The WTO dispute settlement system runs a serious risk of regressing by year end into the conditions that prevailed in the GATT era. The difference between the GATT and the WTO formulations of dispute settlement is gigantic. Under the GATT, compliance by the defendant with dispute settlement findings was, in practice, voluntary; under the WTO,…
In its judgement of 17 October 2019, in the case of López Ribalda v. Spain, the Grand Chamber Applications nos. 1874/13 and 8567/13) of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) revised the former judgement of the third section of the court. The Court now held that video surveillance of workers did not violate the right to privacy…
In cooperation with the Delegation of the Emilia Romagna Region to the European Union, the Marco Biagi Foundation (University of Modena) organized a conference on “Employment and Jobs beyond 2020: Challenges and Perspectives for the European Union” in Brussels on 10 October 2019. In my presentation, I was invited to focus on “Informal employment”. The…
In a series of posts on this blog, I have emphasised the centrality of skills to work. I have identified skills’ recognition as vital in facilitating access to and participation in the labour market. I have noted the importance of education and training in preparing people for work. And I have identified the role which…
On 8 October 2019, Margrethe Vestager passed the test and has been approved by the European Parliament (Parliament) to become the new European Commission’s (Commission) Executive Vice President for digital and commissioner for competition. The European Parliament is due to vote on the proposed College of Commissioners as a whole on 23 October 2019. If…
In 1890, Warren and Brandeis defined the right to privacy as ‘the right to be let alone’ (4 Harvard Law Review, 93-220). What if we apply this in a modern work context? In light of automation and new technologies in the work environment, the right to privacy has become part of the labour law language….
In a series of earlier entries on this blog, I have argued that all human activity is skilled; work involves the productive use of one’s skills; the most fundamental right in relation to work must be the right to work; an important derivative right thereof is the right to have one’s skills recognised; and the…
Thinking positively ‘Do or die’, the UK will leave the EU by end of October 2019. Since assuming the role of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has made a number of spending commitments including: £1.85 billion for hospital upgrades and equipment, 20,000 more police officers by 2022, more money for schools, and raising the higher tax…
This post constitutes the latest in a series of blog posts reflecting on the skilled nature of work. In previous posts, I have argued that work is best characterised as skilled productive activity; that the right to work must be understood as the most fundamental right relating to work; and that an important derivative right…
The start of a new financial year is often used by the business community to launch new initiatives into the market. However, in this case, by media release on 1 July 2019, the Australian Border Force (ABF) as a division within the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) provided details of the establishment of a new…
The term seems to have first arisen in the early 1990s with reference to an ‘open distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way’ and was developed to serve as a ‘public transaction ledger’ for the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Of course, blockchain no longer exists solely as…
The quantity of global carbon emissions, already at an unsustainable level, are continuing to rise despite modest steps to increase renewable energy use and electrify transport. This quandary is because most countries are not moving fast enough to implement climate policies. The United States in particular has been retreating from its commitments to decarbonize, although…
The recent case of FCO and others v Bamieh [2019] EWCA Civ 803 in the Court of Appeal considered a particular aspect of the extra-territorial application of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (“ERA”), namely whether whistleblowing provisions could apply in respect of co-workers employed by the UK government but seconded to the international European Union…
In the week leading to the recent Federal election, the Minister for Industry Science and Technology (Minister) released her decisions as to the imposition of interim dumping and countervailing duties on steel pallet racking and PVC covered electrical cabling Both followed lengthy investigations by the Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) including several extensions of time for the…
The Regulation establishing the European Labour Authority (‘ELA’) was recently adopted by the European Parliament and the Council and will shortly come into force. It is expected that the ELA will be up and running by the autumn. The ELA is one of many measures which are being introduced as a result of the European…
By Valerio De Stefano & Mathias Wouters Should digital platforms be allowed to charge fees to workers to work? If ordinary rules were clearly applied to platform work, the answer would be a resounding “No”. Workers should, in theory, never be charged to get work. This norm stems directly from the principle that “labour is…
Those in industry (let alone anyone with an interest in world news) would be painfully aware that global trade is under massive pressure at the moment. Examples of these threats are everywhere and if they come to pass, the consequences will be uniformly bad. Trade and global integration has been a driver of financial and…
On 13 June 2019, the EU Council adopted the Directive on Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers. The Directive was proposed in 2017 and it was one of the key legislative initiatives that the European Commission presented alongside its proposal for the European Pillar of Social Rights. It contains significant enhancements to existing EU legislation,…
The magnitude and success of 21st Century international trade would have been impossible without containerization and the long-haul container ship. Intriguingly, the innovation emerged not so long ago: Malcolm McLean made inter-modal transport with standardized containers a reality in the mid-1950s. Today, approximately 90 percent of international trade transport is done by container ship. The…
Introduction This blog constitutes the third instalment in a series of blogs about the nature of work and the purpose of labour regulation, with a specific focus on work in the EU. To recap, thus far I have argued that: All human activity is skilled activity; The hallmark of work is productivity, and hence work…
