Pensions in the age of Covid-19

The economic and health crisis triggered by the Covid‑19 pandemic leaves the European Union facing the steepest decline in production and employment since the Second World War, on top of economic fundamentals that are already fragile as a result of the disastrous effects of the double fall associated with the great financial crisis and the... Find out more

Editorial David Natali This issue of Transfer addresses some of the main analytical and substantive questions stemming from the pandemic that first hit Europe in February 2020. The magnitude of the crisis, in terms of both its impact on health and well-being, and its consequences for economic prospects, is enormous. The massive spread of the virus... Find out more

Editorial Tomas Berglund, Torsten Müller One of the greatest risks affecting workers on today’s labour markets is unemployment. Losing one’s job usually entails not only the loss of one’s main source of income, but also psychological consequences resulting, for example, from the loss of colleagues and satisfying work tasks ( Jahoda, 1982 ). While a... Find out more

Editorial Béla Galgóczi This first issue of the SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe for 2021 focuses on the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic across the region, with a view also to the role of the EU. When the SEER devoted an issue to the pandemic a year ago, the region was comparatively less affected than western... Find out more

With work a key vector of Covid‑19 transmission, this report examines why it is critical that occupational health and safety measures take centre stage in mitigation policies. Workers in sectors declared essential by state authorities have been mandated to continue working in physical settings during the pandemic. Several such sectors involve many... Find out more

Policy implications Policymakers should address the risk of the gradual disappearance of the physical workplace, and with it of the notion of choice in relation to remote working. As segments of the workforce return to the workplace, employers should ensure the continuity of countermeasures to buffer isolation. It will be essential for employers to... Find out more

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 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... Find out more

This paper analyses the economic policy-making in the first phase of the epidemic in five Central Europe countries, Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, whose economic structure is characterized by strong export orientation. The focus is on the participatory character of the governments’ COVID-19 packages, on their design, and targets... Find out more

This issue of the SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe for 2020 focuses on EU-western Balkans relations at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a particular insights to the policy approaches in Croatia and Turkey. In terms of the number of cases per capita, western Balkans countries have been affected by the pandemic to a... Find out more

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that highly mobile workers who frequently move either within or in and out of the European Union (EU) are irreplaceable during a public health crisis. Nevertheless, they often remain the least protected and most vulnerable. Measures introduced to protect workers in standard employment relationships during a public... Find out more