War and oppression plague the world. Peaceful relations among states still seems like a distant dream. From a labour lawyer’s perspective, the quest for an international legal order among states parallels the historical development of the legal order among labour and capital on the labour market. In the purpose of fueling a discussion on the…
An armed conflict has always a severe impact on civilians in their role as workers, and on workplaces. Of particular concern are violations of fundamental labour rights, such as the prohibition of forced or compulsory labour, contained in the ILO Forced Labour Convention No. 29 and its Protocol of 2014, and in the Abolition of…
The example of Belgium In the 1960s, employees were by far the most important category of persons active in the private labour market, who traditionally fell within the scope of protective labour law. However, the world of work has changed dramatically in recent decades, with more and more persons taking on other statuses and a…
Valerio De Stefano,* Ilda Durry,* Harry Stylogiannis,* Mathias Wouters* The debates on platform work have come a long way since the early publications in the first part of the last decade. For a long time, many commentators agreed with the words of Judge Vince Chhabria in the Californian case about the ride-hailing platform Lyft:…
Foodora Leaves Canada The pandemic of 2020 is a demarcation point that will take some time to understand. In the midst of such profound changes to daily life, labour law remains one background to these challenges. After its riders in the Canadian province of Ontario won a challenge to their union certification on 28 February…
It cannot be disputed that labour law has served and still serves as the institution that protects the dependent workforce. Yet labour law has also served the purpose to codify the authority of the employers over their employees while, in return, recognising them the entitlement to certain rights they can invoke against the employer itself….
Reflecting on digitalization (as a collective term for artificial intelligence, robotization and new technologies) of the workplace draws out the confused intermingling of outcomes and ambitions. The aims of technological innovations entrench an economic understanding of efficiency, often at the expense of social considerations, which pose significant potential to displace human workers. These aims, as…
Valerio De Stefano,* Ilda Durry,* Harry Stylogiannis,* Mathias Wouters* It started as an investigation into something long dismissed as an urban legend. Finally, even if far too late, the awful scale of the Parisian Ligue du LOL – internationally known as the LOL league – unfolded. Members of a private social media group had ‘cyber-harassed’ people for several years. Some commentators…
Thinking positively ‘Do or die’, the UK will leave the EU by end of October 2019. Since assuming the role of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has made a number of spending commitments including: £1.85 billion for hospital upgrades and equipment, 20,000 more police officers by 2022, more money for schools, and raising the higher tax…
By Valerio De Stefano & Mathias Wouters Should digital platforms be allowed to charge fees to workers to work? If ordinary rules were clearly applied to platform work, the answer would be a resounding “No”. Workers should, in theory, never be charged to get work. This norm stems directly from the principle that “labour is…
