly provided by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, with quality control carried out by Eurofound staff. At present, Eurofound’s regular country updates on developments in working life have been suspended. A mapping report, COVID-19: Policy responses across Europe, drawing on the main contents of the database, is now available.

Scope

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch includes large-scale government measures and wider collective agreements, as well as regional and local initiatives and support measures for smaller groups of workers. As the situation is evolving, measures are newly implemented, changed or cancelled and replaced at rapid speed. It is planned to update the cases in July and October 2020 with information on the actual uptake of the main measures.

Outside the scope of this database are public health measures, travel and movement restrictions and company-specific job losses, the latter of which are reported in Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) events database. The ERM database on support instruments for restructuring also provides more structural information on some types of measures, as well as offering the option to filter by measures taken in response to COVID-19. More in-depth sector-specific guidance for adapting workplaces can be obtained from EU-OSHA.

In the current updating round, the database focuses on the following areas in the context of COVID-19:

  • Involvement of social partners in legislation and other statutory regulations
  • Collective agreements
  • Social partner initiatives
  • Company practices
  • More information is available here https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/

Latest updates

View all cases in the COVID-19 dashboard →

Contents

The database contains policy measures including collective agreements, as well as examples of company practices aimed at cushioning the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. Each case gives a short description of the regulatory background, followed by a summary of the content of the measures, target groups and eligibility criteria, the main actors involved in its design and implementation. In addition, information on the social partners’ involvement and role is provided.

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch forms part of Eurofound’s multi-pronged response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other ongoing work includes the online survey 'Living, working and COVID-19', the first findings of which were published on 6 May. A second wave of the survey was launched on 26 June, with the final results for both waves scheduled for September 2020. A comprehensive research report drawing on other research activities, will also be published later this year entitled 'COVID-19: Some implications for employment and working life'.

Categories of measures

The following main categories with associated subcategories are included. The bars show the number of cases in each category. You can click on a category to view all cases in that category, or use the dashboard to filter cases by various attributes.

View all cases in the COVID-19 dashboard →

Overview by country

The database covers all countries of the European Union, Norway and the United Kingdom. You can click on a country to view all cases in that country, or use the dashboard to filter cases by various attributes.

View all cases in the COVID-19 dashboard →

Raw dataset

Access to the raw dataset, updated at irregular intervals, is also available:

 

Useful? Interesting? Tell us what you think. Hide comments

Add new comment