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Nicola Countouris


Nicola Countouris is professor of labour and European law at University College London.

Nicola Countouris

Amazon’s office mandate: The hidden power play behind workplace control

Nicola Countouris 9th October 2024

Amazon’s office mandate exposes workplace power dynamics and the need to rethink employer control.

Social Europe needs a new concept of ‘worker’

Nicola Countouris 10th April 2024

The distinction between employed and self-employed is becoming incoherent and outdated.

Platform-work directive: the clock is ticking

Nicola Countouris 25th January 2024

The ‘gig’-economy directive, a critical legacy of social rights from this EU term, is being held up by some member states.

Reconstruction: time for transformative ideas

Nicola Countouris 11th May 2023

As the world inches back to normality, the Covid-19 crisis highlights deep structural inequalities and the urgent need for bold, systemic solutions to tackle climate change, social injustice, and economic precarity. The Covid-19 pandemic may not be over but a feeling of normality has settled and a return to prior times—if ‘seasonally adjusted’—seems to inch […]

Europe needs a social compass

Nicola Countouris 4th May 2023

Europe is undergoing multiple transitions. For these to succeed, social dialogue to build consensus will be essential.

Making labour law fit for all those who labour

Nicola Countouris 17th January 2023

EU anti-discrimination law applies to all ‘personal work’—not just employment contracts—the Court of Justice has ruled.

Working from a distance: remote or removed?

Nicola Countouris 16th June 2022

Remote work will outlast the pandemic. But workers must be inoculated against the risks.

The Metaverse is a labour issue

Nicola Countouris 1st February 2022

The Metaverse has been talked about only in terms of gee-whiz technologies.

Regulating digital work: from laisser-faire to fairness

Nicola Countouris 8th December 2021

The proposal for an EU directive on platform work about to emerge is welcome, yet insufficient—and no substitute for national action.

Structural solutions for structural inequalities—a trade union perspective

Nicola Countouris 3rd December 2021

Responses to the pandemic have upended the idea that ‘there is no alternative’ to macroeconomic policies engendering widening inequality.

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HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

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Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

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Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

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WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

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