Workplace innovation : Europe's competitive edge : a manifesto for enhanced performance and working lives

Why a manifesto? Workplace innovation is an increasingly influential global movement. With strong European origins, it is increasingly recognised by policymakers and other stakeholders in countries across the world as a powerful tool in helping to achieve diverse economic and social policy goals, from inclusive growth and productivity to mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. For enterprise leaders, managers and employee representatives, it provides an actionable framework for effective, sustainable and win-win organisational change, one solidly grounded in research evidence as well as practical experience. Yet we know from successive EU-wide surveys (most recently the 2019 European Company Survey) that there is a long tail between the less than 20% of European companies using workplace innovation practices systematically throughout their organisations and the majority. The EU misses out on potential gains in business performance, workforce skills and health. Several European governments have recognised the importance of workplace innovation within their economic policy platforms and actively implement measures to enhance awareness, promote dissemination and stimulate research. The European Commission itself adopted workplace innovation as part of its policy portfolio, creating the European Workplace Innovation Network (EUWIN) in 2013. Since 2013, EUWIN has been a consistent advocate for the broader adoption of workplace innovation policies and programmes at regional, national and EU levels. Now supported solely by its partners in ten European countries, EUWIN welcomes the European Commission's continuing recognition of workplace innovation but argues strongly for expanding related measures in its industry, employment and research policy fields. EUWIN also argues for the expansion of national and regional policy measures throughout Europe, and enhancing awareness amongst social partners and other stakeholder bodies. This manifesto addresses the European Social Pillar agenda as well as the broader policy priorities of DG EMPL and DG GROW. It summarises the nature, origins and policy significance of workplace innovation, making a case for enhanced recognition throughout Europe's policy eco-system

De toekomst van werk. Over ecologische, technologische en politieke ontwikkelingen en het belang van strategische keuzes en politieke strijd

n dit artikel wordt een aantal factoren besproken die naar onze mening mondiaal van invloed zullen zijn op de toekomst van arbeid. We lichten er drie belangrijke factoren uit, namelijk ecologische, technologische en politieke invloedfactoren. Uit onze beschouwing komt een gemengd beeld over de toekomst van werk naar voren. We zien groei van vakmanschap en decent work, bijvoorbeeld gekoppeld aan de energietransitie en in de micro-elektronica, maar ook het voortduren van werk dat niet voldoet aan de (ILO-)standaarden van decent work zoals nachtwerk in distributiecentra en platformarbeid. Het voortdurende proces waarin de toekomst van arbeid zich ontwikkelt is onderhevig aan strategische keuzen en politieke strijd van verschillende stakeholders in de context van ecologie, technologie en politiek. De vorm (loonarbeid, zelfstandige arbeid) en inhoud van werk, de beroepenstructuur en de arbeidsverhoudingen veranderen door onder andere AI en overheidsbeleid. De Europese politiek kiest een actievere opstelling. Voor de Europese Commissie staat beleid gericht op regulering van bijvoorbeeld kunstmatige intelligente (artifical intelligence; AI) niet op zichzelf, maar wordt ook geleid door het streven naar bescherming van het Europese type open society met democratische vrijheden voor burgers, onafhankelijke rechtspraak en vrije media. Stakeholders die, net als wij, decent work en de open society als referentiepunt hebben voor de gewenste toekomst van werk zullen zich daarvoor in het politieke speelveld hard moeten maken

Probiotic Bifidobacterium breve Induces IL-10-Producing Tr1 Cells in the Colon

Specific intestinal microbiota has been shown to induce Foxp3+ regulatory T cell development. However, it remains unclear how development of another regulatory T cell subset, Tr1 cells, is regulated in the intestine. Here, we analyzed the role of two probiotic strains of intestinal bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Bifidobacterium breve in T cell development in the intestine. B. breve, but not L. casei, induced development of IL-10-producing Tr1 cells that express cMaf, IL-21, and Ahr in the large intestine. Intestinal CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs) mediated B. breve-induced development of IL-10-producing T cells. CD103+ DCs from Il10−/−, Tlr2−/−, and Myd88−/− mice showed defective B. breve-induced Tr1 cell development. B. breve-treated CD103+ DCs failed to induce IL-10 production from co-cultured Il27ra−/− T cells. B. breve treatment of Tlr2−/− mice did not increase IL-10-producing T cells in the colonic lamina propria. Thus, B. breve activates intestinal CD103+ DCs to produce IL-10 and IL-27 via the TLR2/MyD88 pathway thereby inducing IL-10-producing Tr1 cells in the large intestine. Oral B. breve administration ameliorated colitis in immunocompromised mice given naïve CD4+ T cells from wild-type mice, but not Il10−/− mice. These findings demonstrate that B. breve prevents intestinal inflammation through the induction of intestinal IL-10-producing Tr1 cells

Crosstalk between different family members: IL27 recapitulates IFNγ responses in HCC cells, but is inhibited by IL6-type cytokines

Interleukin-27 (IL27) is a type-I-cytokine of the IL6/IL12 family predominantly secreted by activated macrophages and dendritic cells. In the liver, IL27 expression was observed to be upregulated in patients with hepatitis B, and sera of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients contain significantly elevated levels of IL27 compared to healthy controls or patients with hepatitis and/or liver cirrhosis. In this study, we show that IL27 induces STAT1 and STAT3 phosphorylation in 5 HCC lines and 3 different types of non-transformed liver cells. We were especially interested in the relevance of the IL27-induced STAT3 activation in liver cells. Thus, we compared the IL27 responses with those induced by IFNγ (STAT1-dominated response) or IL6-type cytokines (IL6, hyper-IL6 (hy-IL6) or OSM) (STAT3-dominated response) by microarray analysis and find that in HCC cells, IL27 induces an IFNγ-like, STAT1-dependent transcriptional response, but we do not find an effective STAT3-dependent response. Validation experiments corroborate the finding from the microarray evaluation. Interestingly, the availability of STAT1 seems critical in the shaping of the IL27 response, as the siRNA knock-down of STAT1 revealed the ability of IL27 to induce the acute-phase protein γ-fibrinogen, a typical IL6 family characteristic. Moreover, we describe a crosstalk between the signaling of IL6-type cytokines and IL27: responses to the gp130-engaging cytokine IL27 (but not those to IFNs) can be inhibited by IL6-type cytokine pre-stimulation, likely by a SOCS3-mediated mechanism. Thus, IL27 recapitulates IFNγ responses in liver cells, but differs from IFNγ by its sensitivity to SOCS3 inhibition

Workplace Innovation

status: publishe