1.      Introduction Trade between the United States and Mexico has surged dramatically in recent decades. As reported by The New York Times in February 2024, the U.S. now imports more goods from Mexico than from China. In this environment, access to the U.S. market has become essential for Mexican companies, fostering a political climate conducive…

KU Leuven Library © David Mangan

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…

The need for protections beyond the contractual status The proposal for a directive “on improving working conditions in platform work”[1] is part of a broad reformist design, aimed at balancing the needs for competitiveness in the digital economy with the protection of fundamental rights. There are many interconnected legislative tracks, including the marketing and use…

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…

Barcelona, Spain – April 09, 2022: A bunch of delivery boxes placed on the ground near bikes waiting for delivery to customers, Barcelona, Spain Wirestock

Introduction: the need for a new employment presumption The Portuguese Labour Code was recently amended through Act 13/2023, of 3 April (known as the “Decent Work Agenda”), which entered into force on 1 May 2023. This reform was driven by several concerns, namely the precarious situation of platform workers. And, precisely, one of its innovative…

Privacy@Work

Considering “privacy@work” In their article of 1890, Warren and Brandeis wrote of a “right to be let alone”. Nowadays, the right to privacy has become a fundamental right, recognised in many international human rights instruments (including Article 12 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and…

Introduction Romanian labour law has developed very dynamically in recent years. Its development curve could be described in key words which, at first somewhat belatedly, are nowadays becoming more and more dominant in line with international trends. One of these key words was flexicurity, which was the main theme of the most significant amendment to…

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…

1) Introduction On December 12, 2022, at first reading, the European Parliament adopted 186 amendments to the Proposal for a directive on improving working conditions in platform work presented by the European Commission on December 9, 2021[1].The proposed directive is part of a package of measures promoted at European level in order to guarantee better…

On 16-17 March 2023, the Twentieth International Conference in Commemoration of Professor Marco Biagi took place in Modena, Italy, at the Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The title of this conference was: The Green Transition and the Quality of Work: Linkages, Implications, and Perspectives. From health and safety to wellbeing I…