With the digital transition, the precise definition of the future of work (its social and human dimensions) requires urgent attention. Recent policymaking developments tell us a little more about whether the institutions of the European Union are ready to engage in this crucial endeavour.   A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH On 9 December 2021, the European Commission…

In April 2021, the European Commission published its first draft of the proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (hence: the AI Act). One aim of the proposal is to guarantee ‘consistency with existing Union legislation applicable to sectors where high-risk Artificial Intelligence (hence: AI) systems are already used or likely to be used in…

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…

Introduction ‘Keeping pace with change’. That was the motto when, in cooperation with Wolters Kluwer, we started a blog site in 2017 on ‘Regulating for Globalization’. The blog crossed different disciplines, involving fields as international law, trade law, EU law and labour law. With numerous articles, the blog successfully reached a wide audience. As change…

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…

Will offices close in favour of telework/remote work? It is unclear whether telework/remote work will be taken up (where feasible) in a significant manner once businesses more widely re-open. The question of continued use of office space (as well as in what capacity and size) has been posed and widely noted in newsmedia with attention-grabbing…

  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:…