ETUI webinar series - The New Normal: Prospects for the World of Work after the COVID Crisis

Friday 12 June 2020, 14h-15h Brussels time

The Covid crisis and working time reduction - avoiding unemployment, boosting (mental) health and wellbeing and contributing to a more sustainable economy

Although it is not intuitive, the reduction of working time can be an important tool to mitigate the detrimental economic consequences of the Covid crisis, but also to lessen its negative impact on the (mental) health of the workers. What is more, a structural reduction of working time can also be an integral part of the socio-ecological transition to a green economy.

This ETUI webinar will look into these different facets of working time reduction. ETUI senior researcher Torsten Müller will present his recent co-authored Policy Brief comparing the different short-time work schemes in Europe and identifying criteria for fair short-time work which enables workers not only to retain their job, but also to live a decent life. Brendan Burchell from the University of Cambridge will talk about the impact of such short-time working programmes on the (mental) health of workers during the current crisis. His research team has released a short video Cut hours not people which you can watch before the webinar. And last but not least, Anna Coote from the New Economics Foundation will share with us her ideas on how and why shorter working hours should be a building block of the New Normal after Covid-19 thereby improving the quality of our life and helping to build a sustainable economy.

Speakers: Torsten Müller, Senior Researcher ETUI, Brendan Burchell, Reader in the Social Sciences, University of Cambridge and Anna Coote, Principal Fellow, New Economics Foundation

Host: Agnieszka Piasna, Senior Researcher ETUI

Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.