About Kate Holman

Kate Holman is a freelance journalist based in Brussels and a editor and writer at the ETUC.

One Small Town Against The Tide Of Italian Populism

by Kate Holman on 24/10/2018

Forgotten by time and abandoned by most of its younger generation, the old village of Riace in Calabria, clinging to the steep hillsides above the Ionian Sea, would be unknown to the outside world had it not become the reluctant embodiment of the political and social divisions tearing Italy apart. On Saturday 6 October, in […]

Will The Grass Be Greener For The Workers?

by Kate Holman on 27/07/2018

What are ‘green jobs’? According to the International Labour Organization, they are “decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.” Sounds great, but is it reality? The recent conference on ‘The […]

Trade Unions And A Completely Different World Of Work

by Kate Holman on 09/07/2018

Work is not what it used to be. Change is accelerating on all sides. And whether it is robots replacing people; digitalisation; freelance, short-term and zero-hours contracts or decarbonisation targeting traditional industries, few workers in Europe remain untouched. How do trade unions respond to all that? One message that emerged from a ‘big conference’ on […]

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The Positive Economic Impact Of Germany's Statutory Minimum Wage

With the empirical analyses of the macroeconomic effects of the introduction of the statutory minimum wage in Germany, the IMK tries to determine the short-term and expected medium- to long-term growth, price and employment effects with the help of a macro-econometric model. As a result, economic growth tended to be stimulated by the introduction of the minimum wage. This was mainly due to the higher wages of the minimum wage beneficiaries and a spillover effect on adjoining wage groups. In particular, this benefited people whose low savings rate led to a particularly strong increase in real private consumption. The price increases triggered were negligible on a macroeconomic scale.

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New Social Europe Book

Is an unconditional basic income without means-test or work-test compatible with social justice and individual self-worth? Does it open up the space for an end to demeaning labour and a resurgence of voluntary work and cultural life? Is it affordable? This collection of short but compelling essays, all previously published in Social Europe, allows both proponents and opponents to make their case and is designed to extend this vital discussion to a wider audience.

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Right-wing Populism in Germany and France

Why are more and more Europeans supporting populists? The significant gains made by these parties in Germany, Italy and Sweden underline the urgency of understanding the causes and appeal of populism. To uncover those, the study "Return to the politically abandoned: Conversations in right-wing populist strongholds in Germany and France" has applied a groundbreaking approach: The study team has knocked on more than 5,000 doors in structurally weak regions with a high proportion of right-wing populist voters. Read the study to find out about the other surprising results and why this paper has attracted such great interest by experts and journalists.

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Corporate income tax in the EU, the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) and beyond: is it the right way to go?

This working paper reviews key elements of the debate around the Commission’s proposals to tackle the problem of low effective tax rates for multi-national companies by instituting a Common Corporate Tax Base (CCTB). The paper begins with a non-technical discussion of the main issues, including earlier OECD and G20 proposals, and their implications for European tax policy. It then discusses the relevance of the CCTB proposal and considers to what extent it could provide a comprehensive solution for the main issues at stake.

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Webinar: Making the platform economy work well for workers

On 8 November 2018 from 14:00 to 16:00 CET, Eurofound will host the webinar ‘Making the platform economy work well for workers’. Platform work is one of the new forms of employment making a global impact. This two-hour webinar will go beyond the debate about the challenges inherent in this new form of employment and focus on possible solutions to tackle the work and employment-related implications of platform work. Sign up now to tune in!

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Social Europe Edition Book

Zygmunt Bauman was a towering intellectual who saw and analysed – right up to his death in early 2017 – the great socio-political changes, often convulsive, in modern western society long before his peers. Here we highlight his prescient insights into what he dubbed ‘liquid modernity’ with 24 chapters on topics ranging from online loneliness via precarity/poverty/inequality to migration, fear of the ‘Other’ and the decline of the nation state. Chronicle of Crisis, 2011-16, written by one of the great chroniclers of our times, will be read and re-read for decades and more to come.