Stanovnistvo

Social protection of the self-employed in old age in the EU

2023-12-22T12:49:20+01:00

In most European Union (EU) Member States, self-employed individuals receive, on average, lower retirement pensions than employees. Furthermore, the number of self-employed pensioners is lower, and there is a significant proportion of self-employed workers in the EU who are not entitled to a retirement pension. The situation is even more delicate for the new self-employed, as their mode of labour market participation, career trajectory, and the income level they reach can potentially compromise their future pension prospects. This paper analyses the position of self-employed workers within national social security systems, with a particular focus on their methods of contribution and the consequential impact on their ability to access adequate retirement pensions as a form of replacement income, thus avoiding the risk of poverty and ensuring a decent standard of living in old age. In this area, the Member States and the EU interact within the framework of their respective competences, with the manifest aim of improving the social protection of self-employed workers in their senior years.

Society and the health of the elderly – a perspective from medical and health law

2023-12-22T12:49:10+01:00

This paper delves into the healthcare provisions for the elderly, characterised by different legal sources, the intermingling of cross-sectoral issues, and, in general, the need for a special position and special protection of the elderly within society. By applying the normative, comparative, and axiological methods, we attempt to elucidate the position of the elderly, primarily focusing on care services. The paper commences by scrutinising legal regulations governing healthcare that refer to the position of the elderly. The question arises whether there is an organised service in terms of structure and personnel, and whether there are specialised institutions and communication services catering to the specific needs of the elderly. According to the type and extent of services, healthcare and eldercare necessitate special considerations and impose distinctive requirements. This includes services not only related to severe illnesses and terminal conditions but also rehabilitation, spa treatment, etc. Given that the right to healthcare derives from the right to health insurance, which can be either public or private, a dedicated section of the paper will explore the participation of private health insurance funds in providing health services to the elderly. Consequently, the aim of this research is to highlight the vulnerability of the elderly population, which necessitates legal protection facilitated through cross-sectoral cooperation.

The fragmented regulation of the traineeship in Hungary

2023-12-22T12:49:18+01:00

The situation of young workers is determined by the legal regulation of work. Of particular interest in this context is the traineeship, which is statistically proven to be the basis for many young people entering the labour market. In this context, it is especially important that national regulations are clear and stable to ensure the security of young workers. The Hungarian national regulations will be examined in this study, starting with statistical data, i.e. the extent to which traineeships are present, and examining the related legal relationships based on the EU conceptual background, with the aim of exploring whether the Hungarian legal framework guarantees status security for young trainees. Based on the legislation, case law and relevant literature, it can be concluded that the Hungarian national legislation on traineeship is fragmented, non-transparent, complex, and generally does not provide an impeccable basis for improving the labour market situation of young people from a labour law or social security perspective, and shows a number of inconsistencies in national and EU labour law.

Students’ jobs – the necessity of labour law protection

2023-12-22T12:49:03+01:00

The student population is becoming an increasingly important actor in the labour market, which is very important for students as well as society. Although the negative aspects of working while studying are sometimes highlighted, this trend is generally perceived as positive since it appears as a measure against unemployment and a way of acquiring work skills. However, this trend, which has not bypassed our region, has not been accompanied by the adoption of appropriate legislation. As a result, students work under very insecure contracts, such as service contracts or volunteering contracts, which do not even provide them with certain elements of labour law protection.

Considering the above-mentioned, there is a need for the legal regulation of students’ labour as a special form of labour. This need is mostly present in countries that do not have a significant number of contracts available to students but which are characterized by a large percentage of undeclared work and a very long transition period from school to the first suitable job. At the same time, the regulation of students’ labour must ensure social justice and an appropriate level of labour law protection.

One of the acceptable models is the regulation of a student employment contract as a contract by which a person with the status of a student performs a job for an employer, with remuneration, for a short period of time, without establishing an employment relationship and with limited protection of labour rights. It is a sui generis contract whose legal nature is not easy to determine due to the fact that it is close to an employment contract in its content and essential features. At the same time, it is a contract that does not establish an employment relationship, which is why it raises many doubts, especially regarding the primary causa of this contract — the provision of minimum labour law protection for students.

Determining the content of the so-called minimum labour standards should start with decent work as the highest value and the common denominator of a series of rights that every worker should enjoy. The components of dignified labour are complex, but they, in the context of student labour, without exception, involve protection against discrimination, decent remuneration, protection at work, and basic rights such as the right to limited working hours, the prohibition of overtime work and the right to weekly and annual vacation.

Women’s rights in the workplace – EU vs. Spanish legislation on co-responsibility rights

2023-12-22T12:49:06+01:00

The establishment of a regulatory framework to ensure women’s equality in the workplace has been a lengthy journey in the European Union (EU) and its Member States. In Spain, there was no significant impetus initially. Nevertheless, a few decades later, due to substantial legislative improvement, Spain is considered by many a very convenient place for women to live and work, even though there is still much to be done. This article aims to analyse the adequacy of Spanish labour regulations with the EU’s normative acquis concerning work-life balance and co-responsibility—essential elements for the achievement of equality in the workplace. To this end, detailed reference will be made to the introduction of rights through the domestic regulatory framework. Consequently, the study will assess whether Spain is one of the EU countries with the highest standards of gender equality in employment and occupation resulting from the implementation and exercise of work-life balance rights to achieve co-responsibility and resolve reconciliation issues.

The approach of EU labour law in redressing the problems of working parents and carers

2023-12-22T12:48:57+01:00

The conflict between employment and family responsibilities, that is, private life in general, is regarded as one of the most pressing concerns of labour law over an extended period. In the context of increasing participation of women in labour markets, ageing of the population and changes in the archetypal forms of employment relationships and families, the issue of reconciling work with family life, i.e. maintaining the work-life balance, affects all social actors: workers, employers and governments. In light of this, the paper first analyses the EU policies and legislative measures related to the special protection of women in relation to pregnancy and maternity, including the right to maternity leave. Additionally, it addresses the special rights of working parents, including the right to parental leave for both men and women workers. Finally, the paper looks at the most recent EU Directive on Work-Life Balance of 2019, providing a critical review of both the newly introduced rights in the Directive, such as paternity and carers’ leave, and the already established rights of parental leave and flexible working arrangements.

Transition from work of seasonal workers to permanent labour immigration — the case of Serbia

2023-12-22T12:49:15+01:00

The current deficit of workers in the Serbian labour market is a consequence of several complementary factors. Among them, a few important challenges can be singled out: labour migrations of domestic workers, decrease in the number of working-age residents, as well as an increase in the amount of new jobs. At the same time, there is a large number of domestic workers who do not want to work in unfavourable working conditions and forms of work engagement, which leads to high rates of inactivity in the labour market. The effect of these circumstances led to an attempt to transform the regime of employment of foreign workers. The current system was created in the conditions of a self-sufficient labour market, where the presence of foreign labour was short-term and limited to specific jobs. Today, however, there is a need to facilitate the permanent immigration of workers to Serbia. The research followed the efforts to standardise the new employment regime for foreigners, which enabled foreign workers to have easier access to the labour market and long-term work engagement. The quality of the undertaken or announced measures, their consequences for the labour market, labour rights of foreign workers, and the quality of supervision over the application of the legal framework were all examined in an attempt to show how the new normative framework is intended for the permanent settlement of immigrant workers, instead of the short-term seasonal use of foreign labour. The issue of integration of foreign workers and their families was considered a special challenge, that is, whether it was enough to change the regime of work permits in order to attract a larger number of workers who will successfully integrate into social life and the community in Serbia. The basic starting hypothesis was that Serbia’s labour market needs a larger number of workers from abroad but also that partial changes in regulations would not necessarily lead to the creation of conditions for their permanent settlement. The normative analysis method was used in the research.

How to regulate minimum wage in light of contemporary social change: A case study of Slovenia

2023-12-22T12:49:12+01:00

Minimum wage stands as a fundamental right for workers and one of the oldest and most universal labour law standards in the world. Understanding the impact of labour market changes, demographic trends, and migration on minimum wage regulation could offer valuable insights into the future development of labour law institutes. This study focuses on how these trends affect the basic legal concept of the minimum wage and how they are affected by the legal regulation of the minimum wage. It draws upon a case study of minimum wage regulation in the Republic of Slovenia, with particular focus on social dialogue. In Slovenia, the minimum wage is legally determined, granting all employed individuals the right to receive it without differentiation based on domestic or foreign employment and irrespective of age. The right to a minimum wage has also been extended to cover certain non-standard forms of employment. An analysis of the minimum wage framework in Slovenia has shown that, even in the changed landscape of the labour market, traditional labour law institutions remain an important civilisational achievement and value.

Legal aspects of artificial intelligence in the employment process

2023-12-22T12:49:00+01:00

The introduction of artificial intelligence in all domains of life is the most transformative process in recent history. It is also a highly dynamic process, and due to the pace of technological development, a very limited legal framework is available to address issues of human rights, ethics, transparency, privacy, safety and accountability. During the last few years, artificial intelligence started to reshape employment processes. Positive aspects of the introduction of AI in the employment process are efficiency and quality in job matching, digitalisation and acceleration of the process, ability to process large data and match job seekers to available vacancy announcements, the alleviation of administrative burdens of employees of employment agencies and giving them strategic and innovative roles. All these are indispensable in present times when demographic challenges in European countries are leading to increased labour migrations and require changes in the recruitment process. The paper explores the current challenges of AI, i.e. how to achieve human-centred values and fairness of AI use during the employment process, preventing algorithmic bias and discriminatory application of AI tools. In order to harness the maximum benefits of AI, we need to develop a regulatory framework that would be enforceable, inclusive and adaptive (OECD), particularly knowing that most AI solutions are privately owned and developed for commercial purposes.

A bibliometric analysis and future research agenda for online labour platforms

2023-12-20T11:31:45+01:00

Online labour platforms (OLPs) are profit-oriented companies utilising technology to connect independent contractor workers with short-term service labour needs, offering a digital marketplace for posting tasks, receiving bids, and finalising agreements across various domains such as writing, design, programming, and digital marketing. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of the concurrent body of knowledge on OLPs, explaining how the specificities of this emerging form of labour are researched from various academic standpoints. The study is based on a dataset of 358 papers on OLPs published from 2013 to August 2023. The main finding of the study is that scholarly interest in OLPs is steadily growing in the observed period. However, geographical dispersion of the scientific output is not in line with the actual level of utilisation of OLPs, and scholarly interest in OLPs spans across diverse disciplines, including industrial relations and labour, management, economics, sociology, law, and computer science. The results of this paper can help better understand the dynamics of scholarly publishing on OLPs and further leverage underexploited subtopics in this field.

Ljubinka Kovačević, Dragica Vujadinović & Marco Evola (Editors): Intersectional discrimination of women and girls with disabilities and means for their empowerment

2023-08-29T12:59:10+02:00

International conference: The right to (digital) platform work - Is everybody welcome on board?

2023-09-25T17:27:58+02:00

The conference was organized as a hybrid event by the Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade and the Public Policy Research Center, a Belgrade-based think tank. It was held under the auspices of COST Action CA21118 - Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-WILL). The conference addressed the challenges and opportunities associated with digital platform work and explored ways to ensure fair and inclusive practices within this emerging sector.

The conference had several primary objectives. Firstly, it aimed to increase awareness regarding the rights and working conditions of individuals involved in digital platform work. Secondly, it sought to analyze the influence of digital platforms on both the labor market and the broader economy. Additionally, the conference aimed to facilitate discussions surrounding regulatory frameworks and policy choices that can ensure equitable and inclusive conditions for digital platform workers. Lastly, it aimed to promote dialogue among policymakers, researchers, industry representatives, and civil society organizations on these crucial issues.

Guest editors’ introduction

2023-12-16T13:28:09+01:00