Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén, author at Social Europe

About Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén

Maria Petmesidou is professor emerita of social policy at Democritus University, Greece. For several years she was a member of the scientific committee of Comparative Research on Poverty, sponsored by the International Social Science Council and the University of Bergen. Ana M Guillén is professor of sociology at the University of Oviedo (Spain) and director of Promoting Work and Welfare in Europe. Her research interests include welfare-state development, comparative social and labour policy and Europeanisation and European integration.

A greener and more social pillar

by Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén on 1st April 2021

As the Social Summit looms, a step change in social and environmental rights is needed to realise the EU’s just-transition goal.

Time for a holistic workplace health-and-wellbeing strategy

by Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén on 15th October 2020

The pandemic demands moving beyond the fragmented and compartmentalised approach to occupational health and safety in the EU.

Rekindled north-south stereotypes are harmful for the European project

by Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén on 25th June 2020

Underlying the divisions bedeviling a recovery from the pandemic are stereotypes echoing those which emerged during the eurozone crisis.

With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland

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Renewing labour relations in the German meat industry: an end to 'organised irresponsibility'?

Over the course of 2020, repeated outbreaks of Covid-19 in a number of large German meat-processing plants led to renewed public concern about the longstanding labour abuses in this industry. New legislation providing for enhanced inspection on health and safety, together with a ban on contract work and limitations on the use of temporary agency employees, holds out the prospect of a profound change in employment practices and labour relations in the meat industry. Changes in the law are not sufficient, on their own, to ensure decent working conditions, however. There is also a need to re-establish the previously high level of collective-bargaining coverage in the industry, underpinned by an industry-wide collective agreement extended by law to cover the entire sector.

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Social protection during the pandemic: freelancers in the creative industries

This working paper identifies some key areas of policy intervention for advancing socially sustainable and fair solutions for freelancers working in the creative industries, who are among those who have suffered the most from the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, the authors focus on those who work entirely on their own account, without employees (ie the ‘solo self-employed’), and who undertake project- or task-based work on a fixed-term basis.

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Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.

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#Care4Care!

It took us a global pandemic to realise that we depend on care. Despite all the clapping from the balconies, care workers continue to work in precarious and vulnerable conditions. Women, who represent 70% of the care workforce, continue to suffer from a severe lack of recognition for both their paid and unpaid care work. It’s time for a care revolution! It’s time to #Care4Care! The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), together with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), has been intensively working since 2019 to monitor the EU gender equality policy agenda through a progressive lens focusing particularly on its care dimensions.

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