This paper aims to ask whether the social dimension of the European Union still exists in a period of two crises (the pandemic and the war in Ukraine), which have strongly been hitting the economies ...and societies all over the world. To understand the EU’s reaction to both the emergencies it is necessary to trace the path of EU labour law from the beginning: the story of the European Union in the social field is a story of progressive enforcement of its competencies but also of continuous stops and goes form the political point of view.
In April 2021, the European Commission published its first draft of the Proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. Since AI in the work context has increasingly become important in ...organising work and managing workers, the AI Act will undoubtedly have an impact on EU and national labour law systems. One aim of the proposal is to guarantee ‘consistency with existing Union legislation applicable to sectors where high-risk Artificial Intelligence systems are already used or likely to be used in the near future’, which includes the EU social acquis. It could be argued that ensuring true consistency with EU law means guaranteeing that the way the AI Act will be implemented and applied will still allow the other pieces of EU labour law to fulfil their purpose. It is undeniable that the implementation of the AI Act will overlap with various fields of EU law, especially considering the increasing use of AI technology at work. Thus, this article seeks to identify ways to refine the AI Act, insofar as it impacts work. The contribution discusses the current AI Act as proposed in April 2021, thereby focusing on two particular areas, EU non-discrimination law and EU law on occupational health and safety (OSH), as these two areas are, more or less explicitly, addressed as legal fields in the AI Act. The article starts with taking the perspective of EU labour law influencing the development of AI systems used in the employment context. We argue that providers should respect EU labour law throughout the development of the AI system (section 2). Then, the areas where EU labour law and the AI overlap are identified, thereby viewing it from an employer's perspective, i.e., the user of the AI system (section 3). Using two specific EU labour law areas (the right not to be discriminated against and the right to healthy and safe working conditions) the article provides a first assessment of how the AI Act might influence work and the regulation thereof (section 4). Finally, the conclusion critically explores whether and to what extent AI in employment situations warrants particular attention (section 5).
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This contribution looks at the status of volunteers in EU labour law taking into account the criteria of the CJEU's Lawrie-Blum formula. It demonstrates, in light of the jurisprudence of the Court, ...that some criteria may be problematic and that a purposive approach may provide adequate solutions.
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The aim of this article is to describe and provide analysis on the implementation, enforcement and application of the EU labour law norms implemented by the Labour Law regarding certain fields, ...particularly, gender equality, non-discrimination, working time, obligation to inform and consult workers’ representatives and protection of young people at work. The article elaborates only on certain aspects of the mentioned fields of the EU labour law, mainly from the perspective of national courts’ rulings with an aim to provide an insight on the legal developments arising from judicial application of the EU law norms and interpretation of national law in the light of the EU law.
The demarcation of the personal scope of application of EU labour law results from the interplay between national legislation and the CJEU case law. This article analyses the particular case of ...socially useful workers in the Italian legal system and questions its compliance with EU law. It does so by exploring an intricate legal framework and the relevant interpretation by domestic and European adjudicators.
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The recruitment process has largely moved online. Job advertisements which used to be bound to newspapers and other print media have become an online service as part of a growing trend towards a more ...digitalised hiring process. Alongside increased flexibility and cost-cutting, this trend brings so previously unseen challenges. The technology behind online job portals and social media allows job ads to be shown to targeted groups of people using machine learning techniques to filter through the available data and search for the most suitable audience. The correlations that are inferred by algorithms between content and audience, however, can lead to biased outcomes. This is a serious problem since the specific risk with online job ads is that jobseekers who are considered less suitable by the algorithm will not see the ad at all. Such a result effectively hinders access to the labour market and poses the risk of perpetuating existing biases and discrimination. Those discrimination risks raise questions about the legal framework of online job advertisements. This article examines the requirements of the new EU initiatives to regulate artificial intelligence and the digital market and EU non-discrimination law regarding online job advertisements. It also proposes a low-tech solution to the high-tech problems associated with online job advertisements by introducing a legal requirement to publicly tender job ads on an online noticeboard, thus ensuring transparency and effective access to employment.
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The new economic governance of the European Union emerged as an important legacy of the Eurozone crisis. Although its suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat reduced its visibility, the ...process of the European Semester remains as central as ever in coordinating socio-economic policies of Member States, notably through its link with the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Two of the most relevant tools of the EU Economic Governance, notably Memoranda of Understanding and Country Specific Recommendations, focus, to an important degree, on labour law reforms. As such, it is important to question the role which these instruments have played, and will potentially play in the future, for national systems of labour law as well as for the evolution of EU labour law itself. To do so, it is necessary to go beyond quantitative or macro approaches to the content of the prescriptions of these tools, in order to analyse their impact on specific labour law systems and national contexts. This will generate a better understating of the relevance of the EU economic governance for the field of labour law.
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The question of whether there can, may, and should be a lowest price for work performed by a human can be discussed from different perspectives. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von ...der Leyen, has unambiguously made it clear that the EU must take measures with regard to minimum wages. On October 28 2020, the Commission presented a proposal for a Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union.
The article is structured as follows. It begins with a brief description of the history of the proposal and a short presentation of its material content. This is followed by a discussion of the chosen legal basis in the Treaty and of whether the EU has the competence to adopt the proposal. I shall then analyse how it can be determined whether Sweden has transferred competence to the EU to adopt legislation regarding minimum wages. The article concludes with some comments on future developments as a result of the proposal for a Directive on adequate minimum wage in the European Union.
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The article analyses the CJEU ruling C-311/21 TimePartner, where the Court interpreted the option provided in the Temporary Agency Work Directive for social partners to derogate from the principle of ...equal treatment. The CJEU concluded that the term ‘while respecting the overall protection of temporary agency workers’ is a criterion for using the option to derogate, and that a derogating collective agreement must be subject to legal review of fulfilling this criterion, even in Member States where collective agreements are presumed to be correct. Furthermore, the CJEU ruled that in order to respect the overall protection, any disadvantages in basic working conditions, i.e., working time and pay, should be set off against other advantages relating to the basic working conditions for the temporary agency workers. Finally, that the assessment is an in concreto comparison of disadvantages and advantages in terms of the basic working conditions applicable at the specific user undertaking. The article argues that the CJEU, with this approach, at the same time restricts the room for negotiation of national social partners concluding derogating agreements, and directs the legal review of the national judiciaries. This approach may interfere in the national industrial relations systems in some Member States more than others. The article then discusses how the Danish legal framework respects the overall protection of temporary agency workers. Temporary agency workers are addressed in many collective agreements in force at user undertakings with a view to counteracting circumvention of the collective agreement, and likewise, many temporary work agencies are covered by collective agreements. The transposition process in 2013 of the option to derogate is presented. The Danish Supreme Court in 2019 ruled, that the term ‘respecting the overall protection’ in the derogation provision in the Danish Temporary Agency Workers Act constitutes a legal criterion, which can be subject to judicial review, and is not an automatic consequence of a collective agreement. The article discusses how an assessment of the level of protection would be carried out in Danish industrial judiciaries, taking inspiration from earlier industrial case law comparing the overall protection of competing collective agreements. The article finally asserts that the approach of the CJEU in the TimePartner ruling protects temporary agency workers rather than pursuing flexibility in the labour markets, and as such favours one of the dual aims of the Directive. In that light, the approach taken by the CJEU ensures that derogating collective agreements meet certain standards in terms of the basic working conditions of temporary agency workers. At the same time, the ruling does not interfere with other negotiated or legislated working conditions, where the TAW Directive does not in itself require equal treatment or ‘overall protection’. The limitation of the TAW Directive to concern equal treatment only for basic working conditions, and not all working conditions, thus continues to allow a degree of flexibility for employers as well as for temporary agency workers.
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Against the background of a very diverse legal framework regulating minimum wages in Europe, the Commission has declared since 2019 its willingness to adopt a legal measure to ensure that every ...worker in the European Union has access to an adequate minimum wage. The commitment, based on the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights, became reality in October 2022, with the enactment of Directive 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages. This article examines the main aspects of the Directive, with a particular focus on its ability to influence Member States’ policies and to stimulate collective bargaining on wage setting.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
