Positioning for a new economic start A popular cultural reference point for the Latin phrase carpe diem has been the film Dead Poets Society, starring the late Robin Williams. In this movie, the English teacher, portrayed by Williams, uses this Latin phrase at the opening of his first class with his students. The scene from…
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…
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…
Jeremias Adams-Prassl, Antonio Aloisi, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano In late April 2020, the Court of Justice of the EU handed down an order in response to a request for a preliminary ruling on working time protection from a UK employment tribunal. The case dealt with the distinction between genuine self-employed persons excluded from…
The year 2020 will be known forever as a historic breaking point. The corona crisis poses unprecedented challenges for policymakers, businesses and citizens around the world. Mankind is, as it were, being forced to adapt to these new living conditions in the very short term. They imply not only a new lifestyle, but also a…
The worldwide and fast spread of the corona virus and the Covid-19 disease gave momentum to homework for workers having office jobs. While information and communications technology allows workers to be available for work 24/7 the – mostly – abrupt decision of employers to put their staff on teleworking from home creates legal and practical…
We all can see the impact of the coronavirus on labour markets in our daily lives: people stay at home, workers work remotely, if possible we keep social distance, businesses close (some temporarily and others definitively), travel is limited or impossible, there are quarantine measures. The reality of today gives an outlook of the labour…
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…
