European Foundation
for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions

The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist
in the development of better social, employment and
work-related policies

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch

Database of national-level responses

Eurofound's COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.

Overview

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch currently contains 1307 measures introduced by governments and social partners to cushion the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens.

Use the side navigation to find measures by country, type of measure, category, or target group.

Categories

Target groups

The database indicates for each measure to which target groups it applies, broadly differentiating between workers, businesses and citizens.

The database contains 42 specific target groups, including for example:

Recently updated measures

Support Package social and mental wellbeing and lifestyle

The Government is making an extra €200 million available for a social support package aimed at social and mental well-being and lifestyle. This is necessary because the coronavirus and corona measure...

Netherlands | 16 June 2021

Subsidy for fixed costs for SMEs

This measure was initiated by a member of parliament and the national government (Specifically Dijkhoff (VVD - centre right party) and Jette (D66 - liberal democrat party)), and employer organisations...

Netherlands | 15 June 2021

Support for households at risk of serious financial difficulty

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some households face a drop in their income. The already existing social security system and the measures from other support packages (TVL and NOW) are not effective in s...

Netherlands | 15 June 2021

Involvement of social partners in legislation

Eurofound identified 841 legislations and other statutory regulations, 513 of which have been created entirely new in the context of COVID-19. This section gives an overview of social partner's involvement in designing and implementing these measures.

Role of employers' organisations in designing the measure

  • In 468 measures, employers' organisations were involved:
  • In 221 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 152 remaining measures the involvement is unknown, or they were considered as being out of the social partner's domain.

Role of trade unions in designing the measure

  • In 437 measures, trade unions were involved:
  • In 229 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 175 remaining measures the involvement is unknown, or they were considered as being out of the social partner's domain.

Implementation, monitoring and assessment phase

  • In 153 measures, social partners were involved:
  • In the remaining 688 measures, there was no involvement or the involvement is unknown.

Collective agreements

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 104 collective agreements. Most of them were identified in France and the most commonly found provisions relate to employment retention, income protection, and health and safety.

Contents

24 agreements additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

    • Protocol for vaccination in the workplace

      As part of the broader action to fight the COVID-19 emergency, the social partners signed a Protocol for the development of company plans for the establishment of vaccination points in the workplaces....

      Italy | 12 April 2021

      Updated measures for preventing contagion in workplaces

      On 6 April 2021, the tripartite "Shared protocol for updating the measures to combat and contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 virus in the workplace" was signed between the government and the...

      Italy | 12 April 2021

      New public service agreement concluded against background of pandemic

      A new public service agreement was agreed between public service unions and management in December 2020. It was ratified in February 2021 by a majority of trade unions on the public service committee ...

      Ireland | 12 April 2021

Social partner initiatives

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 72 social partner initiatives. Most of them were identified in Germany and belong to the category Protection of workers, adaptation of workplace.

Main themes

Company practices

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 154 company practices. Most of them were identified in Germany and the most commonly found provisions relate to health and safety, work organisation, and telework.

Contents

39 company practices additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

    • Enter Air signs loan agreement for €60 million

      Enter Air signed an agreement with the Polish Development Fund (PFR) under which it is to receive a liquidity loan from the Financial Shield 2.0 (for large companies) in the amount of PLN 287 million ...

      Poland | 19 April 2021

      Liquidity loan for Polish Mining Group

      In late March the application of the Polish Mining Group (Polska Grupa Górnicza, PGG) for financial aid under the Financial Shield 2.0 scheme was approved. As a result the company will receive a liqui...

      Poland | 15 April 2021

      Danske Bank gives employees a grant to upgrade their workspace at home

      After the introduction of quarantine in Lithuania (the first quarantine lasted from 16 March to 16 June 2020 and the second quarantine was introduced on 7 November 2020), most companies and organisati...

      Lithuania | 13 April 2021

Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.