The Supreme Court Ruling in the Starbucks Case Proves the Law Won’t Save Labor

In Starbucks Corp v. McKinney, the Supreme Court ordered lower courts to apply a stricter test when deciding whether to grant the National Labor Relations Board’s petitions for emergency relief, like …

Heat stress at work—a political emergency

In 2022, 61,000 deaths in the European Union were attributed to summer heat. Likely  an underestimate, this is only one of many indicators of the growing and unavoidable challenge posed by the impacts of climate …

Advancing worker-centred trade in the 2026 CUSMA review

“Labour rights, migrant workers and the CUSMA rapid-response labour mechanism The labour chapter of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (Chapter 23) contains a number of significant developments compared to the labour provisions …

CSDDD – A timid step forward in the fight against corporate human rights abuse

“The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), soon to be formally confirmed by the European Council, reflects an important step in corporate accountability for human rights abuses. The directive …

CANADA RENEWS EFFORTS TO ADDRESS FORCED LABOR IN NEW SUPPLY CHAIN LAW, BUT MISSES THE MARK

Canada’s long-awaited, Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (Act) went into effect on January 1, 2024. While it is largely a disclosure law, it also …

Bringing the Right to Strike Home: Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer – Part 2

The first part of this blog outlined the facts and decision in the Supreme Court case, Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer, as well as the approach the Court took in …

Bringing the Right to Strike Home: Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer – Part 1

Individual strikers are protected from dismissal where they are dismissed for participating in ‘protected’ (i.e lawful and official) industrial action, under s. 238A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations …

In the face of climate change, workers’ health is put to the test by new dangers

“Under the midday sun, lugging a heavy cooler in one hand and a mini barbecue in the other, Edimar Santiago walks the length and breadth of Rio de Janeiro’s Vermelha …

Social Europe needs a new concept of ‘worker’

“The distinction between employed and self-employed is becoming incoherent and outdated A quarter of a century after Alain Supiot advocated a comprehensive extension of labour and social rights ‘beyond employment’, labour-law regimes …

‘Gig’ workers in Europe: the new platform of rights

“Last Monday, European Union member states reached a provisional agreement on the compromise text of the directive on platform work. This momentous decision comes more than two years after the European Commission’s initial …

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