The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has published the report Working conditions surveys - A comparative analysis.

The objective of this report is to awaken the interest of the research community in surveys of working conditions, and to illustrate how a variety of working conditions surveys are conducted in different European and other industrialized countries. In this case, priority has been given to a descriptive analysis of the surveys. The background for this study dates back to July 2001, when the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions announced its interest in financing an analysis of the national working conditions surveys being conducted in the European Union. Every five years, the Foundation conducts a working conditions survey in the Member States of the European Union. This survey was conducted in 1990/91, 1995 and 2000. Similar data collection systems exist on a national scale in Europe and other industrialized countries (Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States).

The Foundation has over a decade of experience in conducting working conditions surveys in Europe. Similar data collection systems exist at national and international level in Europe and further afield. These pages provide an in-depth comparison of 18 working conditions surveys.

The aim of the comparison is to identify and analyse the various approaches to working conditions surveys. The analysis includes both methodological and content issues. Elements covered include the technical characteristics of individual surveys such as frequency, population and sampling methods as well as their coverage of workplace issues including (among many others) working time and workplace health risks - from the perspective of the employer and the employee.

The analysis is based on work carried out for the Foundation by the Spanish National Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene (Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo, INSHT) and completed in 2002. Of a total of 51 individual surveys identified in the course of this work, 18 were selected for detailed analysis.

The report is available in English in PDF format.