LEGISLATIVE UPDATES AND CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISONS OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN THE EU.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the evolution of legislation on work-life balance in the European Union (EU), from its first initiative adoption in 2019 to its mandatory implementation by the member states in 2022 (or later). Our research begins with an overview of the intial steps taken towards the implementation of such policies since 2017, revealing the concepts and significance of work-life balance in contemporary society, and briefly discussing the historical context of relevant laws and acts that paved the way for the most recent one, the Directive EU 2019/1158 (also known the worklife balance directive). In this context, we outline the key provisions of the work-life balance Directive and highlight primary studies that have monitored its implementation across EU member states (such as those made by Coface, Deloitte, European Commission, etc.). The paper updates our previous work on this topic regarding the progress of the Directive's implementation in those EU member states where such information was available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]