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Avatar photoAgnieszka Piasna

Agnieszka Piasna is senior researcher in economic, employment and social policies at the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, focused on job quality, labour-market policies and regulation, working time and gender issues. She co-ordinates research in the framework of the ETUI project on contingent and platform work.

Migrant labour in the ‘gig’ economy: progress or trap?

Agnieszka Piasna and Wouter Zwysen

Platform work is often presented as a stepping-stone for migrant workers. It may not however feel so benign to them.

Digitalisation and job quality—the evidence

Agnieszka Piasna

The impact of digitalisation on work is uneven—but more positive where workers are protected by institutional arrangements.

Organising and bargaining in the platform economy

Agnieszka Piasna

Unions have the capacities to mobilise and represent platform workers and connected workforces in non-standard work forms.

The ‘freedom’ to work for nothing

Valeria Pulignano and Agnieszka Piasna

Irregular pay is one of the criticisms levelled at platform companies. But some of the time there is no pay at all.

What should a female career and family structure post-pandemic look like?

Agnieszka Piasna

The pandemic threatens to exacerbate gender inequalities and reinforce the association between women and unpaid care—unless contrary action is taken.

Gig-life balance?

Agnieszka Piasna

Impossible hours carved out by apps have often been presented as if self-determined ‘flexibility’ on the part of workers.

Better working conditions, more predictable work—the new EU directive

Agnieszka Piasna

The EU directive on irregular work is a positive step but it struggles with the contradiction of protecting workers from the labour-market risks transferred by capital.

Where Do We Stand With “More And Better” Jobs In Europe?

Agnieszka Piasna

The European Union has gone a long way since the Lisbon Strategy of 2000 with its “more and better jobs” objective. In parallel with the

Dispelling Creative Myths On Lower Employment Protection

Agnieszka Piasna and Martin Myant

In the years since the 2008 crisis, 229 employment protection reforms have been imposed across EU member states (see here). There has been a strong

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New Edition - Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025

Can Europe preserve its distinctive social model while simultaneously rearming, reindustrialising, and reorganising its economy in a more conflictual and competitive world? This is the central question raised in this new edition of the Bilan social, a reference publication released every spring for more than 25 years by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Social Observatory (OSE).

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Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

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Read the book "The open future and its enemies" 

A robust democracy must not leave the future in the hands of the alliance between Big Tech and the far right. AI must be politically reined in and democratically shaped so that humanity retains its sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as the driving force of progress. Yet it has long since become a challenge to democracy. The book argues that uncontrolled AI will erode our freedom, self-determination and democracy.

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WSI Minimum Wage Report 2026

Minimum wage policy across Europe has shifted significantly, with many EU countries raising wages above average and anchoring them to adequate living standards. This trend is consolidating as countries increasingly adopt the reference values recommended in the European Minimum Wage Directive — recently upheld by the European Court of Justice.

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S&D Africa Days 2026

We are pleased to invite you to save the date for the S&D Africa Days 2026, taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2026, in Brussels. 

At a time when Africa is too often viewed through narrow and one-sided narratives, this initiative reflects a key political priority for the S&D Group: to advance a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. 

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“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

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