In the Airhelp v SAS case (23 March 2021, C-28/20), the Court of Justice reconciled the interests of workers and passengers by stating that an announced strike by airline employees did not constitute an extraordinary circumstance in the sense of Article 5.3 Regulation 261/2004. This gave passengers a right to compensation and the Court safeguarded the right to strike in the event of a social dispute

This article scrutinises the potential of the existing regulatory apparatus in Union law to tackle the social, technical, and legal challenges inherent in deploying automated systems in high-risk settings such as the workplace, with a view to setting out key lessons for the proposed EU Artificial Intelligence Act. Surveying data protection and discrimination rules as well as the social acquis, it highlights

Several years since first emerging in Europe, platform work continues to represent a ‘social dilemma’ for workers, social partners, policymakers and society as a whole. As a result of intense litigation, analysis and reporting, much is known about the contractual and working conditions in this growing labour market segment. While the European Union (EU) institutions are considering adopting a new Directive

This article focuses on the importance of the social partners in new labour law regulation where there is a weak parliamentary majority. The prevailing view in Sweden is that labour law regulation must be modernised as both companies and employees need improved opportunities in order to be able to adapt to changing conditions in the labour market. A Government inquiry and negotiations between the social

Taking parental protection rights as a clear-cut field of study, this article argues that there are significant protection gaps in the social rights and employment protection of the economically dependent self-employed. Their exclusion from employment protection can be justified as far as the protective purpose is tied to the personal subordination of the employee relationship. However, certain vulnerabilities

To protect the so-called self-employed, a multilevel solution is needed. Requalification is a first step and to do this, a broad definition of the employment agreement and the presumption of an employment agreement in some situations, is useful. But even then, a clear distinction between bogus self-employed and real entrepreneurs is sometimes difficult to make and requalification for the self-employed

In January 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a remarkable judgment regarding the rights of workers with disabilities. The case concerned a Polish employer who decided to grant a monthly allowance to workers with disabilities if such workers provided a disability certificate after a certain date. However, those workers who had submitted their certificates before the specified

Employment is the primary legal and political means to address economic inequality in the United States. With the evisceration of the welfare state, employment is also key to democratic outcomes. Despite this, self-employed work deployed by labour platforms like Uber has grown in recent years. What can we learn from worker demands and recent regulatory attempts to clarify and extend who is covered

This issue combines the contributions to the annual conference on ‘Exploring ways to improve working conditions of platform workers: the role of EU labour law’ that was hosted by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission under the umbrella of the European Centre of Expertise (ECE) in the field of labour law, employment and labour market policies. The conference addressed

For some time now, the European Commission has stressed the need to address the ongoing misclassification of employment status in platform work and has thus considered introducing a rebuttable presumption of employment status or a reversal of the burden of proof. This contribution focuses on the benefits and limitations of introducing a rebuttable legal presumption in EU labour law as an evidentiary

In 2017, the Collective Actions Act introduced a new type of lawsuit – the collective action – into the Slovenian legal order. A collective action can be lodged in cases of instances of so-called ‘mass harm’, including mass violations of workers’ rights. This could improve the effectiveness of enforcement of workers’ rights in practice. Instead of a number of individual labour disputes concerning the

Technological developments have been bringing about changes in the field of work since time immemorial. Recently, the emergence of platform work has brought up all kind questions. For instance, in the field of labour law, where the questions seem to focus mostly on the topic legal status of platform workers contract: is the platform worker an employee? At the same time, it is also interesting to examine

Collective redress has a lot of appeal as an enforcement tool, but historically it has been seen as somewhat unfitting for the European legal landscape. Despite this, many EU national legal systems have introduced collective redress mechanisms. The area of EU labour and social law, however, has been slow to catch up with this trend. This article discusses whether collective redress in labour and social

This contribution discusses the Dutch possibilities of collective redress in the domain of labour law. More specifically, it examines the legal options of bringing collective actions and obtaining collective redress in Dutch courts in labour cases, and elaborates on the relevant legal framework as well as the extent to which these opportunities have been used in practice. Findings imply that the Netherlands

While Sweden has long enjoyed a solid reputation for protecting weaker parties through a comprehensive welfare state and a labour market governed by collective bargaining, its system for enforcing these rights has rested upon the public authorities and the social partners rather than on judicial proceedings. Against this background, this article examines the legal avenues for bringing collective actions

With this paper we aimed to give an insight into Austria's labour and social security jurisdiction, notably into different forms of collective redress within this system. As the Austrian Labour and Social Courts Act provides for certain instruments of collective redress, the primary focus will be on those. The main drawback of those existing forms of collective action for labour law matters, however

This article introduces the special issue on ‘Collective redress in labour law’. Even the best labour code in the world would be practically useless without procedural rules to enable its enforcement. The contributions in this special issue show that, while the mechanism of collective redress certainly functions with mixed results and often is underused in practice, it is nevertheless a valuable tool

In the recent case XI v Caisse pour l’avenir des enfants (C-129/20), the CJEU was asked to rule on three issues regarding parental leave. First, whether the Directive in force at the time of the submission of the application to take parental leave (96/34) or the one in force at the time of birth or adoption (2010/18) was to be applied. Second, a question was raised on the condition of access to said

This article makes a critical analysis of the Caisse pour l’avenir des enfants case, in which the Court of Justice of the EU examined the conditions of access Member States are allowed to impose on workers to be entitled to parental leave, according to Directive 2010/18.

The Spanish Government has introduced a regulation which establishes: i) the presumption of employment in digital delivery platforms, and ii) the right of workers’ representatives to be informed about the parameters, rules and instructions on which the algorithms that may have an impact on working conditions are based. This article describes the new law and analyses the novelty of this regulation and

The 2019 Work-life Balance Directive creates a new right for parents and carers to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes. The significance of this innovation has been heightened by the pandemic because it includes the right to request remote working arrangements. This article undertakes a contextual and comparative analysis in order to understand better the strengths, limitations

It is hard to determine when adverse labour conditions become exploitation. As of July 1, 2018, ‘human exploitation’ is criminalised in Sweden, with penalties up to ten years prison. The crime of ‘human exploitation’ occurs when someone, through unlawful coercion, misleads, exploits another person’s position of dependence, lack of protection, or difficult situation, or exploits another person in forced

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) features interesting labour law related aspects. The goals of this article are to reconcile horizontal human rights and contract law in the context of reasonable accommodation in working life and to establish guidelines by which to assess the obligation to make accommodation, for example in relation to the EU Employment Equality

The Irish Supreme Court’s decision in McKelvey v Iarnród Éireann/ Irish Rail enters into the ongoing discussion of the ‘legalisation’ of workplace dispute resolution.

Delivery companies have become a focal point of the ‘gig economy’, with Uber the most often identified entity. This commentary considers what recent cases involving delivery service companies suggest about labour law and the platform economy. Although these cases have focused on employment status, this commentary contends that the continuing lack of concerted engagement with the independent contractor

In Náisiúnta Leictreach Contraitheoir Éireann v Labour Court, the Irish High Court struck down as unconstitutional a key component of Ireland’s industrial relations system for the third time in recent years. The Court determined that the extension of collective agreements erga omnes breaches the constitutional prohibition on the delegation of legislative power. This note explains the background to

While a two-month limitation period applicable for claims on back payments, the regulation of which is left to the Member States following the principle of national procedural autonomy, is in accordance with EU law, there is clearly a risk that the civil servants and judges concerned may not be in a position to establish whether, and the extent to which, they have been discriminated against, within

This contribution analyses the content and relevance of the of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the B/Yodel Delivery Network Ltd case, and discusses its meaning and impact on the notion of ‘worker’ under the EU law.

The ECtHR’s decision in Herbai v Hungary focuses on freedom of expression. However, there is a larger issue that touches upon the overlap of employment obligations and professional engagement.

In 2017, the municipality of Copenhagen made exercise mandatory for social workers performing physical tasks, such as lifting patients, cooking and cleaning. Private Danish companies have also started to impose exercise on their employees, including sedentary employees. Rationale behind mandatory exercise in the workplace is that it makes employees healthier and more productive, which is a win-win

The growth in multilateral working relationships (e.g. agency work, chains of sub-contracting and corporate groups) is causing Member States to increasingly scrutinise their traditional, contractual approach to the notion of ‘employer’. So far, little attention has been paid to the boundaries and limits that EU law sets when defining the employer. The lack of attention may have come to an end with

In 2018, the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs came up with idea of introducing a new category of employee – the autonomous employee – in Estonia. This concept is based on Article 17(1) of the Working Time Directive, which allows derogations from the scope of the Directive for managing executives or other persons with autonomous decision-taking powers. The implementation of the concept of the autonomous

While needing to ensure the health and safety of their employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, employers face many burning data protection questions, including under what conditions they can process employees’ personal data (in particular health data) and whether gathering personal data concerning employees’ medical history, trips and contacts with infected persons, is allowed. This article focuses

On 16 December 2019, Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law entered into force (hereinafter: Whistleblower Directive; WBD). Based on a Commission proposal of 23 April 2018 and accompanied by an intensive policy debate, the final version of the Directive represents the most far-reaching piece

The Whistleblower Directive of 2019 is by far the European Union’s most important piece of whistleblowing legislation to date, covering a remarkably broad range of regulatory fields and subjects. After Part 1 of this two-part article series, which mostly focused on the Directive’s scope and general conditions for whistleblower protection, Part 2 will analyse its provisions on public disclosures and

Directive 2014/66/EU on Intra-Corporate Transfer regulates the temporary secondment of key personnel and trainees from third countries to the Member States of the EU. It is part of the EU external labour migration policy and aims at facilitating this policy by setting up harmonised conditions for admission, residence and work of these migrants, including the right to move and work in another Member

This article analyses three cumulative situations of inequality suffered by seasonal low-skilled migrant workers in Europe: i) reinforced inequality of bargaining power before the employer, ii) legal inequality between them and the local workforce, and iii) legal inequality between them and high-skilled migrant employees. In this regard, the prioritisation of the needs of national economies rather

In 2013 Weldon-Johns used the work-family typology classification model (WFTCM) to analyse the development of EU work-family policies. That examination showed that EU work-family legislation continued to focus on maternal care and was underpinned by the extended motherhood typology. In 2019, the Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers Directive 2019/1158 was passed, implementing key changes to the

This Special Issue represents a collection of papers that examine the relevance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to EU labour law from various perspectives. Since its adoption in 2009, the Charter and its impact on EU labour law have indeed become a hot topic for labour law scholars. Several aspects related to the Charter and its relationship to labour law have been intensively

Although platform work has been studied by many labour law researchers, mainly the unclear labour law status of platform workers as well as possible new avenues to ensure their protection have been discussed. However, platform work is similar to already-regulated atypical work arrangements and the possibilities of the application of these regulations needs to be analysed. The aim of this article is

European citizens have been exposed to social exclusion risks due to the economic crisis and the retrenchment in the welfare state budget. Among those exposed, we find workers and self-employed workers. The Member States of Central and Northern Europe have tried to restrict the free movement of workers and the self-employed and limit access to social benefits for European citizens from Eastern Europe

This article is directed towards addressing the employment related issues encountered by female workers in the gig economy in the EU. It revolves around analysing ‘the switch’ from the traditional labour market to the platform economy. It subsequently explains, by drawing comparisons, that the issues of gender inequality in the brick and mortar world are still prevalent in world of the digital platform

The Concept of worker is the gateway to the access to the protection of labour and social security law. The Court of Justice of the European Union first defined this concept in the field of the Free Movement of Workers in the Lawrie-Blum case. The scope of this article is to compare the definitions used by the Court in the fields of the free movement of workers and in the Social Policy Directives,

The purpose of protection against dismissal is to protect the employee against unjustified dismissal, which is expected to lead to stable employment relationships and job security. In recent years, the concept of employment security has entered the world of policy and science. This article aims to contribute to the field of labour law by investigating the objectives and effects of the Dutch transition

While much of the emphasis has been on when and how economies may safely re-open due to the coronavirus pandemic, this article studies the undervalued workplace considerations therein. The initial responses of Member States to the pandemic are outlined for the purpose of setting out similarities and distinctions, but also and mostly to foreground an analysis to date of unresolved problems related to

This article provides an account of the Italian response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the labour law field. The author focuses on the policy measures in the matters of income support, parental leave, rest and holiday leave, agile working (i.e. teleworking), dismissal, as well as on the special provisions arranged by the social partners and later adopted by the legislator to preserve the health and safety

As in many countries, the coronavirus pandemic is a major challenge facing labour law in Germany. On the one hand, the risk of infection in the workplace must be reduced as effectively as possible to prevent the pandemic from spreading. On the other hand, work processes must be maintained as far as possible to prevent an economic crisis, which could have an adverse impact on the pandemic. In this situation

Similar to many other European countries, the Irish Government has attempted to address the employment implications of the Covid-19 pandemic through a mixture of income support schemes. Coming with the repercussions of the Great Recession remain in memory and the toll that took on the Irish banking sector, the Government seems to have endeavoured to take an approach that may be more conservative as

2020 had been marked as a significant year for the UK with its departure from the European Union. The coronavirus pandemic quickly became the most important issue facing the Government under a third Prime Minister since the 2016 referendum. From the start, problems have dogged this Government in meeting the monumental challenges posed by Covid-19. The UK approached the work implications of this pandemic

The Covid-19 crisis in Spain has led to the adoption of several pieces of legislation with labour law and social security content. The main priority of this fast-changing and frequently adapted legislation has been to avoid a sharp rise in unemployment. To do so, the legislator facilitated the use of the already existing procedures to temporarily suspend contracts (Expedientes Temporales de Regulación

Against the backdrop of an ‘intelligent lockdown’ the Dutch government has launched a threefold emergency package to support businesses and safeguard employment as much as possible. This ‘Emergency Jobs and Economy Package’ contains, amongst others, measures that aim to ensure the safeguarding of income and salaries for employees as well as self-employed workers. It concerns mainly subsidy law and

As Belgium and its population were heavily hit by the coronavirus, the Government adopted specific measures to address the economy and the world of work. The initiatives were deployed during the crisis but have also been designed for the exit scenario. Various measures have a strong relation with labour law. In addition to health and safety obligations, as specified in the Belgian Well-being Act, the

The small size and particular location make Luxembourg an interesting case study on the measures undertaken by the government to tackle the most pressing socio-economic issues deriving from the current pandemic crisis. Most such measures are comparable to those put in place across the EU; some are specific to its characteristics, and show its high dependency upon neighbouring countries and its limited

The French government has mobilised various instruments to deal with the consequences of the pandemic. The main one is partial unemployment, which for the time being has made it possible to limit the rise of unemployment. However, as the period of return-to-work has begun, the question arises as to the distribution of efforts between the State, employers and employees. In any case, this crisis has

The EU legal order recognises at its highest level both fundamental social rights/freedoms and economic rights/freedoms. As is well-known, it is in the cases where these have had to be balanced against one another, that profound legal and political difficulties have appeared over the years, feeding into a more general concern about an asymmetry between social and economic values and outcomes in the

The article addresses the issues of which, from the EU perspective, are the applicable law and the competent courts in respect of employment contracts/relationships performed via the web and charac...

The European Court of Justice has recently issued rulings on the interpretation of the European Working Time Directive 2003/88, which appear to restrict flexible working time arrangements(especially Matzak C-518/15,Syndicat C-254/18 and CCOOC-55/18). Only a few months prior tothe latter ruling of the CJEU, the Austrian legislator amended the Working Time Act in orderto make it more flexible. The article

Most EU countries are experiencing an increased use of Collective Labour Agreement clauses – Social Rehire Clauses – that oblige incoming service providers, while taking over a service, to employ all or part of outgoing providers’ personnel or at least give these workers priority future hiring. In the established case law of the Court of Justice, rehiring personnel is considered a crucial element,

The exercise of human rights is put at risk by the creation, conduct, and termination of employment relationships. For this reason, we often find that fundamental rights arguments are invoked in disputes between employers and workers and the mechanisms of labour and employment law are pressed to vindicate those rights through a process of ‘constitutionalisation’. Notably, the European Convention on

The decision of the British people to leave the European Union (EU) raises foundational questions for many legal fields. The effects are especially likely to be felt within domestic employment law,...