Theme: A labour market without work contracts
Editorial: New ways of working challenges the social contract
“Do your duty, claim your right” describes the relationship between the individual and society. As more work becomes platform-based and cut into little pieces, the basis for taxes could be depleted, and the social contract broken. What is duty and what is right when crowdwork changes labour’s form and content? Can society’s institutions keep up? Can trade unions, or the labour law? And what exactly is crowdwork?
Former EU commissioner Nielson wants radical Nordic reforms
The Nordic labour market is facing challenges which can not be solved through minor changes. That was the message from Poul Nielson as he presented his 14 proposals for radical reforms.
Poul Nielson: Introduce mandatory adult education and further training in the Nordics
The five Nordic countries should make adult education and further training a mandatory element of the labour market, and introduce real cooperation on migration. These are central issues to secure the Nordic labour market model for future years, recommends a new report from the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Can the Nordic model survive the sharing economy?
The sharing economy, where customers use the Internet to find providers of different services without using physical middlemen, is also a threat to the Nordic model which builds on collective agreements. Employers and employees are forming non-contract relationships within a growing number of trades. If there is a contract, it mostly states that the partners cannot be considered to be employer or employee.
”Trade unions must organise people working though platforms”
The sharing economy represents a challenge to the labour market as we know it. In the face of this development, the Swedish trade union Unionen has just entered an agreement with German IG Metall. The aim is to find tools for how to organise the growing part of the labour force which works through online platforms.
The core idea of labour law is under threat
The core idea of labour law is to protect the weaker party in an employment relation. This is increasingly under attack from market-led thinking where the main aim is to create opportunities for everyone to get a job. This might sound good, but it could lead to a worsening of conditions for both those who have managed to get a foot in the door of the regulated labour market and for those who are knocking, waiting to get in.
Sharing economy glossary
The new way of organising the selling of services can be confusing, and so too the accompanying terminology. Here is a short glossary for the most common expressions.
The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority sharpens its methods
How do you effectively monitor working environments? That was the key question when the Nordic working environment conference in Tampere recently discussed risk-based inspections. Which workplaces should be visited and how do you perform inspections and controls? The labour inspection authority’s role is to make sure businesses follow labour law. The methods are going to change, but how?
Risk-based inspections on the agenda at Tampere working environment conference
Risk-based inspections was the theme for the 2016 Nordic working environment conference in Tampere. More than 100 participants from across the Nordic region were engaged in the big debate on how authorities can carry out inspections to secure a good working environment in a more efficient way.
Birgitta Forsström – The fresh thinking Nordic region’s working environment director
Good leadership is crucial for well-being at work thinks NIVA’s new director, Birgitta Forsström. NIVA now offers courses in health promoting leadership and diversity leadership in addition to more traditional themes. This is how she wants to create new Nordic arenas for training in the working environment area.
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