This collective volume on quality of work in the European Union offers a comprehensive analysis on the current situation of the tensions between work and welfare in Europe, with a special emphasis on employment-related issues. The volume tackles a crucial aspect of employment policies, namely the strengthening of the quality dimension in the decisions taken by policy-makers to foster the performance of the labour market and to combine this orientation with the demands of workers for welfare, protection and a better reconciliation of work and family life. Quality of work has been on the agenda of policy-makers, practitioners and academics for the last few years, promoting a wide debate. The book provides a contribution to this debate and takes into consideration a range of issues associated with the analysis of work quality from an innovative perspective. Relevant subtopics including a conceptual and political analysis of work quality, wage differentials and in-work poverty, gender issues or workers'' direct and indirect representation in the firm and its relation with work quality are addressed.

Introduction Tensions between Quality 9 Quality of Work Concept and Measurement 19 Monitoring Quality of Work and Employment 41 Second Part Issues on the Quality of Work 85 Gender Wage Gap as a Tension between Quality 117 Changing World of Public Services 141 Third Part Quality of Work and Industrial Relations 161 The Multidimensional Impact of Workplace 187 Between Discourse and Facts Quantity 213 Comparative Indicators on Job Quality and Social Protection 233