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The distinction between employed and self-employed is becoming incoherent and outdated.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

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

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Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

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

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

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HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

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