How will the right to disconnect work? The French Disconnection France’s ‘right to disconnect’ was a pioneering attempt to engage with workers’ health and safety in response to the extension of working time precipitated by digitalisation. The concept originated with a decision of the Labour Chamber of the Cour de Cassation in October 2001 (2 October…
To what extent, if any, will employers permit hybrid working? Hybrid working involves a split of time for workers performing their duties at the employer’s business location and their own homes (though it is possible to work from another location). This is the concept of remote working discussed here. Remote work may also be discussed…
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…
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 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…
Is the European Commission’s proposed directive on adequate minimum wages an attempt to build resilience into the labour market? The European Commission’s proposed directive on adequate minimum wages (Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union COM/2020/682 final) has elicited strong opinions. (The Commission’s Impact Assessment also adds to the discussion.) The adequate minimum…
LLRN5 Poland, the fifth conference of the Labour Law Research Network, ran from 27-29 June 2021, hosted by the University of Warsaw. Naturally, the conference was online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but the event was nonetheless a success. There were seven overarching conference themes, with more than 40 panels each day. Unsurprisingly, there was…
In a judgment published earlier today, the Supreme Court of Ireland has confirmed that some forms of collective agreements may be extended erga omnes across economic sectors, thereby helping to bring the benefits of collective bargaining to more people working in Ireland. This note gives a brief background to the colourful history of collective sectoral…
In 2015, the Irish Parliament overhauled the various statutory workplace dispute resolution systems which had been established over the previous 70 years and largely replaced them with a single Workplace Relations Commission (“WRC”). However, a recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Ireland raised a number of constitutional problems with this system, requiring the amendment…
In early April 2021, a draft EU Regulation on a European Approach to Artificial Intelligence was leaked to the press. The draft had been already attentively commented, among others, by Dr Michael Veale (UCL Faculty of Laws). The draft Regulation, however, raised many specific concerns about the use of AI at work to be addressed…
