Brussels Airport

EU aviation sector social dialogue On 25 January 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for strengthening social dialogue. In this post, we argue that EU aviation is a pivotal sector in which social dialogue must not only be utilised, but also flourish. Our argument draws from the way in which this sector has lurched…

Thomas Lefebvre

The COVID-19 pandemic has globally shifted millions of people from working at their workplace to teleworking from home.[1] Even though the pandemic seems to have subsided and people have returned to the office, the phenomenon of remote work has become an integral part of modern working life.[2] In this essay, I aim to demonstrate how…

The rise of digital nomads following the Covid-19 Pandemic   For years, workers have been longing professional and personal freedom, especially the Millennials and Gen Z population. The willingness to escape the so-called ‘rat race’ and the ‘9-to-5 mentality’ is omnipresent, and the yearning for a combination of work and vacation prevails.[1] Nonetheless, flexible work…

Are public sector workers called upon to subsidise public sector services? As attention turns away from the Covid-19 pandemic and towards the economic challenges it created, a familiar discussion point arises: how do governments now reduce and/or restrain public spending? Drawing from the immediate past The reduction/restraint approach was adopted in response to the Great…

Grand Canal Square, Dublin

A framework that subtly discourages remote work Making Remote Work a Reality The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated the largest remote work experiment the world has seen. The fact that working from home was mandatory (except for essential work) meant that discussions surrounding how viable it may be were put aside. The best was made of the…

The right to disconnect has been one of the most talked about labour topics in recent years at European level. Recently, the topic took the spotlight in Portugal. 1. The Portuguese new bill Law 83/2021, of 6 December 2021, which entered into force at 1 January 2022, amended the Teleworking Framework set forth in the…

Covid-19: Long-term vs short-term Assessing the effect of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 on work and employment will be a long-term endeavour. While much of the emphasis has been on when and how economies may safely re-open, we draw attention to the undervalued workplace considerations therein. We have produced an early assessment of measures taken…

From an EU social and labour policy perspective, 2020 started off on the right foot. In mid-January, the Commission presented its Communication on “A Strong Social Europe for A Just Transition”. In the Communication, the Commission’s priorities (the European Green Deal and the digitalization agenda) appeared to be intertwined with the commitment to promote fairness…

As the COVID-19 pandemic engulfs the world, requiring an unprecedented and, as of yet, unforthcoming global response, the idea of Brexit, the sheer self-indulgence and chicanery of Brexit, has quickly become remote from the minds of policy makers and peoples alike. Nevertheless, with negotiations on ‘forging a new partnership’ between the EU and the UK…