Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) is conducted by Eurofound (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions). Since its launch in 1990, the EWCS has provided an overview of working conditions in Europe. The main objectives of the survey are to:assess and quantify working conditions of both employees and the self-employed across Europe on a harmonised basis;analyse relationships between different aspects of working conditions;identify groups at risk and issues of concern as well as of progress;monitor trends by providing homogeneous indicators on these issues; andcontribute to European policy development in particular on quality of work and employment issues.Themes covered include employment status, working time duration and organisation, work organisation, learning and training, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, work-life balance, worker participation, earnings and financial security, as well as work and health.The EWCS paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. Its findings highlight actions for policy actors to help them address the challenges facing Europe today. The EWCS is generally conducted once every five years, although an extra wave was conducted in 2001 to cover the new acceding and candidate EU countries. The survey is based on a questionnaire which is administered face-to-face to a random sample of 'persons in employment' (i.e. employees and the self-employed), representative of the working population in each EU country. An integrated dataset is also available (see SN 7363) which combines data from the first five waves of the survey in one file. Before working with the EWCS data, users are recommended to read the latest supplementary supporting documentation on the Eurofound European Working Conditions Survey webpages. Further information about the series can be found there, including methodological information, technical reports and reports on translation, sampling implementation, sampling evaluation and weighting, coding, quality control, quality assurance and other publications.

The EWCS 1990-1991 also formed part of the Euro-Barometer 35A: Working Conditions, Spring 1991 survey (see under SN 2954).

Main Topics:

Topics covered included: exposure to noise, bad weather and other hazardous conditions during work; repetitive, tiring or painful working activities; choice and decision-making regarding work tasks, methods and order of activities; access to sufficient information regarding work tasks; adequacy of training and equipment; support from colleagues and managers; whether wages are dependent on respondents' work rate; whether health and safety risks are present due to working conditions; attempts to change job to seek healthier or safer work; hours worked per week.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

See documentation for details.

Face-to-face interview