ESENER-PSR 2009 - European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

4. Company vs. establishments: Problematic cases and practical solutions
4.1 Typology of countries by availability of address-registers and statistical
information on the universe
As outlined earlier in this report (see chapter 1.2), the establishment is considered the
preferable unit of enquiry for a survey of (personnel-) managers and employee representatives
on the topics of working-time, social dialogue and flexibility strategies. But there are quite a
number of countries where establishment-based address registers are not available.
Especially among the New Member States, only very few have address registers that are
based on the unit of establishments.
As can be seen in table 4.1.1, different degrees of (non-)availability can be distinguished:
Whereas there are countries where detailed and up-to-date information on the universe of
establishments is obtainable, but no suitable address-source for this level, there are others
where both addresses and the correspondent statistical background information are missing.
As already pointed out, the consideration of an address-register as “suitable” in the context of
this survey means first and foremost that its entries of establishments
a) cover all relevant sectors of activity and do not systematically exclude important sectors
(or parts of them) and
b) contain fairly reliable information about the sector of activity for each listed establishment
as well as
c) on the number of employees (size-class) working in the respective local unit.
The matrix printed below is based only on address-sources which fulfil at least the minimum
standards of both completeness and practical suitability defined above.
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