The fight for safe rates for transportation workers in South Korea

In the past decade, South Korea has emerged as one of East Asia’s most advanced digital economies, with e-commerce, ride-hailing, and other services all growing. But for many truckers and …

Being Naïve or Putting Business First?

The European Union would like to believe that it is acting robustly and cohesively to promote human rights and democracy globally. The EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024, …

The fourth industrial revolution and Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa

“The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the workplace remarkably. This is evidenced by the concomitant shift of the working space to the digital arena after curfews and lockdowns were imposed. All …

Auditing firms shouldn’t provide cover for the inaction of global brands on low wages

“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the brute commercial power brands and retailers wield over garment and textile factories. It has been a harsh reminder that brands and retailers hold significant influence when …

The other pandemic for migrant workers: wage theft

Employers are taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to unlawfully dismiss their migrant workforce and to withhold the wages and benefits that are owed to them. The COVID-19 pandemic has …

The gig is up! Do workers really ‘choose’ unstable jobs?

It has sometimes been claimed that workers in atypical and unstable jobs ‘prefer’ this type of working arrangement, because it gives them freedom to combine work with other commitments such …

Time Is the Universal Measure of Freedom

Labor activists once understood time to be a checking mechanism on market activity. In our own era of uncontrolled working hours, this is a vision of freedom worth recapturing. “The …

Key elements of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

As regards investment, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) will be the most ambitious agreement that China has ever concluded with a third country. In addition to rules against the forced …

Gig workers’ rights and their strategic litigation

A window of opportunity has opened up to utilise EU law on health and safety to advance the rights of ‘gig’ workers in domestic courts. “The Independent Workers’ Union of …

End of Brexit transition: Workers’ rights

The United Kingdom formally left the European Union on 31 January 2020. Under the terms of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, the UK is currently in a transition period until 31 …