Yasmin Dwiputri & Data Hazards Project / Better Images of AI / AI across industries. / CC-BY 4.0

Background The proposed EU directive on improving working conditions in platform work is the first legislative initiative that attempts to regulate the use of AI, in the form of algorithmic management, in the workplace. This innovative legislative proposal pursues a double goal: first, correcting the employment status of people working in digital labour platforms and…

The increasing and pervasive use of digital technology in the workplace is accompanied by a growing perception that the current regulatory and definitional frameworks used by legal systems to allocate obligations and protections in labour relations are becoming obsolete and inadequate. The rarefaction of labour law notions This inadequacy is evident in the diminishing significance…

The world of work is changing. In this context, the lines that divide self-employed and employed persons are becoming less and less discernible. This phenomenon has led to the numerical increase of dependent self-employed persons who find themselves in a comparable predicament to that of employees, where their weak negotiating position and economic dependency on…

Jardin du Mont des Arts

On 9 May 2022, the report on the final outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which contained 49 proposals and 320 targetted measures, also in the area of employment and social policy, was presented to the Presidents of the European Parliament (the Parliament), the Council of the European Union (the Council) and…

A growing body of research is devoted to in-work poverty. This should not come as a surprise. If poverty was long perceived as a problem associated with worklessness, the stubborn reality of high rates of poverty among workers in poor countries and the increasing inequalities in the growth of earnings in richer countries has changed…

Labour shortage Labour markets across Europe have become tight quite quickly after the pandemic with unemployment rates at record-low levels.  Eurozone businesses are confronted with unprecedented and widespread shortages of workers. According to the classical economic theory, in tight labour markets, workers gain bargaining power. However, wages have been stagnating for many decades now. Moreover,…

On 14 September 2022, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered the State of the Union speech, where she laid out the main steps to be undertaken by the Commission in the next year. Unsurprisingly, and understandably, the vast majority of the speech was dedicated to the war in Ukraine and…

The proposed Directive on improving working conditions in platform work is gradually proceeding through the EU’s legislative institutions, with a key vote in the EP scheduled for 25 October. Beyond introducing protections in the case of algorithmic management, the most crucial innovation envisaged by the Directive is the stipulation of a conditional legal presumption of…

International Labour Organisation, Geneva © David Mangan

What scope is there for social partner dialogue? The current economic situation remains affected by the Covid-19 pandemic; whether it is directly related to the virus’ variants or the effects of emerging from lockdown.[1] Given these circumstances, the European Commission’s recent activity is positive, even if we may criticise the details. One of the larger…

Brexit has prompted many companies to change strategy and relocate resources and headquarters to European Member States in order to continue operating within the EU perimeter and to maintain access to the common market and all the of the benefits of EU membership. Ernst & Young’s report of 2 March 2021 showed that around 40…