About Sigurt Vitols

Sigurt Vitols is a senior researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and an associate researcher at the European Trade Union Institute. His research focuses on corporate governance, worker participation, company law and sustainability. He was nominated by the ETUC as the (only) trade union representative on the EFRAG project task force on preparatory work on possible non-financial reporting standards.

Sigurt Vitols

A long-overdue step on EU sustainability reporting

by Sigurt Vitols on 21st April 2021

A draft directive on sustainability reporting begins to address the challenge of turning the corporate tanker towards a zero-emissions 2050.

Will workers’ rights lose out to ‘freedom of establishment?’

by Sigurt Vitols on 27th February 2019

Who stands for Europe: the council of member states or the parliament of the citizens? A little-noticed coming directive will once again test that issue—with workers’ rights at stake. Critics of the European Union have long maintained that the social dimension has too often received the ‘short end of the stick‘ when conflicts between protecting […]

EU Company Mobility Package: Implications For Social Europe

by Sigurt Vitols on 11th May 2018

Will the ‘freedom of establishment’ – one of the basic freedoms in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) – mean that companies can pick and choose the national regulatory regime most favourable to them? Or will it mean that companies will be constrained in their ability to avoid taxation and workers’ […]

WSI minimum wage report 2021: is Europe en route to adequate minimum wages?

In late 2020, the European Commission took an important step towards securing adequate minimum wages for all workers in Europe with the publication of a draft directive aimed at reversing the growing polarisation of incomes and the growth of in-work poverty. Securing an income sufficient for a decent standard of living will require substantial increases in minimum wages in virtually all member states—a medium-term objective that, according to the commission's calculations, would deliver clear social benefits. More than 25 million workers in Europe would benefit directly were statutory minimum wages to rise to either 60% of the median wage or 50% of the average wage. In Germany alone, where 60% of the median wage would equate to a minimum wage of €12.00, some 6.8 million workers would see increases in their pay.

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ETUI policy brief: teleworking in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic

It is essential companies and policy-makers understand the challenges associated with this modern way of organising work to avoid negative outcomes, especially in terms of occupational health and safety. Implementation of a teleworking system requires that employers take a number of precautions. According to the latest researches from the European Trade Union Institute, successful implementation of telework requires four categories of factors be aligned: individual differences in workers’ ability and desire to adapt; type of job; factors related to the particular household, such as availability of physical space and absence of distractions; and, critically, the employing organisation, in terms of a supportive culture, appropriate systems and a trust-based work environment.

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Living, working and Covid-19 (update April 2021): mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year

The third round of Eurofound's Living, working and Covid-19 e-survey, fielded in February and March 2021, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe following nearly a full year of living with restrictions. The report analyses the main findings and tracks developments and trends across the 27 EU member states since the survey was first launched in April 2020. It pinpoints issues that have surfaced over the course of the pandemic, such as increased job insecurity due to the threat of job loss, decline in mental wellbeing, erosion of recent gains in gender equality, fall in trust vis-à-vis institutions, deterioration of work–life balance and growth of vaccine hesitancy. The results of the survey highlight the need for a holistic approach to support all the groups hit hard by the crisis, to prevent them from falling further behind.

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FEPS book: Our European Future

The book Our European Future: Charting a Progressive Course in the World by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) is the first high-quality book for the next phase of the European project to be discussed in the Conference on the Future of Europe, authored by 36 top experts and intellectuals and edited by the FEPS president, Maria Joâo Rodrigues.

As the Conference on the Future of Europe is about to start—with its first plenary debate this month—it is high time to bring in a real debate about ideas. This book offers solutions to rethink our socio-economic model in the glare of the environmental and digital transformations; to redefine Europe’s role in the world to contribute to renewed multilateralism; to strengthen investment in public goods; and, finally, to reinvent our democratic contract.

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With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland

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