BACKGROUND
The countries of the Western Balkans are facing manifold economic and social challenges. Less than a decade ago, the Western Balkan countries were considered to be among the countries with the worst labour market statistics. Recently, however, quantitative labour market indicators have significantly improved throughout the region, although they are still well below EU averages. The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has developed three probability-based EU-wide surveys that provide high-quality data: the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) and the European Company Survey (ECS) and created more recently the Living and Working in the EU e-survey. The 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) is particularly important since it was conducted amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, and covered 36 countries (EU27, UK, Switzerland and Norway) as well as the six Western Balkan countries, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. It is in this context that Eurofound contracted FREN and the European Centre to conduct a comparative analysis on job quality and working conditions and draw recommendations for their improvement in the region.
AIMS
The contracted study aimed to:
- deepen the understanding of job quality, gender equality at work and quality of working life within the context of significant socio-economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically focusing on the six countries of the Western Balkans, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia;
- extract actionable insights that can inform policymaking and contribute to the improvement of working conditions across the region.
METHODS
Comparative analysis across the six Western Balkan countries
Case study on green transition in the Western Balkans
Expert Meeting Organisation and Facilitation
ACTIVITIES/MILESTONES
An analytical report detailing the current state of job quality, gender equality at work and quality of working life in the Western Balkans.
A working paper on the green transition in the Western Balkans.
Practical and actionable policy recommendations that can be implemented to improve working conditions and job quality.
Through the expert meeting, enhanced understanding among policymakers and stakeholders of the relevance and ways to support the improvement of working conditions and gender equality at work.
FINDINGS
The EWCTS delivered a wealth of findings on the aspects of work that affect workers positively (job resources) and negatively (job demands) in the WB6, including the following.
- The physical environment is highly strained, with three out of four workers having to engage in repetitive hand and arm movements, and 62 % having to maintain tiring or painful physical positions at work. Both of these rates are well above the EU average. On the other hand, the social environment is more positive than in the EU, with less intimidation and more support from managers and colleagues, which reflects entrenched societal values of solidarity.
- Work is not overly intensive, in relative terms, in the WB6 – 4 out of 10 workers always or often work at high speed, and one in three work under tight schedules. This compares favourably with the EU-27, where the corresponding shares in both cases are slightly below one half. With regard to resources, the WB6 are at a disadvantage. Only one third of the workforce reports significant ability to choose or change their method of work, compared with almost one half in the EU. Similarly, while fewer than two in five workers in the WB6 can choose or change the order of their tasks, almost three in five workers can do so in the EU-27.
- Working time is very long in the WB6, with both men and women working over 40 hours per week, and 45 % of workers working six or seven days a week. The average working week ranges from 40.5 hours in North Macedonia to over 44 hours in Montenegro. For comparison, in the EU, the average working time is 36.9 hours, with women working significantly fewer hours than men.
- Workers in the WB6 have the most difficulty making ends meet among 36 European countries, taking the last six places in the overall ranking for that criterion. While, in the EU-27, 26 % of all workers have trouble making ends meet, this percentage is 46 % in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 54 % in North Macedonia, 57 % in Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, and 69 % in Albania.
- An index of job quality, calculated by comparing job demands with job resources, indicates that around one third of workers in the WB6 are in ‘strained’ (i.e. lower-quality) jobs, where job demands outweigh job resources. In the EU, the corresponding share is somewhat lower, with 3 out of 10 workers engaged in strained jobs. It is encouraging that many jobs throughout the WB6, most notably in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, show high levels of job resources despite the limitations associated with their level of economic development.
- The EWCTS data confirm well-known facts regarding the gender segregation of sectors and occupations in the WB6. Women are almost five times more likely than men to work in the health sector, four times more in the education sector and almost two times more in commerce and hospitality. Men represent the vast majority of workers in transport (with a share almost four times higher than that of women) and construction (10 times higher than that of women). Within occupational groups, women are two times more prevalent among professional and clerical support workers, while men are three times more prevalent among plant and machine operators and craft workers.
- Gender disparities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work are striking. For full-time workers (the vast majority in the WB6), the ratio of paid to unpaid work for men is almost 3 to 1 (52 paid and 18 unpaid hours per week); for women, it is only 1.2 to 1 (46 paid and 38 unpaid hours per week). On average, women work a total of 84 hours per week between paid and unpaid work, while men work 14 hours less. Despite working many more (unpaid and total) hours, working women in the WB6 do not report more difficulties in achieving work–life balance than working men. Despite much higher total and paid hours of work being reported in the WB6 than in the EU, the shares of workers in the WB6 who report that their working hours fit ‘very well’ or ‘well’ with their family and social commitments (32.1 % and 45.5 %, respectively) are not significantly smaller than those in the EU-27 (34.2 % and 46.9 %, respectively). Among those in the WB6 who report that their working hours fit ‘not very well’ or ‘not at all well’ with their other commitments, the highest shares are in Montenegro (29 %) and Serbia (27.8 %), whereas the lowest share is in Albania (15.1 %).
