_Abstract: Considers the challenges involving employees’ annual leave which the coronavirus pandemic has created for employers, including how to respond to the quarantine requirements imposed on holiday-makers returning from Spain, how to ensure annual leave is taken, the need to cancel previously booked time off, the carrying over of annual leave, and the status of public holidays during furlough.
Employment Law Journal_ _Abstract: Considers the steps employers can take to encourage ‘shielding’ employees to return to work safely, and minimise the risk of litigation. Discusses the importance of offering continuing home working, performing individual risk assessments, reducing travelling risks, changing employees’ roles, listening to their concerns and granting furlough to shielding employees.
Mulligan, Tanya and Neil Coetzer, ‘Incapacitated by the Lockdown: Exploring the Possibility of Temporary Legal Incapacity’ (2020) 20(4) Without Prejudice 10–11 Abstract: The National Lockdown imposed by government in terms of the Disaster Management Act has prompted considerable debate about its effects on the treatment and payment of employees during this period. The Regulations and Directives issued in terms of the Act have been silent on the issue, while statements by the Department of Employment & Labour, in particular, have served only to confuse things further.
Munton, Joellen Riley, ‘Work Health and Safety: Regulating for Safe and Sustainable Work Practices in a Post-Pandemic World’ in Belinda Bennett and Ian Freckelton (eds), Pandemics, Public Health Emergencies and Government Powers: Perspectives on Australian Law (Federation Press, 2021)
Murcia, Joaquín García, Iván Rodríguez Cardo and Diego Álvarez Alonso, ‘Covid-19 and Labour Law Measures in Spain: Emergency Rules to Deal with a Health, Economic and Employment Crisis’ (2020) 13(1) Italian Labour Law e-Journal 141–160 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact in Spain. With the purpose of slowing down the spread of the virus and controlling the situation, the Government declared the state of alarm and imposed restrictions to people’s movement and social contact (including temporary confinement of the population at home). Most economic and working activities were temporarily paralysed, leaving apart those considered ‘essential services’ and other exceptions. With the aim of reducing the economic and social impact of such extraordinary circumstances, protecting workers and allowing to resume working activities after the crisis, the Government approved a package of urgent legislation, including a large list of measures in the area of Labour Law and Social Security: among others, promoting telework; facilitating the adaptation of working time to family care needs; favouring the temporary suspension of employment contracts or the reduction of working time due to force majeure or other grounds related to COVID-19, while dismissals were limited; establishing an extraordinary paid leave for workers of undertakings forced to stop their activity; finally, adapting and enhancing unemployment benefits and other forms of social protection. This paper provides a panoramic explanation on this legislation aiming to face the COVID-19 health, economic and employment crisis.
Murphy, Caroline and Lorraine Ryan, ‘National Labour Law and Social Security Systems through the Lens of the COVID Health Crisis. Adaptations or Fundamental Changes?’ [2021] (4) Revue de Droit Comparé du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale 132–143 [full text will be available on open access in December 2022 via this link] Abstract: The Covid 19 crisis has created significant changes to work environments and consequently numerous challenges for employment law frameworks in Ireland. In order to understand them better, in this article we provide an overview of these key issues from an Irish perspective, providing details of recent relevant case law, survey data showing trends and the future strategic plans of the Irish government in aiming to deal with these issues.
Mustafi, Ritwik Guha et al, ‘The Constitutionality and the Overall Impact of the Dilution of Labor Laws in India during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Analysis’ (2021) 1(4) Jus Corpus Law Journal 39–46 Abstract: This paper briefly examines the background of the labor laws in India and their specific purposes. The paper then analyses the constitutionality of the dilution of labor laws and the overall impacts therein. Finally, the paper suggests some alternative measures which can be applied given that there is a second wave of the pandemic. The paper uses the doctrinal method of research as ample materials for reference are available in form of articles, books, and electronic resources.
Nash, Meredith and Brendan Churchill, ‘Caring during COVID-19: A Gendered Analysis of Australian University Responses to Managing Remote Working and Caring Responsibilities’ (2020) 27(5) Gender, Work & Organization 833–846 Abstract: COVID-19 is dramatically reconfiguring paid work and care. Emerging evidence in the global media suggests that academic women with caring responsibilities are being disproportionately impacted. This article fills a key knowledge gap by examining how Australian universities are supporting academics to manage remote work and caring during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a desktop analysis of public information about remote working and care from 41 Australian universities and compared them to the world’s top ten ranked universities. Findings suggest that during the pandemic, the Australian higher education sector positions decisions about caring leave and participation in the paid labour force as ‘private’ matters in which employees (mainly women) design their own ‘solutions’ when compared with international institutional counterparts. We argue that COVID-19 provides another context in which universities have evaded their responsibility to ensure women’s full participation in the labour force.
Nath, Rahul, ‘Epidemics: A Tale of Two Workers’ (CEPR Discussion Papers, Covid Economics Issue 32, 24 June 2020) Abstract: This paper shows that the labour market opportunities available to an agent has a significant bearing on how that agent experiences the outbreak of an epidemic. I consider two types of labour (i) market labour that can only produce output in close physical proximity, and (ii) remote labour that can produce output at a distance. This paper develops a Two Agent New Keynesian model extended to include an epidemic bloc and dual feedback between economic decisions and the evolution of the epidemic. I show that an agent restricted to only supply market labour experiences higher death rates vis-a-vis their share of the population, and suffers larger declines in labour and consumption over the course of the epidemic. Post-epidemic, these agents are significantly worse off than their counterparts who have the opportunity to work from home and hence a more unequal society emerges. I then show that simple containment policies, while leading to larger losses in economic prosperity as measured by output loss, can significantly reduce death rates across the population, bring the death rates of the two groups closer together, and reduce the inequality that emerges post epidemic.
Nath, Vandana and Graeme Lockwood, ‘Implications of the UK Equality Law for Tele-Homeworking: COVID-19 and Beyond’ (2021) International Journal of Law and Management (advance article, published online 6 October 2021) Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the practical and legal complexities associated with tele-homeworking in the context of the UK Equality Law. First, the paper provides a background to the recent growth of tele-homeworking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining the tenets of the UK Equality Act 2010 and referring to additional legislation pertinent to the ensuing discussion. Second, illustrative case law relevant to the UK Equality Law is put forward to demonstrate the potential challenges that employers and employees might encounter with continued and longer-term tele-homeworking arrangements. Third, the paper outlines implications for employers and human resource managers in terms of policies and practices that might shape the nature of the employment relationship.
Nazareno, Jennifer et al, ‘From Imperialism to Inpatient Care: Work Differences of Filipino and White Registered Nurses in the United States and Implications for COVID-19 through an Intersectional Lens’ (2021) 28(4) Gender, Work & Organization 1426–1446 Abstract: In the United States, nursing is the largest healthcare profession, with over 3.2 million registered nurses (RNs) nationwide and comprised of mostly women. Foreign-trained RNs make up 15 percent of the RN workforce. For over half a century, the U.S. healthcare industry has recruited these RNs in response to nurse shortages in hospitals and nursing homes. Philippines-trained RNs make up 1 out of 20 RNs in this country and continue to be the largest group of foreign-trained nurses today. Recently, the news media has publicized the many deaths of Filipino RNs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Given the imperial historical ties between these two countries in the context of the nursing profession and the enduring labor inequities that persist, this nationally representative study is one of the few to our knowledge to not only quantitatively examine the current work differences in characteristics and experiences of Philippines-trained RNs and U.S.-trained white RNs practicing in the United States today, but to also do so from an intersectionality lens. The overall aim of this paper is to illuminate how these differences may serve as potential factors contributing to the disproportionate number of Filipino nurses’ COVID-19 related vulnerability and deaths in the workplace.
Ndlovu, Lonias and Clarence Itumeleng Tshoose, ‘COVID-19 and Employment Law in South Africa: Comparative Perspectives on Selected Themes’ (2021) 33(1) SA Mercantile Law Journal 25–55 Abstract: Public health emergencies such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which was elevated to a global pandemic, usually have severe implications for people in various spheres of life. For example, people’s employment and social welfare are affected. In this paper, the authors explore the possible implications of COVID-19 on the rights of employers and employees in South Africa. The issues that need to be considered include leave when employees elect to stay at home as a precautionary measure against contracting the coronavirus at work, the enforcement of employment contracts, employment security, workplace discipline, working hours, absenteeism, and the employer’s duty to provide the employees with a safe working environment. Using a doctrinal legal research method, the article provides an analysis of the applicable laws and cases from South Africa and related jurisdictions. The comparative content, analysis of legislation, case law, and sector-specific guidelines show that COVID-19 has and will continue to have a significant impact on the employment laws as reflected in different jurisdictions. Although employment law is generally jurisdiction-specific, there are many commonalities in the laws of different countries, both on the African continent and globally. It is also important to note that the existing employment laws need to be adjusted in order to accommodate the effects of the pandemic. For example, South Africa can draw valuable lessons from other jurisdictions on how to deal with employment matters during a pandemic, and therefore COVID-19 presents the country with an opportunity to develop both its employment laws and the common law.
Neef, Andreas, ‘Legal and Social Protection for Migrant Farm Workers: Lessons from COVID-19’ [2020] Agriculture and Human Values (advance article, published 19 May 2020) < https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7235435/ > Abstract: Introduction: In most countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a reassessment about whose work is deemed essential. Citizens and their governments have come to realize the importance of maintaining reliable food supplies during a global health crisis, and there is broad agreement that farmers and farm workers at the very beginning of the food chain are undeniably essential. Yet, what is now more apparent than ever before is to what extent national food systems in the Global North have become dependent on migrant farm workers. Until recently, hundreds of thousands of these temporary, precarious, and oftentimes unregistered workers have secured the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for consumers, but border closures and suspension of visa services have thrown many of them into legal limbo, social uncertainty, and economic distress.
Negi, Chitranjali, ‘Human Rights Violations of Migrants Workers in India During COVID-19 Pandemic’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3629773, 17 June 2020) Abstract: ‘No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.’–Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today, the important issue is how to save the human rights & dignity of migrant workers The problems of migrant workers have become very important in many developing countries of the world. Migration of labour started in India during the period of British colonial rule. The National Commission on Rural Labour in India (NCRL,1991) estimates more than 10 million circular migrants in the rural areas alone. These include an estimated 4.5 million interstate migrants and 6 million inter-state migrants in India. One of the reasons behind the Human Rights Violation of State Migrants workers in India are political and economic. State Migrants are outsiders in other State, they do not vote and thus cannot put governments under electoral pressure.On 24th March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lock down in India- starting midnight to stop the Corona virus from spreading in Country. Lock down in India has impacted millions of migrant’s workers. Lack of food and basic amenities, loss of employment, fear of unknown and lack of social support were major reasons for struggle in this huge part of population. Due to the lock-down, more than three hundred deaths were reported, with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality and denial of timely medical care. Eighty migrants died while travelling back home on the Shramik Special trains. Several incidents, viral videos of police misbehavior, brutality (beating with cane-charged) on migrant workers, have been reported from across the country.The Indian Judiciary has also not protected itself in glory by failing in its duty to protect the rights and dignity of migrant labour citing the ground of non-interference in policy. India is a founding member of the ILO and it has been a permanent member of the ILO Governing Body since 1922. India has ratified six out of the eight-core/fundamental ILO conventions. India has not ratified the two core fundamental conventions (Convention No 87,98). It is necessary to maintain important aspects of labour standards & labour rights (Migrants Rights) and aim of achieving a system where there are no barriers to the smooth process of the Rule of Law.
Newman, Annie and Irina Freilekhman, ‘A Case for Regulated Industrial Democracy Post-Covid-19’ (2020) 45(2) New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (advance article, published 14 December 2020) Abstract: Covid-19 is reshaping the domestic workforce. Thousands have lost their jobs throughout this pandemic, and we are seeing a decline in private sector unionism that is unlikely to recover under the current regulatory settings. The implications for democracy are considerable. Using the aviation industry as an example, this article defines industrial democracy, provides an insight into industrial democracy in New Zealand, and argues the case for the regulation of industrial democracy post-Covid-19.
Novotný, Lukáš and Pavlína Pellešová, ‘Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on the Regulation to Tourism in the Czech Republic’ (2021) 19(1) Central European Public Administration Review 199–222 Abstract: The article deals with issues concerning the regulation of tourism during the Covid-19 crisis in the Czech Republic. Tourism is among the most affected economic sectors by the current pandemic. During the pandemic, the State compensated the financial losses of tourist guides, but such compensations were – according to the guides themselves – insufficient. The aim of the research was to find out how tourist guides see the Czech crisis legislation with regard to tourism and the legislative measures taken by the Czech Government and Ministry of Regional Development to support tourism. For such purpose, questionnaires were distributed to employees in tourism – guides, particularly. We examined their attitudes to the tourism legislation in the Czech Republic in connection with the pandemic situation as well as public administration. Next, in-depth interviews were conducted. On the one hand, the research revealed great interest of tourist guides in the legislation and the current situation in the Czech Republic. On the other hand, it showed a negative evaluation of the adopted legislative measures and crisis legislation. On the basis of the research, the most important aid factors were identified: financial aid, greater support from the State and municipalities, exemption of social security and health insurance payments, promotion of tourism and guide services, support in the form of upgrading skills and retraining. The empirical part of the research, which used the Chi-Square Test of Independence, pointed to a dependence between gender and the attitude related to the legislation knowledge, between gender and monitoring of the current situation in European legislation concerning tourism and tourist guides, and between gender and attitudes when evaluating the legislative measures adopted by the Czech Government and Ministry of Regional Development in relation to tourism support. At the end of the study, some recommendations are provided on how to improve the present situation.
Oanh, TTD and NB An, ‘Legal Aspects and Practice of Guarantee of Employees’ Rights in Being Unilaterally Terminated Labor Contract In The Context of Covid 19 Pandemic in Vietnam’ (2021) 31(1) Journal of Law and Political Sciences 142–158 Abstract: From 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam has raised a new issue on ensuring the rights of employees in the unilateral termination of labour contracts due to dangerous epidemics. This issue requires legal scientists and legislators to research measures to perfect the law in line with the development of the digital age in order to ensure the rights of workers, the right to freedom of business of the employer and the interests of the State.
O’Connor, Niall, ‘The Right to Work and Rights in Work during the Coronavirus Pandemic: The Response of the United Kingdom’ in Carla Ferstman and Andrew Fagan (eds), Covid-19, Law and Human Rights: Essex Dialogues (School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, 2020) 137–145
<http://repository.essex.ac.uk/28032/>
Oguz, Ozgur and Dalia Perkumienė, ‘The Effect of Pandemic on Labour Law’ (2021) (Challenges for Sustainable Bioeconomy and Climate Change, Proceedings of the 10th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development”, Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy, Lithuania, 2021) 391–395
Jurisdiction: Turkey Abstract: Due to the structure of labor law and developing technology and economic interests, flexible working models have become widespread. In many workplaces, the presence of workers in person is no longer compulsory. As a result of the Covid-19 epidemic that threatens our health these days, the need for flexible working models has increased and remote working methods have become mandatory in many areas. In this study, the regulations made with the remote working system and the Covid-19 epidemic were included, the obligations of the employer on occupational health and safety and the changes in the Remote Work Regulation were evaluated. Covid 19 has affected business and labour relations. Different opinions and different legal consequences are put forward regarding the effect of the suspension of the employment contract on the annual leave, severance pay, and notice pay, which are the rights of the worker depending on the length of service. The aim of the research is to identify the effect of virus on labour market.
Onwuachi-Willig, Angela, ‘The Intersectional Race and Gender Effects of the Pandemic in Legal Academia’ (2021) 72(6) Hastings Law Journal 1703–1715 Abstract: Just as the COVID-19 pandemic helped to expose the inequities that already existed between students at every level of education based on race and socioeconomic class status, it has exposed existing inequities among faculty based on gender and the intersection of gender and race. The legal academy has been no exception to this reality. The widespread loss of childcare and the closing of both public and private primary and secondary schools have disproportionately harmed women law faculty, who are more likely than their male peers to work a ‘second shift’ in terms of childcare and household responsibilities. Similarly, women law faculty were more likely to feel the effects of the financial exigencies that universities and law schools faced during the pandemic because of their disproportionate representation in non-secure, meaning non-tenure-stream, faculty positions. Furthermore, the rapid switch to remote teaching and learning, particularly during spring 2020, had a more detrimental effect on women in part because of the persistent gender bias that women law faculty, who teach a larger percentage of required and survey courses, encounter in student teaching evaluations and in part because women tend to be more engaged in the mental health and emotional caretaking of students, which significantly increased during the pandemic. Even the actions that law schools took during the pandemic to provide relief to faculty, such as automatic extensions to the tenure clock for all faculty, place women more at risk than men for harmful impacts on factors like pay equity. In all, this Essay briefly analyzes how factors such as limited childcare, remote learning, the greater caretaking needs of students, plus other pandemic-related effects, have worked to exacerbate previously existing gender and intersectional gender and race inequities between men and all women in legal academia and between white men and women of color.
Panainte, Septimiu and Ramona Daniela Stângaciu, ‘The Labor Inspector Searching for ... Godot: Undeclared Distance Work’ (2021) 52(3) European Journal of Social Law / Revue Européenne du Droit Social 25–42 Abstract: Undeclared labor has become an increasingly present phenomenon nowadays. Due to the pandemic context, there has been a transition towards working from home or under telework regime. These particular forms of individual labor contracts allow for greater flexibility in terms of the place where a natural person works but, on the downside, they allow the parties to disguise the agreement or to avoid fulfilling the formalities imposed by the Law, such as concluding the contract in a written form and registering its elements in the General Record of Employees. In light of the aforementioned, we aim to identify if the labor inspectors have effective means of identifying the cases of undeclared labor when natural persons are working remotely. Through this paper, in the first section, we discuss the legal background both at the national as well as at the international level, in order to shed light on the concept of undeclared work. The following two sections will be dedicated to analysing if the inspection has any perspective of being an effective mean of identifying the situations of undeclared labor. Finally, several directions of action are contoured -- as de lege ferenda proposals -- so as to tackle the issue of undeclared work.
Pereira, Maria do Mar, ‘Researching Gender Inequalities in Academic Labor during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Avoiding Common Problems and Asking Different Questions’ (2021) 28(S2) Gender, Work & Organization 498–509 Abstract: As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, a growing body of international literature is analyzing the effects of the pandemic on academic labor and, specifically, on gender inequalities in academia. In that literature, much attention has been devoted to comparing the unequal impacts of COVID-19 on the research activities of women and men, with studies demonstrating that women’s research productivity has been disproportionately disrupted, in ways that are likely to have detrimental effects in the short- and long-term. In this paper, I discuss that emerging literature on gender inequalities in pandemic academic productivity. I reflect on the questions asked, the issues centered and the assumptions made within this literature, devoting particular attention to how authors conceptualize academic labor and productivity, on one hand, and gender, on the other. I show that this literature makes major contributions to exposing old and new gender inequalities in academia, but argue that it also risks reproducing some problematic assumptions about gender and about academic work. Discussing those assumptions and their effects, I identify some important questions for us to consider as we expand this literature and deepen our understanding of the complex gendered effects of COVID-19 on academic labor.
Perri, Asia, ‘Did the Socio-Legal Status of Migrant Workers in Bahrain Exacerbate the Health Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic?’ [no publication information provided]
Abstract: This text analyses how the legal and socio-economic status of migrant workers in Bahrain shaped aspects of their health outcomes amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Through criteria including their mental, physical and financial well being, even if the pandemic has been an exceptional occurrence, this report will conclude that the Government of Bahrain (GoB) must re-evaluate the construct and operation of the sponsorship (Kefala) system in order to enable migrant workers to be more resilient and better able to protect - or have access to means to protect - themselves. Such measures will enable the GoB to adhere to international best practice and standards in respect to its treatment of migrant workers.
Phillips, Edward R and Brandon L Morrow, ‘Employment Law: Navigating the New Paid-Leave Mandates’ (2020) 56(5) Tennessee Bar Journal 16–19 Introduction: The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) represents the second phase of Congress’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. The FFCRA provides eligible employees with paid sick leave through the use of two new acts: (1) the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) and (2) the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA). These provisions took effect on April 1, 2020 and expire on Dec. 31, 2020. Additionally, the new law includes refundable payroll tax credits for employers who are required to provide paid leave under the EPSLA or EFMLEA.
Philpott, Jane, ‘A View from the Front Lines of a COVID-19 Outbreak’ in Colleen M Flood et al (eds), Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19 (University of Ottawa Press, 2020) 463 Abstract: This chapter offers a narrative of a COVID-19 outbreak at Participation House Markham. It is a not-for-profit group home for adults with disabilities, established in 1972 by the Cerebral Palsy Parent Council of Toronto. With this outbreak, 95% of the home’s residents were infected. Six of them died. Fifty-seven workers were infected. The story illustrates themes discussed elsewhere in this book, but focuses particularly on the role of the labour force in a care home. It notes the pre-pandemic vulnerability of any congregate setting without a full staffing complement. In any group home or long-term care facility, an infectious outbreak exacerbates workforce challenges, as workers may be exposed to the virus; become ill; or become restricted to a single place of employment. By describing the clinical cases of three residents in one group home, this chapter demonstrates why the shortage of nurses, personal support workers, kitchen staff, and others, would trigger a crisis in this institution or others like it. The chapter includes policy recommendations that are amplified elsewhere in this section. These could contribute to a national review of how to provide residential care for people living with disabilities in a manner that is safe, healthy, and dignified.
Pillai, Deepa and Leena Dam, ‘Saga of Migrant Workers in India: Measures to Strengthen Social Security’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3784814, 30 December 2020) Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up bitter colors when India witnessed the large scale gory sage of reverse internal migration of unorganized workforce. As compared to intercontinental migration the degree of internal migration is twice. Displacement, lockdowns, loss of employment, starvation and social distancing provoked a frenzied course of mass return for internal migrants in India and other parts of the world. In India there is a peculiar trend of unorganized workforce migration. Out of 29 states and 7 union territories, few states dominate where migrants flock for seeking livelihood. The fleeing of migrants to their inherent origin has weakened the economic activities towards slowdown in the economic growth. This thematic review paper discusses the problems of the internal migrants and their state during and post lockdown announcements in India. The data included extracts of articles, opinions and reviews for which codes were recognized which lead to formulation of research themes. The review also highlights government interventions in addressing the challenges confronted by the internal migrants with social security. This study proposes an arrangement as migrant exchange at state level for efficient policy formulation and accomplishment of social security standards.
‘Poland: Coronavirus: Impacts on Employment in Poland’ [2020] (9 April) Lawyer (Online Edition) 1 Abstract: The article offers information on Crisis Act enacted by Poland for addressing the impact of coronavirus on employment. It mentions that an order to work from home can be given in any form, also verbally, however, employers should confirm such order to work from home in writing or in an official email or, in the absence of other possibilities, even by a text message.
Polomarkakis, Konstantinos Alexandris, ‘Health and Safety at Work in the Time of COVID-19: A Social Europe Reckoning?’ (2020) 11(4) European Journal of Risk Regulation Special issue: ’Beyond COVID-19: Towards a European Health Union’ 864-883 Abstract: The shortcomings in the handling of COVID-19 highlighted the salience of health and safety at work and fuelled discussions surrounding the desirability of a European Health Union. This article conceptualises occupational health and safety at the European Union (EU) level as a key driver for the creation of a European Health Union. Through recourse to the area’s roots and its relevance to the tackling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the benefits of putting occupational health and safety in the driving seat are set out. The implications of maintaining a healthy workforce are acute, from both a social and a public health perspective, especially in the time of a pandemic. Relying on a reflective approach that goes beyond the status quo, this article offers pragmatic yet imaginative proposals for strengthening the occupational health and safety acquis. The proposals act as the blueprint for health and safety in the workplace to lay the foundation for a European Health Union and advance the social dimension of the EU.
Porcius, Isabela, ‘The Rise of Telework and the Struggle Towards Cyber Security’ (2021) 15(1) Fiat Iustitia 148–157 Abstract: Before 2020, telework had been regarded as a privilege of certain people within certain domains of activity. Moreover, it had been perceived as a caprice, given the fact that for the majority of people working implied a workplace which usually was chosen and properly organized by the employer. Working from home or from another place according to the desire of an employee seemed like utopia. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition from the traditional life to a life based on the use of technology. People had to keep physical distance for sanitary purposes, but at the same time, communication and daily life activities had to be continued in a suitable manner for preventing illness. When State Governments declared lockdown in the entire world, everybody and everything went online. As a result, computers and Internet became the salvation for the humankind confronted with a challenging virus. In this context, the only thing that mattered was that people could talk to each other, work together and sustain the economy and the society in general. As usually, technology was overestimated due to its advantages and most (probably all) of the risks were neglected. People felt relieved to have a normal life facilitated by the use of computers and Internet. It is vital to have an income and telework came as a guarantee in this regard. The issue is that while the focus was on the generalization of telework, cyber incidents occurred and cyber security was far from being a priority. What was the impact of cyber security incidents related to telework? Which are the main guidelines for ensuring cyber security in telework? These questions are analyzed in the present paper.
Porter, Nicole, ‘Working While Mothering During the Pandemic and Beyond’ (2021) 78(1) Washington and Lee Law Review Online 1–30 Abstract: Although combining work and family has never been easy for women, working while mothering during the pandemic was close to impossible. When COVID-19 caused most workplaces to shut down, many women were laid off. But many women were forced to work from home alongside their children, who could not attend daycare or school. Mothers tried valiantly to combine a full day’s work on top of caring for young children and helping school aged children with remote school. But many found this balance difficult, leading to women’s lowest workforce participation rate in over forty years. And even women who did not quit nevertheless suffered workplace consequences from logging many fewer work hours than before the pandemic. The exact magnitude of this toll, in terms of costs and careers, will not be known for years, if ever. This Article explores the challenges working mothers faced during the pandemic and sketches an outline of what solutions might have mitigated the difficulties during the pandemic and could make a difference in the lives of working mothers moving forward.
Potapova, Aleksandra, ‘The Risk of Limitation of Attraction of Foreign Migrants to the Russian Agriculture Amid the Pandemic’ (2020) 10(112) Monitoring of Russia’s Economic Outlook 3–9 Abstract: The closure of borders between countries in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 suspended the flows of the international labor migration, thus creating risks to the agriculture, particularly, fruit farming and horticulture. In this survey, the information is presented on the employment of foreign workers in the agriculture of various countries, as well as the measures taken to solve the problem of labor shortages in different countries whose experience can be useful to Russia.
Powell, Catherine, ‘Color of Covid and Gender of Covid: Essential Workers, Not Disposable People’ (2021) 32(2) Yale Journal of Law and Feminism (forthcoming) Abstract: We live in a moment of interconnected pandemics. The COVID-19 crisis provides a window into the underlying pandemics of inequality, economic insecurity, and injustice. The viruses of sexism, racism, and economic instability are the pre-existing conditions of an unjust legal system — baked into our nation at the Founding in the shadow of chattel slavery, female disenfranchisement, property requirements for voting rights, and dispossession of Native Americans. COVID-19 has not recreated these conditions, but instead has amplified the persisting inequalities upon which the nation was built. At the same time, the current viral moment reveals that we all share common vulnerabilities, making a vulnerability analysis particularly timely in gaining support for solutions. As commentators have observed, ‘COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate[, but] America does.’ Even while unmasking deeply embedded structural inequalities, this moment of interlinked pandemics of disease, economic insecurity, and violence affects us all and has torn at the very fabric of the social contract we owe to each other and, in fact, depend on. I propose a new concept, ‘viral convergence,’ to both analyze this moment of interlinked crises and to utilize this moment, in which our share vulnerabilities are so clear, to theorize a way forward. The road ahead calls for legal paradigms that recognize both the need for universal and more targeted solutions. As Arundhati Roy suggests, we must both acknowledge the tragedy while also utilizing this crisis for transformational change by viewing the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘portal’ to a more just and equal world.
Pratiwi, Citra Resmi Nanda Putri and Tri Lisiani Prihatinah, ‘Employment Law System in the Covid-19 and New Normal Pandemic Periods’ (2nd International Conference of Law, Government and Social Justice (ICOLGAS), 2020) 136–144 Abstract: The Ministry of Manpower on April 20, 2020 collected data on workers who were dismissed and sent home during the Covid-19 pandemic, around 2,084,593 workers from 116,370 companies have been sent home. To avoid a legal vacuum during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government issued an employment policy. Based on these problems, the authors conducted a study to find out how the legal steps and policies that have been taken by the government to deal with labor problems during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The approach used is normative juridical by analyzing secondary legal materials by understanding law as a set of regulations or positive norms in the statutory system that regulates human life. This research discusses the policy on how the labor law that has been issued by the government is in accordance with the positive law. The government has carried out its obligation to protect the public from dangerous diseases through policies that have been issued since the Covid-19 pandemic until the implementation of the new normal. Although it still requires more specific special rules in an effort to protect employers and workers affected by Covid-19 and the economy in Indonesia.
Prikasetya, Gratianus, ‘Employment Layoff Policy During Covid-19 Pandemic (Legal Comparative Analysis Based on Indonesia and Singapore Law)’ (2021) 1(2) Corporate and Trade Law Review 141–153 Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has made Employment Layoffs in Industrial Relation become unavoidable both in developing and developed countries. Throughout 2020, the number of layoffs, which can be seen from the unemployment rate in these two countries, has increased. Employment Layoff in Indonesia is subject to the provisions of Law No. 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower Law as partially amended by Law No. 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation, while Singapore regulates it in the Employment Act of Singapore Chapter 91. Government intervention in implementing the Layoff Policy tend to be greater in Indonesia than in Singapore. This is the impact of the Corporatist Industrial Relations Model system used in Indonesia, while Singapore uses the Contractualist Industrial Relations Model system which relies more on the industrial relations settlement mechanism to the parties. This article was prepared by using Legal Research Methods, especially comparative law between Indonesian Law and Singapore Law.
Priya, Sakshi, ‘Women Empowerment Stringed with Women Employment during Pandemic’ (2021) 2(1) Jus Corpus Law Journal 89–95 Abstract: During the pandemic what muddled manhood after healthcare was the economy. Economic instability along with the challenges during COVID triggered us to understand issues that were not necessarily taken seriously. When we consider women as subordinate economic helpers to men, it signifies injustice to her contribution to the workforce which is either neglected or marginally paid. The gender gap at the workplace did exist before and made exclusiveness of men in terms of making money. But this pandemic not just pushed women back in terms of work, but even they never seemed to come back to work again. Also, Challenges faced by women workers especially women migrant workers are seemed neglected with due course of the pandemic. Thus, this article tries to study the significant effect of the pandemic in the lives of women workers, their challenges and throw light on their contribution in fighting the economic battle together with men.
Puaschunder, Julia and Martin Gelter, ‘The Law, Economics, and Governance of Generation Covid-19 Long-Haul’ 19(1) Indiana Health Law Review 47–125 Abstract: The SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus is an external shock to all societies with lasting impacts that have changed individual, political, and corporate decisions profoundly. Increasing evidence reveals that an estimated 10-50% of those previously infected with COVID-19 face a longer-term or long-term health impact and/or chronic debilitation that in many cases comes and goes in waves. This phenomenon has already been referred to as a pandemic within the pandemic. The broad-based and long-term impact of COVID Long Haulers have also holds the potential to change our world and modern society, lasting through the following three outlined speculative trends: (1) The coronavirus crisis has widened novel and already existing inequalities, of which the rather surprising finance performance versus real economy liquidity constraint gap led to unequal emotional and sociopsychological crisis fallout propensities. Corporate governance and political economy power dynamics may shift in the eye of Long Haulers’ relation to work and a healthy, productive environment. Employers will likely face pressure to create a safe and secure working environment but also have rising tort liability risks that may be mitigated by hiring health consulting agents. Proactive care for maintaining a healthy workforce and the overall long-term well-being of employees, including preventive care in teams, will become an essential corporate feature to attract qualified labor, whose bargaining power increased in the eye of labor shortages in direct contact industries and positions. (2) Long Haulers may initiate an artificial intelligence revolution of self-monitoring and constant health status tracking, but also democratization of healthcare information. Artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data offer essential complements to fill in for long-haul attention and productivity deficits that may occur in waves. Long Haulers have already found themselves in online self-help groups – such as Survivor Corps – for quick and unbureaucratic information exchange about an emerging group phenomenon. Social online media platforms served as an easy remedy during a time when a surge of severe COVID cases precluded COVID hospitalization. Nowadays, COVID long-haul patients have become – more than ever before – citizen scientists that bundle decentralized information on their health status and potential remedies in order to inform the medical profession about newly emerging trends. The rise in medical self-help and mutual support will have profound implications for the regulation of the medical profession and will likely stretch the medical remedy spectrum and boost alternative medicine. In the online exchange of sensitive information about one’s health status, citizen scientists are also particularly vulnerable in terms of their privacy, potentially even more susceptible to online marketing campaigns under medically impaired conditions, but also because of their sensitive information having been publicly disclosed online over time. (3) As historical precedents show, Generation COVID Long-Haul partially being recognized as a disability may result in increased pressures to reform social, healthcare, and retirement systems. Given waves of debilitation, the analysis of macroeconomic aggregates will have to change in order to reflect a more diversified and temporal view of social preferences. Future economic policy research may take inspiration from the legal concept of disparate impact. Behavioral insights on how to navigate the world with attention deficits and uncertainty may focus on developing an idea of the economic benefits of rest by incorporating preferences for minimalism in a turbulent world longing for recovery
Puaschunder, Julia M, Martin Gelter and Siegfried Sharma, ‘Alleviating an Unequal COVID-19 World: Globally Digital and Productively Healthy’ (Fordham Law Legal Studies Research Paper, 2020) Abstract: The novel Coronavirus-crisis raises attention to digitalization and healthcare prevention that opens opportunities to alleviate growing online and healthcare inequalities.In the wake of an already burgeoning digitalization revolution, the COVID-19 pandemic perpetuated digitalization. As affinity to information and communication technologies nowadays determines economic potential, technology-based inequality increases. Taxing digital analytics-driven economic growth could raise funds to offset technology disruption fallouts on a national level. On a global scale, equal access to internet connectivity around the world would help spread the benefits of digitalization equally and aid countries in catching up in international development endeavors. More than ever before in the history of modern workforce do employers and employees alike nowadays care about the overall well-being and physical interaction in a hygienic environment. The COVID-19 pandemic steered individuals to adopt technology to self-monitor healthy lifestyles, but also governments and employers to electronically track individuals for health safety purposes. With the overall immune system resiliency determining the severity of a COVID-19 infection, preventive healthcare implementation can be leveraged into a competitive advantage. Corporate Social Responsibility and corporate governance should incentivize preventive self-care as an innovative precautionary mean for lowering pandemic outbreak risks and boosting performance. Like in the Austrian Sozialpartnerschafts-model, stakeholder integration into corporate decision making could aid in reaching collective goals of a healthy workforce in an overall precautionary environment. Online healthcare technology offers most novel corporate governance and employer-employee interaction opportunities. Endogenous growth theory should include the workforce health status as a productive labor capital driver. Precaution should be factored in as a positive collective learning-by-preventing process, which includes group dynamics around hygiene but also monitoring of one’s own and other’s health status and care via health apps that also allow tracking human contact touchpoints for preventing COVID.
Purkayastha, Damini et al, ‘Work, Health and COVID‑19: A Literature Review’ (ETUI Research Paper - Report No 2021.03, 31 May 2021) Abstract: With work a key vector of Covid‑19 transmission, this report examines why it is critical that occupational health and safety measures take centre stage in mitigation policies. Workers in sectors declared essential by state authorities have been mandated to continue working in physical settings during the pandemic. Several such sectors involve many face-to-face contacts with colleagues and clients, meaning that workers face a higher risk of exposure to Covid‑19. Unregulated safety measures, a lack of personal protective equipment and crowded settings further increase the risk in these sectors. Persisting inequalities are exacerbated by the pandemic, as low-wage workers, workers from ethnic minorities, migrant workers and women are overrepresented in these sectors. They also face intersecting factors, including precarious contracts, job insecurity, inadequate paid sick leave, a lack of bargaining power and low socioeconomic status. The risks faced by (recent) migrants are compounded by the fact that their residence permits, access to healthcare and housing may be mediated by their employers. Studies show that there is also a gender dimension to the OSH implications of the pandemic, with women facing a higher exposure to the disease, a higher care burden and an increased risk of domestic violence. These patterns of inequality play a significant role in a health crisis, determining who is at greater risk of becoming infected, and whether or not they will have access to healthcare and self-isolation. Besides recognising Covid‑19 as an occupational disease and providing adequate protection to workers across sectors, it is important for OSH measures to go beyond workplace exposure to the disease and to include the various factors increasing exposure because of work. Policy recommendations include better representation of workers at all levels of employment, sector-specific OSH measures, broader EU-wide policies and infrastructures, improved job security and sick leave policies, disaggregated data collection and inclusive messaging.
Purwoto, Ady, Eko Soponyono and Indrati Rini, ‘Reconstruction of Legal Protection Policy for Occupational Safety for Health Personnel Due to a Transmitted-Disease Pandemic Based on Justice Value’ (2021) 4(10) Scholars International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 595–600
Jurisdiction: Indonesia Abstract: Health workers need to get legal protection from the government as the executor of the task of handling Covid-19. The author raises this problem in a study with the main problem What are the obstacles that occur that make the legal protection policy for occupational safety for health workers due to the infectious disease pandemic is not based on the value of justice yet and How is the reconstruction of this law based on the value of justice which will be researched using the socio-legal research method which is on the qualitative data obtained by the author in the field where the results are processed using data triangulation to obtain a relevant and accurate analysis. The results of the study indicate that there are obstacles that occur as a result of a very complicated local government bureaucracy. In addition, health workers who work in the task force to accelerate the handling of the pandemic have not received occupational health and safety guarantees, only PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), Vitamins, food, and temporary Home Stay that must be provided while on duty, even the insurance is financed by their agency and not from their Local government. The reconstruction proposed by the author is in Article 9 paragraph 1 of Law Number 4 of 1984 concerning Outbreaks of Infectious Diseases, which stipulates that certain officers who carry out efforts to control the epidemic as referred to in Article 5 paragraph (1) must be rewarded for the risks involved that are borne in carrying out their duties.
Putri, Conie Pania, ‘Workers Laying Off Policy as an Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Law, Social Science, Economics, and Education, ICLSSEE 2021, March 6th 2021, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2021)
Jurisdiction: Indonesia Abstract: Basically, entrepreneurs, workers/laborers, trade/labor unions, and the government must make every effort to prevent termination of employment. However, legal issue arises over the policy of laying off workers where workers do not do work, so whether their right to receive wages is still fully paid, partially paid, or not paid at all. Several employers implementing a policy of laying off their workers to suppress and reduce company operating expenses because the company does not get income due to discontinued business activities or production. However, legal issues arise over the policy of laying off workers where workers do not do work, so whether their right to wages are still paid in full, partially paid, or not paid at all. The research method is juridical-normative legal research. The conclusion of this study is in accordance with Article 93 paragraph (2) Juncto Article 186 paragraph (1) of the Manpower Law, states that employers are obliged to pay wages if the worker/laborer is willing to do the work that has been promised but the employer does not employ him. The amount of wages received can still be negotiated with the trade/labor unions and/or workers/laborers based on the Minister of Manpower’s Circular No. SE-05/M/BW/1998.
Rajan, S Irudaya and RB Bhagat, ‘Internal Migration and the Covid-19 Pandemic in India’ in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed), Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception (Springer, 2022) 227–248 Abstract: This chapter looks at the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on internal migrants in India. According to the 2011 Census, there are over 450 million internal migrants, of which a massive 54 million are inter-state migrants. A large number of these migrants consist of labourers who comprise a huge percentage of the informal sector workforce, both in the rural and urban areas of India, and are vital to the country’s economy. These workers are also some of the most vulnerable, with inadequacies in terms of working conditions and coverage of social safety nets, and are also largely absent from India’s policy discourses. This chapter highlights the size and extent of internal migration as well as its distribution across different states in India. It shows how the current crisis and lockdowns have affected their lives and livelihoods. It particularly looks at the responses of central and various state governments – at destinations and origins – to ensure migrants’ wellbeing. It also analyses the socioeconomic impact of the migrant exodus from major destinations and looks at solutions to enable and ensure that migration patterns in the future are sustainable, and more importantly, ensure migrants’ rights and dignity.
Rajan, S Irudaya and H Arokkiaraj, ‘Return Migration from the Gulf Region to India Amidst COVID-19’ in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed), Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception (Springer, 2022) 207–225 [OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK] Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has directly affected the millions of migrant workers in Gulf countries, mostly employed as temporary labour in construction and allied sectors. The Gulf region historically has been the most favoured destination for such jobs. However, the pandemic crisis has halted construction projects in these countries as the drastic fall in oil prices has affected Gulf oil and non-oil economies severely. This has had an adverse effect on Indian migrant workers as they face the threat of unemployment, leading to their voluntary or forced return to India. For example, at the end of 2020, half a million Kerala emigrants, most of them in the Gulf, had lost their jobs abroad due to the pandemic, making their return inevitable given their temporary status in these countries. This chapter examines how India is prepared to handle the changing trends in Indo-Gulf migration corridor and the subsequent return emigration from the Gulf. The chapter highlights major sending-state perspectives, such as that of Kerala and others, and their responses towards Gulf returnees. Moreover, it provides insights by revisiting the existing economic and social security measures for returning migrants and their families within the framework of state welfare schemes, thereby examining rehabilitation and re-integration mechanisms for return migrants at the central and state levels in India.
Rajaretnam, Thillagavathy and Angus Young, ‘Social Media, Its Use at Work and More: An Australian Perspective’ (2020) 26(6) Computer and Telecommunications Law Review 145–150 Abstract: Note: See in particular the section entitled ‘The Future of Work, Covid-19 and Social Media’. Abstract: The internet and social media are powerful instruments for mobilisation of people across the world and there is little doubt that the digital technology and social media have a significant impact on many aspects of social life and beyond. What started as a new tool for person-to-person communication has become something more, including a marketing tool for businesses. Corporations are catching up with the use of social media. They have begun to embrace the social media revolution by harnessing the benefits of social media as a communication, engagement and marketing tool. On the other end of the scale, many organisations are sceptical about the benefits of social media and perceive it as an inefficient use of time. The use of social media is either strongly discouraged at work or banned entirely. Besides, social media is increasingly more important for businesses that could post unknown risks as well as opportunities with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution. Consequently, the use of social media platforms at the workplace deserves more attention.
Rakhmadhani, Irzal et al, ‘COVID-19 Vaccination Services: Legal Issues and Protection for Health Workers’ (2021) 583 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research 110–114
Jurisdiction: Indonesia Abstract: COVID-19 cases are on the rise, and strict health protocols haven’t been able to keep up. COVID-19 vaccinations are required to slow the transmission of the virus in the community; lessen pain and death caused by the disease; accelerate herd immunity, and protect the community from COVID-19 during the recovery of social and economic activities. However, COVID-19 vaccination is still experiencing various obstacles due to public rejection of vaccination which leads to potential legal problems between health workers and certain community groups. The purpose of this article is to investigate potential legal issues as well as the protection of health workers involved in the COVID-19 vaccination service at Health Service Facilities. The method that is used in this scientific journal is normative juridical. The public’s refusal of COVID-19 vaccination raises various problems, and they lead to public misunderstandings including accusations of vaccination conspiracy by health workers. According to a review of the literature, health workers in COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia are legally protected if the services are provided in accordance with established procedures. RI Law No. 29 of 2004 concerning Medical Practice, Presidential Regulation No. 14 of 2021, Regulation of the Health Minister of Republic Indonesia No. 269 and 290, and Decree of the Minister for Public Health HK.01.07/Menkes/413/2020 concerning Guidelines for Prevention and Control Coronavirus Disease 2019 all contain aspects of legal protection for health workers.
Raliile, Mohlomi, Theo Haupt and Mariam Akinlolu, ‘Rethinking Construction Health and Safety Legislation Compliance: Lessons Learnt from COVID-19 -Pilot Study’ (Proceedings of the Joint CIB W099 & W123 International Conference 2021: Changes and Innovations for Improved Wellbeing in Construction, 2021) Abstract: Despite numerous attempts to enforce construction health and safety legislation, low levels of compliance with health and safety requirements and high rates of accidents continue to exist in the construction industry. The far-reaching impact of the novel coronavirus has spawned the attention of international and national regulatory bodies and has led to the promulgation of emergency legislations both temporary and permanent. This study aims to identify lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic to rethink the significance of health and safety legislation. The study further identifies how these changes have improved the overall safety landscape on construction sites. A quantitative method of data collection was adopted, and data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data collected. The sample size for the study was 21 contractors in the region of Kwa-Zulu Natal province in South Africa. This is a pilot study which forms part of an ongoing empirical research. The study reveal that construction companies are conducting COVID-19 risk and mitigation plans, detailing the implementation plans for the safe re-activation of construction sites and the industry. It is incontestable that the pandemic has succeeded in probing the alertness, readiness and commitment of construction stakeholders as they are obliged to protect, respect and fulfil the rights to health of their workers. Although there are challenges regarding the susceptibility of the industry to the consequences of COVID-19 such as contractual obligations, additional provisions, pricing strategies and supply chain changes; the rapid response to the pandemic by construction stakeholders is unprecedented and commendable. It is hoped that after the pandemic, contractors will maintain the level of commitment and compliance with health and safety legislation in pursuing the full realisation of the health and safety of their workers as a do or die situation.
Ranjith, PV and Aparna J Varma, ‘Safety of Healthcare Workers in India’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper No ID 3629428, 20 May 2020) Abstract: Health is one of our fundamental human rights and the role of workers in the healthcare system is inseparable. Health workers being the front line staff have more complicated situations to deal with especially in the wake of a pandemic like COVID- 19. WHO cautions that they are exposed to hazards that put them at risk of infection. Nevertheless, we are witnessing the relentless efforts put forth by health workers to reinstall the health care system in their respective countries. Amidst all this tension, another concern that derails the COVID-19 battle is the attacks happening against COVID-19 warriors around different parts of the country. This paper is a subjective personal introspection of the authors on the safety of health workers in India. The main objective of the study is to find out the different problems of safety faced by healthcare workers in India and measures to control them.
Rao, R Venkata and Prakash Sharma, ‘Pandemic and “The Other Class”: The Indifferent Response When Caught Off-Guard’ (2020) 47(4) Indian Bar Review 13–29 [pre-print] Abstract: During the COVID-19 governance experience, instances remain common wherein one could see the adoption of ‘haphazard’ or caught ‘off-guard’ measures. At one place they have the potential to violate the constitutional right to equality and right to life of general masses, at the same time their continuous use strengthens development of an oppressive structure that targets vulnerable sections of the society. It is in this perspective the paper seeks to address the concerns of prisoners and migrant labours—termed ‘others’. The paper reveals that while on the issue of prisons the initial efforts to resolve their concerns came through the Court followed by the governments; whereas in matters concerning the migrants the initial efforts saw government attention and later due to continuous reference from various corners of society the Court took the suo moto role to correct the situation on ground. The paper finally concludes that in both the cases, the results have been woefully uncoordinated.
Rapuleng, Thabang, ‘Days of Our Lives in the “New Normal”: Retrenchments in Southern Africa Post COVID-19’ (2020) 20(6) Without Prejudice 56–57 Abstract: The global COVID-19 pandenmic has brought about unprecedented changes to the employment landscape and thrust us into a ‘new normal’. In looking beyond COVID-19, this article seeks to give a cursory overview of what constitutes an employment relationship, to determine whether an employment contract may be terminated on the basis of operational requirements and, lastly, to examine whether employees who have been retrenched on the basis of operational requirements are entitled to severance packages in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Namibia.
Rasnaca, Zane, ‘Essential but Unprotected: Highly Mobile Workers in the EU during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (ETUI Research Paper, Policy Brief No 9/2020, 17 June 2020) Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that highly mobile workers who frequently move either within or in and out of the European Union (EU) are irreplaceable during a public health crisis. Nevertheless, they often remain the least protected and most vulnerable.Measures introduced to protect workers in standard employment relationships during a public health crisis might not reach certain groups of highly mobile workers. As a result, they may become even more marginalised during a crisis.This is further exacerbated by such workers often being foreigners in their host countries. Both host and home countries fail to protect them adequately, and this can be even more pronounced for workers from third countries, outside of the EU.During the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-existing EU law has failed to protect highly mobile workers and, so far, the guidance and policy actions taken by the European Commission have failed them too.To enhance protection for highly mobile workers in the long term, a significant (upwards) convergence of social and labour law standards between countries and for different groups of workers is needed. In the medium term, a pan-European social safety net for crisis situations should be created, with the needs of highly mobile workers in mind. And in the short term, targeted emergency measures including both support and protective standards for this group of workers should be adopted, ideally at the EU level or, if not possible, at the national level.This policy brief’s focus is on ‘highly mobile workers’, namely those workers whose place of employment is not a single Member State: they either regularly cross borders due to the nature of their work, work in multiple Member States, or cross a border every day in order to work in a Member State other than the one where they permanently reside (De Wispelaere and Rocca 2020).The following groups of workers are of interest here: international transport workers (drivers, seafarers and air crew members); seasonal workers; frontier workers, who travel to a country other than their own for work on a regular basis; and other types of highly mobile workers.
Rasyiid, Muhammad Danial Ar and Habib Adjie, ‘Legal Due To The Party Layoff Due To Covid 19’ (2020) 17(2) YURISDIKSI : Jurnal Wacana Hukum dan Sains 108–116 Abstract: Indonesia became one of the countries infected with Covid-19. This certainly has an impact that can harm the country and society. Therefore, the government issued a policy of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) with the aim of deciding the spread of Covid-19. One of the impacts felt by the community with the presence of Covid- 19 is the Termination of Employment (FLE) carried out by several companies to workers on the grounds of force majeure or loss. This reasoning is controversial, bearing in mind that force majeure cannot be said to be a reason that can cause harm as in the Covid-19 outbreak, and is deemed to deviate from Article 164 Paragraph (3) of Law Number 13 Year 2003 concerning Labor.
Reid, Blake E, Christian Vogler and Zainab Alkebsi, ‘Telehealth and Telework Accessibility in a Pandemic-Induced Virtual World’ (University of Colorado Legal Studies Research Paper No 20–44, 14 July 2020) Abstract: This short essay explores one dimension of disability law’s COVID-related ‘frailty’: how the pandemic has undermined equal access to employment and healthcare for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing as healthcare and employment migrate toward telehealth and telework activities. This essay’s authors—a clinical law professor; a computer scientist whose research focuses on accessible technology; and a deaf policy attorney for the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by, and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States—have collaborated over the past months on detailed advocacy documents aimed at helping deaf and hard of hearing patients and employers navigate the complex new circumstances of telehealth and telework. The essay presents a brief survey of some of the difficult issues the authors have encountered in trying to navigate the legal and technical dimensions of healthcare and workplace accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing Americans in a pandemic-induced virtual world.
Roba, Roxana Maria, ‘The Right to Work in the Context of the State of Emergency. Solutions and Controversies’ (2020) 83(4) Curentul Juridic 36–40 Abstract: As a result of the Decree of the President of Romania no. 195 of 16 March 2020 by which it the state of emergency was declared, employers sought to identify, where possible, solutions for continued employment for their employees. Telework and work from home have been considered viable alternative solutions in certain areas, allowing employees to work in conditions that would ensure their health protection. In other cases, employers decided on the suspension of individual employment contracts or even dismissal. This study aims to analyze the terms in which the right to work has been affected during the state of emergency, the legal solutions that could be identified but also the controversies arisen.
Rosairo, Gihan and Hasanka Jayaweera, ‘A Critique of Available Remedies for Industrial Disputes Arising Out of COVID-19: A Comparative Analysis’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 4012487, 15 October 2020) Abstract: The recent pandemic due to COVID-19 has affected the whole world at large. Aside from the obvious health issues arising from COVID-19, there is also another less obvious issue; unemployment. Sri Lanka initiated curfews on 20th March 2020, a week after the first confirmed patient was discovered. This was followed by almost two months of continuous curfews, with the announcement of businesses partially re-opening close to mid-May. This clearly amounts to almost two entire months that businesses in Sri Lanka were not allowed to operate, except those deemed essential commodities. This has resulted in a vast array of Industrial Disputes. A key example would be workers being laid off in many businesses, simply because there is no revenue to pay salaries. This work is a doctrinal and library research of a qualitative nature, and, shall consider the just and equitable remedying of Industrial Disputes arising out of COVID-19, as an unforeseeable circumstance. Therefore, the goals of this work are, firstly; to verify whether the ADR methods award more just and equitable reliefs rather than general courts. Secondly, to discover whether the ADR methods are the sole alternative to address the aforementioned issue. An important question to answer in this context is whether the ADR methods prescribed by the Industrial Disputes Act No. 43 of 1950, namely Labour Tribunals (‘LT’), Industrial Courts (‘IC’) and Arbitration continue to fulfil the aforesaid purpose arising from unforeseeable circumstances. The authors firmly believe that the yield of this work will be instrumental for responsible policy-making authorities to better discern the best legal approach to remedy labour disputes arising out of similar unforeseen circumstances in the future.
Rosińska, Anna and Elizabeth Pellerito, ‘Pandemic Shock Absorbers: Domestic Workers’ Activism at the Intersection of Immigrants’ and Workers’ Rights’ in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed), Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception (Springer, 2022) 123–144 [OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK] Abstract: During the current global pandemic, when the family or household has been considered the most basic unit of quarantine, the role of the domestic worker – someone who by definition crosses the threshold and enters the space of the home – became problematised quickly. These workers’ ‘outsider’ status – transgressing the boundaries not just of the physical household space, but often also of race, immigration status, and class – has meant that some household workers were more readily regarded as disease vectors who were too risky to allow into the home and let go with little or no warning. In the United States, many of the federal and state relief bills responding to the pandemic continue to exclude the sector or undocumented immigrant workers or both from accessing relief measures. Drawing on an online ethnography of organisations and policy reviews, we analyse the multilevel response of domestic workers’ organisations to address the crisis at both the federal and local levels, with focus on the state of Massachusetts. This chapter tackles the variety of ways in which worker centres in the United States have been at the frontline of the response to domestic workers’ needs, addressing a gap in mainstream and otherwise insufficient relief measures provided by the government. Because of these gaps and the sheer level of need faced by these workers and their families, these centres did what they were prepared to do: continue the service provision, education, organising, and advocacy efforts while expanding their efforts in each of these areas of work.
Rothstein, Mark A, ‘The OSHA COVID-19 Case and the Scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Act’ (2022) 50(2) Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (forthcoming) Abstract: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 applicable to private sector employers with 100 or more employees. Among other things, the ETS required employers either to mandate employee vaccination or weekly testing and wearing masks. A 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court applied the major questions doctrine and held that Congress did not authorize OSHA to issue standards addressing broad public health matters. The implication of the decision is to limit the scope of OSHA regulations, shifting power away from federal agencies to Congress and the states over significant matters as determined by the courts. The practical effect is to weaken safety and health protections in the workplace and beyond.
Rothstein, Mark A and Julia Irzyk, ‘Lawsuits of Last Resort: Employees Fight for Safe Workplaces during COVID-19’ (The Hastings Center Bioethics Forum, 29 July 2020) Abstract: A worker whose employer is failing to provide adequate protections against SARS-CoV-2 generally has little legal recourse. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is charged with ensuring safe and healthful workplaces, has refused to enact an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19. Furthermore, OSHA has issued only two minor citations against employers for violating existing regulations, despite thousands of illnesses and deaths among essential workers in high-risk positions. A possible ‘last resort’ legal strategy is to sue under public nuisance law, but these actions are usually reserved for governmental entities and often precluded by the existence of a statute that addresses the general issue.
Rothstein, Mark A, Wendy E Parmet and Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, ‘Employer-Mandated Vaccination for COVID-19’ (2021) 11(5) American Journal of Public Health e1–e4 Abstract: The greatest challenge to vaccination against COVID-19 may be the reluctance of large numbers of individuals to be vaccinated, including in the workplace. Many employers want their employees to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the virus, reassure all employees and customers, avoid potential liability, and advance public health. With medical and religious exceptions, mandatory vaccination is generally upheld, especially for health care and other hazardous employment. For most types of employment, however, employers should attempt to persuade employees of the safety and efficacy of vaccination, and they should facilitate rather than coerce compliance.
Roudebush, Sue A, ‘Reducing Workers’ Compensation and OSHA Liability During COVID-19 and Beyond’ (2021) 15(2) Journal of Health & Life Sciences Law 136–143
Jurisdiction: USA Abstract: As the world navigates work-from-home opportunities in the post-COVID era, health care companies are considering their options too. This article provides a practical look into workers’ compensation and OSHA considerations so that health care providers can determine whether the benefits of remote working outweigh any potential risks. If it is decided that a remote working arrangement is desirable, health care employers will be able to assist in creating safe work environments to prevent workers’ compensation claims and OSHA violations.
Ruslina, Elli and Rita Sekarsari, ‘Legal Protection of Medical Staff in Hospitals during The Covid-19 Pandemic Era’ (2020) 1(1) International Journal of Latin Notary 29–35 Abstract: This research begins with the Covid-19 pandemic which requires serious control because it has had a dangerous impact on society, especially health workers in hospitals. The research focus is aimed at the legal protection of health workers in hospitals and the state’s responsibility for health workers. The research method used is library research, which is a method used by studying literature such as books, legislation and articles, journals related to the subject matter. Primary data used in field research, through interviews with related parties, namely hospitals and health workers. The focus of the discussion is to emphasize more on laws and regulations related to Social Distancing / Physical Distancing policies as regulations for legal protection of health workers as the frontline and state responsibility for health workers. The results showed that various laws and regulations as a policy for handling Covid-19 cannot be realized concretely in the field because they are related to different bureaucracy and implementation. The role of the state in the responsibility for health workers is not The responsibility of the state in this case is that the Government and Administrators of Health Service Facilities are obliged to ensure the sustainability of the availability of standardized Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers who work in health service facilities.
Saenz, Rogelio and Corey Sparks, ‘The Inequities of Job Loss and Recovery Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (University of New Hampshire, Carsey School of Public Policy, National Issue Brief No 150, 10 August 2020) Extract from Introduction: This research is one of the first efforts to provide a broad and comprehensive overview of the inequities in job loss and recovery over the last several months of the pandemic. Our analysis highlights the wide variations in unemployment and the level of job loss over the last several months that have taken place to date across the nation’s demographic groups that have historically suffered disparities in the workforce, including persons of color, women, and immigrants. It is particularly unfortunate that the calamity of the pandemic comes on the heels of major improvements in job prospects that these groups made over the last decade, as the workforce emerged from the Great Recession.
Safradin, Barbara, Sybe de Vries and Simona de Heer, ‘Fundamental Social Rights Protection and Covid-19 in the EU: Constraints & Possibilities’ (2021) 17(3) Utrecht Law Review 103–117 Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has had major socio-economic consequences, particularly for critical workers such as healthcare workers, seasonal workers and platform workers in their social rights enjoyment. This article analyses how EU law could protect social rights in times of Covid-19, with a specific focus on the possibilities and limits of the EU Charter in times of crisis for these certain categories of EU workers. The potential of EU legal instruments to protect vulnerable workers’ social rights is limited both by the limited legislative competences in the social policy field and the limited scope of application of the EU Charter. Furthermore, social rights enshrined in the Charter are often formulated as principles, which means they cannot be invoked directly in court, but need to be elaborated in legislation. Nevertheless, the EU could further strengthen the potential of social rights in the EU legal order through harmonisation of social standards in two ways. First, by harmonisation of social rights using the legal bases in the Treaty. Secondly, by implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights effectively and by improving application of the EU Charter at national level, both by clarifying and broadening horizontal direct effect as by increasing application of the EU Charter by national policymakers and the judiciary and raising awareness.
Salcedo, Emily Sanchez, ‘Work from/for Home: Recommendations to Ease Post-Pandemic Multiple Burden on Women’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3875087, 12 June 2021) Abstract: According to a 2019 UN report on women’s progress, women generally spend an average of 4.1 hours/day on unpaid household and care work compared to 1.7 hours/day for men. Such pre-pandemic statistics saw an exponential rise as COVID-19 swept the globe starting in early 2020. The situation is no different in the Philippines where the pandemic magnified not only the unpaid household and care work experienced by women but also exacerbated gender-based violence. This paper discusses how working women in the Philippines are burdened not only by the so-called second shift (Hochschild, 1989) but also by a more nuanced third shift (Kramarae, 2001) as they juggle the demands of work-from-home arrangements with their family responsibilities while navigating online education for themselves and their children in the midst of the pandemic.
Salem, Hanan, Reham Nafad and Sarah Taha, ‘Legal Response of Physicians Towards Workplace Violence during COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt: A Cross Sectional Study’ [2022] Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine (advance article, published online 16 May 2022)
Abstract: Workplace violence (WPV) is defined by World Medical Association as ‘an international emergency that undermines the very foundations of health systems and impacts critically on patient’s health’. The physicians are specifically vulnerable for such acts from patients or even their relatives. WPV has detrimental effects on both health professionals and the quality of health care services administered. Aim: to highlight the problem of assault against doctors and their legal response towards it, generally in medical practice and specifically during COVID 19 pandemic. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done through anonymous self-structured internet-based questionnaire survey on 300 physicians. It included different data as regards sociodemographic data, occurrence of bullying, type of assault and response of the physician towards such assault. Results: About 55% of responders claimed previous exposure to verbal or physical violence, nearly 19% faced verbal violence and 14% faced physical violence ,about 15% notified head of the department while only 9.7% notified police. Almost 80% of the responders were not satisfied by actions taken after notification , and 23% were exposed to bullying due to working during Covid era. All responders (100%) believe that media affect how people deal with physicians. Conclusion: Workplace violence against doctors is escalating vigorously. Under-reporting and lack of security support are the main issues in solving this catastrophic health system problem.
Salikova, Natalya Mikhailovna and Elena Maratovna Batukhtina, ‘Problems of Legal Regulation of Distance and/or Remote Labor: Pandemic Testing’ in XIV European-Asian Congress ‘The Value of Law’ (EAC-LAW 2020) (Atlantis Press, 2020) 350–360 Abstract: This paper deals with the legal regulation of distant and/or remote labour. The new needs of the society caused by the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection (Covid-19) are not only to create an urgent regulatory framework for distant (and/or remote) workers, but also to carefully and strictly observe the balance of rights in employee-employer relations....
Santoso, Aris Prio Agus and Erna Chotidjah Suhatmi, ‘Employment Termination in the Middle of Covid-19 Pandemic: Labor Law Point of View’ (2021) 8(1) UNIFIKASI : Jurnal Ilmu Hukum / Journal of Legal Studies 86–94
Jurisdiction: Indonesia Abstract: Article 28D paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution states everyone has the right to work and to receive fair and proper compensation and treatment in a working relationship. It is emphasized in Article 151 (1) of Law no. 13/2003 concerning Manpower. The entrepreneurs, workers/laborers, trade/labor unions, and the government must make every effort to prevent an employment termination. In fact, many workers have been terminated and some even did not receive any severance pay at all. Accordingly, the researchers formulated the following research questions: how to terminate employment in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how is the government’s responsibility for the welfare guarantees for workers. This research employed a normative juridical approach by collecting data from literature studies. The data obtained were analyzed qualitatively. The findings revealed the layoffs in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic were a breach of contract by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs were still obliged to provide severance pay, reward money, and compensation money. In addition, the government has also provided accountability in the form of an economy, the Pre-Work Card. With this card, workers can develop workforce competence, increase productivity and competitiveness of the workforce, and develop entrepreneurship. The Manpower Office responsible for this program also participated in the workforce supervising and guiding
Selberg, Niklas, ‘The ILO Response to Covid-19: ILO and International Labour Standards in Times of a Pandemic’ (2020) 13(1) Italian Labour Law e-Journal 161–185 Abstract: In 2017, ILO issued recommendation no. 2015 on employment and decent work for peace and resilience, which is an international labour standard of particular relevance and importance for managing the labour market in times of crisis, and especially so in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. A body of generally applicable international labour standards provides social protection to workers during the pandemic and applies to the challenges to the labour market in such times. The Report describes the labour policy of ILO and international labour standards in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as ILO’s concrete response to the present crisis. Finally, the Report presents a reminder that ILS and social protection in the future must be able to handle social risks resulting from biological vulnerabilities on part of workers and the importance of the principle of universality in social protection.
Sen, Shuvro et al, ‘The Unprecedented Pandemic “COVID-19” Effect on the Apparel Workers by Shivering the Apparel Supply Chain’ (2020) 11(3) Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management 1–20 Abstract: COVID-19, known as a pandemic, affects the global economy. ILO declared this virus as a labor market and economic crisis. This study has been conducted for understanding the effect of COVID-19 on the apparel industry and the apparel manufacturing workers. This is a descriptive study, following the inductive procedure. The relevant information has been collected from the current academic literature, newspapers, reports publications, and relevant web pages. An online interview with the manufacturers, policymakers, trade unions, researchers, and academicians has been conducted for primary information collection. This study has found that the apparel industry is one of the most affected industries among the other industries by COVID-19. The retailers’ shops are being closed with having zero turnovers which leads to ordering cancelation to the manufacturing factories. Bangladesh’s apparel manufacturing industry is also drastically affected due to COVID-19. The factories can’t pay the workers’ salaries in this critical situation. Therefore, millions of workers have been sent home without their wages. Sometimes, it has predicted that the workers would lose jobs due to factory closure. The Government took lots of initiatives i.e. tax rebates, reduce VAT, financial support to the owners to pay the workers’ wages, loan installment rescheduling, etc. Albeit, these initiatives were taken for the welfare of the factory owners and the workers remain oppressed. So, a proper policy strategy is indeed an emergency to support the destitute workforce during the COVID-19 as well as in future financial crises that can happen due to this kind of epidemic or any reason. This study will be supportive to the stakeholders of this sector to learn the impact of COVID-19 on the workers and make the necessary adjustment for the future betterment.
Senatori, Iacopo and Carla Spinelli, ‘(Re-)Regulating Remote Work in the Post-Pandemic Scenario: Lessons from the Italian Experience’ (2021) 14(1) Italian Labour Law e-Journal 209–260 Abstract: This essay addresses the complex model of regulation of remote work existing in Italy, composed of three distinct schemes: telework, ‘ordinary’ agile work and the special form of agile work temporarily established to tackle the pandemic emergency. It compares the structural and functional features of the three bodies of rules by the systematic analysis of the relevant sources of legal and contractual nature. The aim is to assess the different solutions they envisage for the current problems of remote work, with a view to exploring possible ways to prepare the transition of this form of flexibility in the post-pandemic world of work.
Sharar, Bandar, ‘Comparing the Laws of England, Wales and Italy Relating to the Unilateral Modification for the Terms of Operational Contract during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (2021) 42(3) Liverpool Law Review 465–483 Abstract: The study compares the mechanisms through which employers in England, Wales and Italy may be legally entitled to unilaterally vary the terms of their employment contracts due to the coronavirus pandemic and developing a taxonomy, through which a meaningful side-by-side comparison of these very different jurisdictions can be constructed. To attain the core purpose of this research, the study relied on the comparative legal research method. Despite the fundamental differences between the employment law regimes of the three countries; the mechanisms through which employers from these jurisdictions can vary the terms of their employment relationships in response to COVID-19 fall into one of these categories, force majeure mechanisms; flexibility mechanisms; hardship mechanisms or mechanisms facilitating bilateral variations tantamount to unilateral variations. The study concluded that there are fundamental differences between the employment law regimes that operate respectively in England and Wales and in Italy. England and Wales is a common law jurisdiction, whereas Italy is a civil law jurisdiction; Italy’s labour market is significantly more tightly regulated than England’s; in England and Wales, the employment contract regulates the employment relationship, whereas in Italy the individual employment.
Shemtob, Lara, Kaveh Asanati and Azeem Majeed, ‘Covid-19: Ending the Legal Requirement to Self Isolate Puts Vulnerable People at Risk’ (2022) 376 BMJ, Article o461 Abstract: The government has just announced that all covid-19 restrictions in England are set to end. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, told MPs that he plans to remove the remaining restrictions, including the legal requirement to self isolate for people infected with covid-19. Instead of legislation, voluntary guidance will ‘advise’ people with covid-19 not to attend workplaces. Employers will once again need to develop and implement new rules for their workplaces when the legal requirement to self isolate with covid-19 comes to an end. They should consider carefully how to develop and implement new policies fairly and safely in the workplace so that staff and customers—particularly those who are clinically vulnerable—are not put at risk. Presenteeism occurs when employees go to work despite not being well enough to perform their duties. The NHS is the largest employer in England and the NHS Staff Survey showed a drop in presenteeism in 2020 compared to preceding years. This is likely an effect of covid-19, which forced workers and employers to endorse sick leave to prevent workplace outbreaks and has therefore gone some way to changing attitudes to calling in sick. Despite this, around 40% of NHS staff surveyed still reported coming to work in 2020, despite not being well.
Shinal, Jennifer Bennett, ‘Leave in the Time of Covid: Examining Paid Sick Leave Laws’ (2021) 59(3) University of Louisville Law Review 393–416 Extract from Introduction: Supplemental paid sick leave laws are necessary both now and in the future, and as this Article will argue, a promising model for such additional provisions already exists at the state level. State paid sick leave legislation is currently on the books in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. Although a great deal of existing legal scholarship has focused on parental leave and long-term medical leave, virtually absent from the literature is any consideration of state paid sick leave legislation. Unlike parental leave and medical leave, paid sick leave legislation covers workers with nonserious health conditions like the common cold, a stomach bug, or a minor infection. Thus, this legislation can fill in the coverage gaps for workers with respect to both COVID-19 and other future illnesses.
This Article will highlight some of the major features of this important yet understudied state legislation, which is far broader in terms of employer, employee, and illness coverage than existing federal laws. Although many features of the paid sick leave laws are employee-friendly, the Article will also highlight employer protections built into many state laws. The Article will conclude by presenting new empirical evidence suggesting that these laws work as intended to reduce worker presenteeism. While the laws may impose some costs for employers, the combination of reduced employee presenteeism and built-in legislative protections serve to mitigate any increased costs for employers. More than ever, COVID-19 has highlighted the need for such paid sick leave legislation nationwide, as the costs associated with airborne illness at work will not go away in the postpandemic world.
Siahaan, Nomensen Freddy, ‘The Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Relation to the Commercial (Economic) Law, Labor Law, State and International Role’ (2021) 618 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research 575–578 Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic is an epidemic global. This affects many things such as health, economy, social, culture, law, including Manpower, and other sectors. Of course, this is not what we want and beyond our expectations. Now all eyes of people in the world are very concerned about the spread of this virus because if we consider this virus to be underestimated, then we or people around us might become victims. At this time, the author will focus on research on manpower which is also affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic. This is the reason and concern for the author because it has shaken the labor sector, especially for workers affected by this Termination of Manpower. The role of the State and the International Labor Organization is urgently needed because this emergency was massive and brought many disadvantages to a lot of parties, especially workers who were laid off. In domestic situations, the Government must actively provide a social safety net for people affected by the termination of Manpower. Not only within the country, international institutions such as the ILO should also provide assistance and technical input in several areas, from training and skills to microfinance and small business development, and others.
Simson, Gary J et al, ‘It’s Alright, Ma, It’s Life and Life Only: Have Universities Been Meeting Their Legal Obligations to High-Risk Faculty During the Pandemic?’ (2021) 48(3) Pepperdine Law Review 649–712 Abstract: Even those universities most firmly committed to returning to in-person instruction in fall semester 2020 recognized that for health reasons some exceptions would need to be made. The CDC had identified two groupspeople age sixty-five and over and people with certain medical conditionsas persons ‘at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19,’ and it had spelled out various special precautions they should take to avoid contracting the virus. Given the CDC’s unique stature, universities very reasonably could have been expected to grant exceptions tofacultyfalling into either group. but that’s not what many universities did. We argue that, properly understood, four separate legal sources required universities to exempt high-riskfaculty in the past academic year from any inperson teaching requirement. Two of the four sources are federal statutes that quali* as major statements of national policy-the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The other two sources are important state-law doctrines with strong support in the American Law Institute’s most recent torts restatement-protection from intentional injliction of physical harm, and protection from intentional injliction of emotional distress. A high-risk faculty member who was denied an exemption may well find this article helpful in trying to decide whether to bring suit. Our primary objective in writing the article, however, is not to encourage people to sue. Instead, it is to drive home to universities that, goingforward, they need to be considerably more conscious of, and conscientious about, their legal obligations than many of them were informulatingpolicies afecting high-risk faculty in the past academic year. And by ‘going forward,’ we mean not only for the remainder of this pandemic, but also for any crises that the future may hold.
Simutina, Yana and Sergii Venediktov, ‘The Effects of COVID-19 on Ukraine’s Regulation of Employment Relations’ (2020) 9(3) E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies 20–37 Abstract: This article aims to study the changes in the legal regulation of employment relations in Ukraine following the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic has increased law-making activity. However, the obsolescence of Ukraine’s Labour Code have produced questionable outcomes. For this reason, the disadvantages caused by the rules governing employment relations in Ukraine should be dealt with, while seeking higher involvement of the social partners, scholars and relevant international organizations.
Singh, Swarnima, ‘Dilution of Labour Laws: Hidden Exploitation of Migrant Labourers Before Lockdown, Increase after Lockdown’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper No ID 3662079, 28 July 2020) Abstract: Migrant workers are beneficial and important factors for the economy where as their life is full of scarce, vulnerable and exploitation. In Globalization, profit motive capitalism emerged through which overuse of resources and worker exploitation occurs.For maintaining dignity and reducing the exploitation over labours government intervention took place by introducing labour laws. But due to the upcoming scenario Covid-19 pandemic affects the economy. Production becomes stagnant. So to maintain the pace of the economy the government has removed various labour laws which may affect the life of migrant labourers. Definitely it has seen the economy is somehow dependent on labourers. But now the economy is going to be stable at the cost of migrant workers. This study is an attempt to analyse the extent of labour laws followed in the grassroot level before lockdown and in which way it has increased after lockdown and unlock condition.
Singhi, Shruti and Anirudh Tagat, ‘Lawless: A Policy Perspective on Labour Laws and Migrant Workers Displaced by COVID-19’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3756097, 14 October 2020) Abstract: Many of India’s 19mn migrant workers have been displaced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown. Save for a select few that received assistance from their employers and local governments, many migrants were left to make their own arrangements to return home. This paper investigates the role of labour laws and policies in overcoming the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this unequal impact on migrant workers. Given that consolidation and strengthening of labour laws and codes in India is a recent phenomenon, this paper argues that there is an opportunity to account for vulnerabilities faced by migrant laborers in particular. We review recent bills such as the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code recently passed by Parliament (2020). We provide a roadmap of labour laws and policies potentially required to safeguard migrant and minimum wage labourers from such shocks in the future.
Skandalis, Ioannis, ‘Labour Law Measures Adopted in Response to Covid-19 in Greece’ in Ewoud et al Hondius (ed), Coronavirus and the Law in Europe (Intersentia, 2020) Abstract: Several urgent labour law measures have been adopted in Greece as a response to COVID-19 through consecutive Legislative Acts, which were further clarified through numerous Ministerial Decisions. For this purpose, the Greek government resorted to an extraordinary fast-track legislative procedure provided by Greek constitution, which enables the executive power to legislate in cases of emergency. Said measures are subsequently ratified by law. The adopted labour law-related measures aimed to inject some flexibility in the labour market and to guarantee a basic level of income by the state for those employees, whose employment contracts were suspended, by also safeguarding the maintenance of as many working positions as possible. The purpose of this contribution is to present these measures by emphasising on the interpretative issues that they set.
Slinn, Sara J, ‘Protected Concerted Activity and Non-Unionized Employee Strikes: Worker Rights in Canada in the Time of COVID-19’ (2021) 57(3) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 605–635 Abstract: During the pandemic employees in the US have engaged in a wave of strikes, protests and other collective action over concerns about unsafe working conditions, and many of these involved non-unionized workers in the private sector. Similar employee protests were notably absent in Canada. This article examines the differences in labour legislation between the US and Canada which may help to explain these diverging experiences, primarily: the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) section 7 protection for concerted activity, and the NLRA section 502 ability for a good faith strike due to abnormally dangerous conditions for work. This article outlines and compares the situation of, and consequences for, three categories of workers engaging in a strike over fears of workplace safety: unionized employees, non-unionized employees, and non-employees, such as independent contractors under the NLRA compared to under the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA), as generally representative of Canadian labour legislation. In the final section, this article considers how a statutory provision similar to the NLRA protected concerted activity provision might be incorporated into Canadian labour legislation such as the OLRA. It also considers some more fundamental questions that such changes might prompt policymakers to reconsider, including: the focus of our statutory system on ‘organizing’ collective action to the exclusion of ‘mobilizing’ collective action, and questions about the potential role of minority unionism in our labour legislation system.
Solnica, Amy, Leonid Barski and Alan Jotkowitz, ‘The Healthcare Worker at Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Jewish Ethical Perspective’ (2020) 46(7) Journal of Medical Ethics 441–443 Abstract: The current COVID-19 pandemic has raised many questions and dilemmas for modern day ethicists and healthcare providers. Are physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers morally obligated to put themselves in harm’s way and treat patients during a pandemic, occurring a great risk to themselves, their families and potentially to other patients? The issue was relevant during the 1918 influenza epidemic and more recently severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003. Since the risk to the healthcare workers was great, there was tension between the ethical duty and responsibility to treat and the risk to one’s own life. This tension was further noted during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that left hundreds of healthcare workers dead. The AMA Code of Ethics states that physicians are to ‘provide urgent medical care during disasters…even in the face of greater than usual risk to physicians’ own safety, health or life.’1 Classic Jewish sources have dealt with this question as well. There is an obligation ‘to not stand by idly when your friends life is in danger’; however, the question arises as to whether there are limits to this obligation? Is one required to risk one’s own life to save another’s? There is a consensus that one is not required but the question open to debate is whether it is praiseworthy to do so. However, regarding healthcare workers, there is agreement for ethical, professional and societal reasons that they are required to put themselves in harm’s way to care for their patients.
Sovilj, Ranko P and Sanja N Stojković Zlatanović, ‘Tackling the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Economy and Labour: A Case Study of Serbia Regulation’ (2021) 14(2) Medicine, Law & Society 301–320 Abstract: The paper deals with the foundation of policy and legal national framework addresses, particularly, the adequacy of state measures in the areas of economy and labour as a response to Covid-19 pandemic. The aim is, by analyzing recent soft law documents of international organizations and the introduced models of comparative policy practices, to make critical considerations regarding the policy responses in the crises conducted by the Serbian Government. The human-centered, holistic, and integrated approach had been applied accompanied by the legal normative and comparative methods. Putting the current Serbian regulation in the context of the international area of policy emergency response, the territorial approach has been determined as most applicable, accompanied by the spatial coverage to the most vulnerable sectors. Government stimulation policy in the area of economy and employment in the Covid-19 crisis must be based on the rapid and reliable assessment of the impact of a lockdown or trade and job restrictions as on medium to longer-term recovery strategies of trade and employment. The principle of global and national solidarity, public-private partnership are core elements that need to be incorporated in the legal framework to tackle the impact of the Covid-19 pandemics in the economy and labour.
Spies-Butcher, Ben, ‘The Temporary Welfare State: The Political Economy of Job Keeper, Job Seeker and “Snap Back”’ (2020) 85 Journal of Australian Political Economy 155–163 Abstract: The Coalition Government’s response to the COVID crisis appears, at least temporarily, to have upended political economic certainties. Having only recently won an election fighting for lowers taxes and less spending, the Government announced the unemployment benefit would (temporarily) be doubled through a new JobSeeker payment. In amidst a renewed attempt to pass anti-union legislation, Coalition Ministers now lined up to praise ACTU Secretary Sally MacManus, who in turn praised the Government for implementing JobKeeper, a version of the union’s call for a wage subsidy.
Srinivasan, Vinithra and Varun Srinivasan, ‘Employment Issues During COVID-19 Crisis: An Analysis of the MHA’s Order’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper No ID 3595983, 5 May 2020) Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis, declared as a pandemic by the Director General of WHO on 11.03.2020, in addition to having a significant and highly disastrous impact on the lives of people world over, has had and will continue to have an apparent and heavy influence on all industries, globally. Even in the most automated industries, people are at the fulcrum and so when contemplating cost-cutting, to stay afloat on such troubled waters, companies find it an inevitable step to cut down on their manpower, either in the form of job cuts or more prevalently, salary / wage reductions. However, at the same time, there is also a necessity to ensure protection for these personnel during these tough times while also equally safeguarding and balancing the interests of both the company and the employees. In this context, the Indian Government has taken the initiative through the recent Ministry of Home Affairs (‘MHA’) Order dated 29.03.2020, among other notifications/guidelines issued by other departments, stating that employers are required to pay full wages to all workers, the non-compliance of which would attract penal consequences. The said order has been recently challenged before the Supreme Court, in which matter the Trade Unions have also sought to be impleaded, and which Order has also been challenged by another petition as well; however, the Supreme Court for the interim has not provided any stay and has sought for the Government’s response on the said Order. In the meanwhile, the Central Government has extended the lockdown till the 17th of May, 2020, continuing the effect of the Order dated 29.03.2020. Further, penal consequences are also being enforced against employers for non-compliance of the said Order. Therefore, considering the fact that the Supreme Court has not granted stay over the said Order, this article seeks to analyse the Order’s impact in the context of the prevailing labour laws in India, while also considering whether the Order can be said to be all encompassing in its application, without delving into the grounds such as arbitrariness, unreasonableness, amongst others, which have been raised in the Petitions.
Stewart, Andrew, ‘COVID-19 and the Future of Labour Research, Policy and Regulation’ [2021] Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work Advance article, published 4 March 2021
Jurisdiction: Australia Abstract: This article reflects on the profound impact of COVID-19 on labour research and those who undertake it, on both global and local labour markets, and on labour policy and regulation in Australia. It briefly discusses the many existing challenges the pandemic has highlighted for the supply, organisation and compensation of labour in one particular sector, aged care, before going on to examine the state of the Australian system of labour regulation and policy-making prior to the current crisis. It then discusses how that system has responded to the pandemic, and critically analyses the Morrison Government’s embrace and then abandonment of the idea of consultation and cooperation with the union movement, as it seeks to set an agenda for Australia’s recovery. There seems little chance that the government’s package of changes to the
Fair Work Act 2009 will do anything to address deep-seated problems such as wage stagnation, insecurity, inequality and adversarialism. Indeed it may exacerbate them.
Suherman, Suherman and Alda Damayanti Putri, ‘Legal Protection on Workers’ Unilateral Wages Deductions Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (2020) 7(10) International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding 445–457 Abstract: In 2020, the presence of the Covid-19 Virus has had an impact on many sectors in human life. The impact of this virus is not only on the health sector but also spreads to the economic sector, especially business. The difficulty of business activities in Indonesia amid the Covid-19 pandemic has caused many companies to decide to cut the wages of their workers. However, problems arise when several companies violate the rights of their workers by unilaterally cutting workers’ wages which are not in accordance with the existing regulations in Law no. 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower, Government Regulation no. 78 of 2015 concerning Wages, and more specific regulations in the midst of a pandemic through the Minister of Manpower Regulation No. M/3/HK.04/III/2020 concerning Protection of Workers/Laborers and Business Continuity in the Context of Prevention and Overcoming Covid-19. This research uses empirical normative method. In normative research, the type of data used was secondary data, which consisted of primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials. While empirical research, using primary data in the form of answers that could be obtained in the field. The specific objective that will be achieved in this research is how to protect the law against workers who cut wages to their workers.
Sullivan, Charles A, ‘Noncompetes in a Downsizing World’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3775706, 29 January 2021) Abstract: As the nation confronts multiple federal and state attacks on employee noncompetition agreements (NCAs), one issue has remained relatively obscure: may an employer that terminates a worker for reasons not related to performance nevertheless enforce an NCA? A scattering of cases mostly holds no, and the recent Restatement of Employment Law’s agreement with those decisions is likely to be very influential for the great majority of jurisdictions that have not yet addressed the question but may be forced to in light of massive COVID-related layoffs. This Article supports the Restatement’s proposed rule, while exploring the fascinating doctrinal and policy issues implicated in the question. Ultimately, it sees the rule as rooted in concerns about fairness to employee that are typically given short shrift in current doctrine. This is true even for a Restatement that otherwise seems decided to opt for an economic approach that would validate NCAs that are ‘reasonably tailored’ to defined legitimate employer interests.Adoption of a rule denying enforcement in such situations also poses some interesting second-order questions, such as how to determine when a termination is performance-related and probable employer responses to a new dispensation. All are explored in the pages that follow.
Świstak, Marzena, ‘Remote Working and Teleworking. Some Points of Reflection in the Context of the Current SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic’ (2020) 32(4) Acta Iuris Stetinensis 117–128
Jurisdiction: Poland Abstract: The purpose of adopting the Act on particular solutions related to the prevention, countering and combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and the emergency crises caused thereby of 2 April 2020 was to minimise the threat to public life. This was to be attained inter alia by the introduction of remote working. The laconic wording, however, led to various interpretative difficulties as to the scope of obligations of both employers and employees as well as the framework of their mutual responsibility. In order to eliminate ambiguities and ensure the effectiveness of regulations, certain legislative amendments were introduced, but in the current legal circumstances these do not seem to be the target solution. The author, taking advantage of the historic method, was able to show the evolution of the incidental legal solution that is remote work. Based primarily on the analysis of applicable laws, on the other hand, she highlighted the advantages as well as defects of remote work as it is now, while comparing it to telework. In this context, it was possible to propose certain de lege ferenda (as it should be) conclusions as to the direction of desirable legislative changes, i.e. making the rights and obligations of a remote worker, settling accounts and rules of responsibility more precise. The main objective of the author was to present possible ambiguities in the current regulations, which should be removed in the legislative works carried out in the future. In this scope, the rules concerning the use and settling the use private equipment, used by the remote worker in the performance of work duties, should be clarified and also the rules concerning the transfer of work results ought to be expressly specified. Further, the author points out the unclear limits of responsibility of parties to the employment relationship, where the work is carried out remotely and thus supervision over the worker is lighter. Looking at the global direction of socio-economic changes, it was also suggested that remote work be regulated in the Polish legal order on the permanent basis.
Szabłowska-Juckiewicz, Marzena, ‘Impact of COVID19 on Labour Law’ in Frydrych-Depka, Anna, Maciej Serowaniec and Zbigniew Witkowski (eds), Pandemic Poland: Impacts of Covid-19 on Polish Law (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021) 235
Teixeira, Juliana Cristina, ‘Brazilian Housemaids and COVID-19: How Can They Isolate If Domestic Work Stems from Racism?’ (2021) 28(S1) Gender, Work & Organization 250–259 Abstract: This article proposes a debate about the situation of Brazilian housemaids in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to expand the discussion on this scenario and link it structurally to racism and the history of colonialism, from the perspective of its successful project of establishing racial inequalities and relegating Black women to the most vulnerable conditions. As staying at home is not a choice for these women, the suppression of the right to life reflects how the necropolitics against Black Brazilians operates. In Brazil, the naturalization of this form of violence finds great support in a mixture of affection and inequality relationships, in a context in which domestic workers, specifically housemaids, figure as the memory of Black mothers, that is, the enslaved women of the colonial period, coming from the African diaspora. This memory is associated with the whiteness naturalization of the subordinate status of Black women.
Terman, Sharon, ‘Protecting Workers’ Jobs and Income During COVID-19’ in Scott Burris et al (eds), Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19 (Public Health Law Watch, 2020) 205–210 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the harmful impacts of disparities in access to workplace supports like paid leave and unemployment benefits, and has led to worsening economic conditions for people already living on the margins. Workers in the United States have long experienced a crisis around care – too often having to risk their jobs and income when they or their loved ones become ill. The United States is one of the only countries in the world without universal, guaranteed, job-protected paid leave. A complex patchwork of laws allows some workers to take time off work to care for themselves and their families, but low-wage workers are often excluded from coverage or otherwise face barriers to accessing these protections. The unemployment insurance system provides temporary, partial wage replacement to those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. But some workers, including undocumented immigrants, are excluded, and cumbersome rules and administrative obstacles prevent many others from accessing benefits. In March 2020, Congress enacted temporary emergency paid sick and family leave for the first time, as well as expanded unemployment benefits, but both programs have serious gaps that disproportionately impact women, people of color, low-income workers, and immigrants. This Chapter examines the income and job protection policy responses to COVID-19 and recommends additional solutions that center the needs of low-wage workers and families, and prioritize racial and gender equity and access for immigrants.
Tham, Joo-Cheong, ‘The COVID-19 Crisis, Labour Rights and the Role of the State’ (2020) 85 Journal of Australian Political Economy 71–83 Abstract: This article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on labour rights in Australia. It considers this impact according to three labour rights (the right to work; the right to social protection; the right to safe and healthy working conditions) and three cross currents (the forces of inequality; the increase in employer power; social dialogue).Threading through this analysis are the relevant international labour standards, particularly the standards set by International Labour Organisation (ILO). These standards are normative standards – they point to what is morally significant.They also assist in considering how the COVID-19 crisis has altered the role of the state in relation to labour rights. Before the crisis, this role corresponded with neoliberal understandings of a market-friendly and minimal state. By comparison, international labour standards offer a different understanding of the role of the state - a social democratic understanding where the state performs an active role in regulating the market in the interest of promoting decent work. What seems to be emerging from the crisis is, however, a state that is neither fully neoliberal nor social democratic – a ‘JobMaker’ state.
Thanvi, Irfan Ali, ‘UAE Legal Amendments During the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (2022) 7 Law & Political Review 109–127 (see pages 120-121)
‘The HSA Covid-19 Inspections Approach Set Out Clearly’ (2020) 25(6) Health & Safety Review 16–17 Abstract: Highlights comments made by P J Claffey, Project Manager of the Irish Health and Safety Authority’s field inspectorate, on the four key questions inspectors will raise during their mandated COVID-19 workplace inspections concerning employers’ compliance with the Irish Government’s Return to Work Safely Protocol and their duties under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
‘The Practical NLRB Advisor: The NLRA in a Pandemic’ [2020] (Winter) Labor Law Journal 189–219 Abstract: The article focuses on application of National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and activity of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during COVID-19 pandemic. Topics discussed include United Auto Workers (UAW) successfully negotiated partial pay for bargaining unit members who were furloughed for six weeks and fought for employee rights; employees are entitled under the NLRA to engage in concerted actions in an attempt to improve their working conditions and refusal to work due to COVID-19.
Ticoalu, Maya Geil Theresia Berlian, Sisca Beatrix Kairupan and Marthinus Mandagi, ‘Implementation of Law No. 2 of 2004 Concerning the Settlement of Industrial Relations Disputes Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic in North Sulawesi Province’ (2021) 22 Technium Social Sciences Journal 24–34 Abstract: The COVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020 shocked the world had a significant impact on the world community. The deadly virus, first discovered in Wuhan, China, killed thousands of people in various countries. Regulations or policies that the government has set are very influential in every sector and aspect of human life. Disputes or cases are possible in every human relationship. They were even considering that legal subjects have long known legal entities, the more parties involved in them. With the increasingly complex pattern of people’s lives, the scope of the incident or dispute event covers a broader scope, which often gets the spotlight on industrial relations disputes. The purpose of this article is industrial solution disputes, especially disputes through mediation dismissed in the middle of a pandemic covid 19 North Sulawesi as mandated by Article 8 of law No. 2 of 2004. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach. Researchers will use the data collection techniques to study the literature, field studies, observations, interviews, and documentation. The results of the study concluded; 1. The implementation of Law Number 2 the Year 2004 has been very effective in resolving disputes through the mediation process carried out by the Manpower and Transmigration Office of North Sulawesi Province. 2. There are still obstacles in the dispute resolution process through mediation conducted by the Manpower and Transmigration Office Transmigration of North Sulawesi Province, based on Law Number 1 of 2004. 3. There are several inhibiting factors in optimizing the settlement of industrial relations disputes in North Sulawesi. Such as companies that do not want to pay compensation on time, disputes after layoffs occur in the process of mediation. Dispute resolution time is more than the time limit by Law no. 2 of 2004. The implementation of dispute resolution is not by the procedure because the disputing parties are not
Tiraboschi, Michele, ‘The COVID-19 Emergency from an “Industrial Relations Law” Perspective: Some Critical Notes on the Italian Case’ (2020) 9(3) E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies 37–54 Abstract: This paper disregards the legal and social dilemmas about work – which have emerged in the context of risk society – as these are aspects decisionmakers, scholars and legal experts will soon be faced with. Rather, this paper will examine a more specific – though just as important – methodological issue, which considers how legal rationality is conceived in new modernity when used to deal with work-related issues, irrespective of the framework adopted for analysis.
Țop, Dan, ‘The Economic and Social Consequences of the Increase in the Number of Employees Working, as an Effect of the Coronavirus Pandemic, in the Telework Regime in Romania’ (2021) 52(3) European Journal of Social Law / Revue Européenne du Droit Social 7–16 Abstract: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the transition to online by 5 years. Although the IT industry has exploded in the last 20 years, Romania is still at the bottom of the European ranking on digitization, ranking 26th out of 28 countries. In Romania only in 2020 the Romanian Digitization Authority (ADR) was established. and a ministry of research and digitization has been set up and some interesting provisions appear in the government program, such as the introduction of informatics in primary classes. Statistics show that only 9.2 percent of jobs with earnings below the average wage in the economy could be done in telework. It is now more difficult to assume that there will ever be a return to normalcy, especially since the restrictive measures imposed over a longer period of time lead to changes in human behavior in such a way that it is impossible to predict to what extent once. what the crisis generated by Covid-19 will disappear will return to a lifestyle similar to that before this period.
Travis, Michelle, ‘A Post-Pandemic Antidiscrimination Approach to Workplace Flexibility’ (2021) 64(1) Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 203–230 Abstract: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the judiciary largely accepted the ‘full-time face-time norm’ resulting in the systematic exclusion of persons with disabilities, women, and other members of protected groups from certain jobs. Claims involving aspects of the full-time face time norm include accommodation requests for telecommuting, flextime, part-time, and other flexible working arrangements. This Article examines pre-pandemic case law under the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. COVID-19 has brought dramatic workplace changes, requiring judges to re-examine their previous restrictive rulings on workplace flexibility. During the pandemic, companies around the world went from prohibiting remote work to requiring it. This Article encourages judges, using the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, to re-examine the defining features of ‘work’ and empower antidiscrimination law to more meaningfully expand equal employment opportunities.
Trebilcock, Anne, ‘Governance Challenges and Opportunities for the International Labour Organization in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (2021) 18(3) International Organizations Law Review 370–396 [draft article available on SSRN] Abstract: The International Labour Organization has confronted several governance challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article looks at the impact of the pandemic on both the internal operations of this unique tripartite UN Specialized Agency and on the ILO’s substantive work on labour market and social protection governance. It explores how international labour standards and their monitoring offer human rights pointers for addressing the crisis. The article highlights interaction (not always coherent) between the ILO and other organizations in connection with COVID-19 and economic recovery. It foreshadows initiatives on how to ‘build back better,’ with the ILO again seeking a strengthened multilateral role in support of its social justice mandate, as informed by resolutions adopted by the International Labour Conference. The article also touches on the pandemic’s impact on the functioning of the ILO Administrative Tribunal, which adjudicates employment disputes for many international organizations.
Tucker, Eric, Leah Vosko and Sarah Marsden, ‘What We Owe Workers as a Matter of Common Humanity: Sickness and Caregiving Leaves and Pay in the Age of Pandemics’ (2021) 57(3) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 665–704 Abstract: Workers commodifying their time in labour markets are liable to become temporarily incapable of doing so because of sickness or caregiving responsibilities. While the risk is universal, it will be experienced very differently depending on social conditions and arrangements and social locations, such as gender, among others. In a society in which the vast majority of people are dependent on labour market incomes to survive, the consequences of being off work are severe, unless some protection and benefits are provided. Over time, Canada has developed a number leave and income-replacement schemes, but the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, in dramatic fashion, their limitations, leading to the adoption of temporary measures to address the crisis. This article, written from a feminist political economy perspective, provides an overview of the historical development of sickness and caregiving leave and pay arrangements set against the background of changing social and economic reproduction regimes. It then examines more closely the slow development of Canada’s welfare state model of sickness and caregiving leaves and benefits since the 1970s, focusing on the federal government’s enactment of special employment insurance benefits and statutory leave rights in British Columbia and Ontario. Next, it critically examines the limitations of that statutory regime, as it existed immediately prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, and then considers the expansion of sick and caregiving leave and pay provisions, enacted in response to the pandemic. The article then elaborates four principles to guide the future development of the sick and caregiving entitlements suggests ways of bringing the existing regime more into line with those principles. Finally, it sets out a few directions towards imagining a different regime that truly provides workers with what we conceive they are owed as a matter of common humanity.
Ud Din, Nizam et al, ‘COVID-19 Crisis Shifts the Career Paradigm of Women and Maligns the Labour Market: A Gender Lens’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper No ID 3589448, 5 April 2020) Abstract: This study attempt to examine the effect of the COVID-19 on women participation in the labor market. We have used the ILO and World bank data to determine how the recession affect women employment in a different region? And how current pandemic (COVID-19) affect women employment? The result shows that lower-middle-income, middle income and upper-middle-income group effect from any upcoming recession. Moreover, the labour market in the lower-income countries is already severe, and the current pandemic could further widen the gender gap. Among all women are associated with informal employment in any sector, tourism, food, and small enterprise would be suffered the most.
Vernea, Sorin-Alexandru, ‘Work Flexibility as a Reaction to Pandemic Restrictions in Romanian Legislation’ (2022) 56(3) Revue Européenne du Droit Social 107–115 Abstract: The flexibility of work has become, paradoxically, a balancing factor in the continuity of activities during the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, established since 11.03.2020. With the restriction of individual freedoms, measures have been imposed to adapt the traditional legal framework to new epidemiological realities. This paper examines in the first section the general framework and practical ways to achieve work flexibility in Romania, prior to March2020. In the second section, the measures taken since March 2020 in Romanian legislation,for the same purpose will be analyzed, followed by brief conclusions on their peculiarities seen as a reaction to pandemic restrictions.
Voegel, Conner J, ‘The Syringe That Drips Money: How Title VII Affects Employer-Mandated Vaccinations in the Manufacturing Sector’ (2022) 19(1) Indiana Health Law Review 217–247 Abstract: While novel viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and H1N1 have caused extreme economic hardships and widespread morbidity, communicable diseases have also been doing so for decades. Nevertheless, many private employers outside the healthcare industry have never implemented mandatory vaccination policies.7 While there are multiple reasons employers may refuse to enact such policies,8 fearing legal action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (‘Title VII’) is among the most prevalent. This Note will analyze the legal ramifications Title VII has on employer mandated vaccination policies, specifically focusing on the manufacturing sector. Section II provides relevant background information for vaccine mandates in the industry. Section III analyzes Title VII, including the different claims employees have under the statute and certain affirmative defenses available to employers. Section IV then applies reasonable accommodation and undue hardship to the manufacturing sector. Section V provides certain factors manufacturers should consider when determining whether a vaccine mandate is the best option for their facility. Finally, Section VI concludes that, with guaranteed exceptions, Title VII poses little legal threat to mandatory vaccination policies in the manufacturing sector.
Volosevici, Dana, 'Brief Considerations on Telework during Pandemic' (2020) 7(1) Jus et Civitas: A Journal of Social and Legal Studies 109-116 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented health and economic crisis worldwide and at this date it is still too early to have the complete picture of the consequences. Employers were forced to implement efficient measures to contain and mitigate the virus, while maintaining economic activity. In many European countries, authorities imposed or at least urged the employers to telework, in order to ensure the employees' health protection. The paper addresses some aspects of teleworking, inviting to further developments.
Wahab, Harlida Abdul, Nor Anita Abdullah and Asmar Abdul Rahim, ‘Working Conditions of the Frontline Healthcare Workers in the Covid-19 Pandemic from a Legal Viewpoint’ (2021) 6(22) International Journal of Law, Government and Communication 109-119
Jurisdiction: Malaysia Abstract: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a major and unprecedented challenge to countries around the world. Other than threatening public health, economic and social livelihood, and wellbeing, it causes a significant impact on the healthcare industry and the workers. Healthcare is an essential service that is paramount where its interruption would endanger the life, health, and safety of all citizens, particularly during this pandemic. Also, the healthcare industry is one of the most hazardous environments to work in while healthcare workers are the most valuable resource who are exposed to occupational risks, in particular, hazards of infectious risks. This paper aims to look at the legal protections regarding the working conditions of the frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic of COVID-19. Using a doctrinal method, specific references are made to the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, and relevant policies/guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Human Resources. It is understood that the working conditions of the frontline healthcare workers are entirely protected by the legislation and guided through the policies and guidelines that are generally aligned with the international standards. Hence, the law and policy devices are found to be safeguarding the healthcare workers from physical and biological hazards, as well as psychological and physiological wellbeing that become part of the working conditions of the healthcare workers.
Wahyuningsih, Sri Endah and Jarot Jati Bagus Suseno, ‘The Urgence of Regulation of Foreign Workers in Law Number 11 Of 2020 Concerning Work Creation in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (2022) 4(4) The 4th Legal Internasional Conference and Studies_ _Abstract: The rate of entry of Foreign Workers in Indonesia during the current pandemic is very concerning, this is due to the consequences for the health of Indonesian citizens during the current Covid 19 period. This situation is made more complicated by the unregulated supervision and restrictions on the use of foreign workers in this country. This writing aims to analyze the problem of the absence of restrictions and supervision of foreign workers during the Covid 19 period in Indonesia today. The method used is normative juridical. Based on the study conducted, it was found that the political implementation of the use of foreign workers has not been able to achieve justice, this is because the legal politics of the use of foreign workers has resulted in reduced job opportunities for domestic workers which in turn resulted in unemployment and poverty problems. The weaknesses in the implementation of the politics of using foreign workers are the shortcomings in the form of time limits and the amount of use of foreign workers is not clearly regulated in the politics of foreign labor law in Indonesia, then the weakness in the case of dualism in work permits for foreigners in Law no. 13 of 2003 and Law no. 6 of 2011. The supervision of foreign workers in the Employment Creation Law is not fully regulated, this results in an unstoppable rate of foreign workers so that it has an economic impact on TKI and health impacts for the local community.
Wang, Ying et al, ‘Legal Considerations for Processing Employees’ Pandemic-Related Personal Information in China’ (2022) 47(7) Employee Relations Law Journal 46–49 Abstract: It has been almost two years since the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. We have been learning to live with the pandemic, whether we like it or not. In China, companies are responsible for pandemic prevention and control. Therefore, it is inevitable for employers to process their employees’ pandemic-related personal information (‘PI’). With the Personal Information Protection Law (‘PIPL’) having taken effect on November 1, 2021, this article discusses how to process employees’ PI in compliance with the law during the pandemic.
Wiley, Lindsay F and Samuel R Bagenstos, ‘The Personal Responsibility Pandemic: Centering Solidarity in Public Health and Employment Law’ Arizona State Law Journal (forthcoming) Abstract: The personal responsibility ethos that has driven the US response to the coronavirus pandemic has been ineffective, atomizing, and unjust. Restrictions on public services and private activities have disproportionately burdened people living in low-income households, people with disabilities, people of color, and women. At the same time, the severe illnesses and deaths that have continued to occur in spite of public health responses have been disproportionately concentrated among people of color, disabled people, and low-wage workers. This paper argues that fundamentally individualistic employment and antidiscrimination laws have undermined—rather than supported—disempowered workers’ ability to protect themselves and others. The law has failed to protect people who live and work in congregate institutions (including nursing homes, prisons, jails, detention facilities, factories, and warehouses . . . and, perhaps soon, schools) and thus has failed to protect the broader communities with which these institutions are interconnected. Together, public health and employment laws have put the onus on individuals to adopt protective behaviors without providing them with the supports, accommodations, and protections they need to do so. We identify three key areas for reform to ensure more effective and just pandemic response—for this pandemic and the next one—built on a core commitment to social solidarity in public health law and employment and antidiscrimination law. First, public health law should prioritize supports that create the conditions required mitigate the spread of infection over punitive measures targeting individuals. Second, employment law should protect workers from infection, including through workplace safety, privacy, and antidiscrimination protections that enable them to adopt protective health behaviors. Third, for individuals for whom returning to work would be especially unsafe—whether because their employers maintain particularly dangerous conditions or because of their own, or their family members’, underlying health conditions—employment law should remove any obligation to return to work while the special dangers associated with the pandemic persist. In addition to making concrete proposals for reform, our argument contributes to the academic literature in both public health and employment law. First, we show that a broad vision of public health law that encompasses action on the social determinants of health in ‘non-health’ sectors such as employment and antidiscrimination law is not only tenable, but essential. The US experience with the coronavirus pandemic puts the final nail in the coffin of the ‘old’ public health, which its cramped focus on microbial and behavioral interventions. Second, we bring to the foreground an additional justification for employment and antidiscrimination law—to promote solidarity by ensuring that the burdens and benefits of measures that serve the public as a whole are shared equitably. Social solidarity may offer a useful way of understanding the application of these bodies of law in other health-related contexts as well, such as genetic discrimination and workplace injuries. Third, we show that the attribution of fault and responsibility is a persistent obsession of employment and antidiscrimination law. These points should be of broad interest to employment and public health law scholars alike.
Wilks, Stephen, ‘Disturbing the Modern Plantation: How COVID-19 Is Reinforcing the Food Supply Chain’s Function as a Social Sorting Tool’ (2021) 30(3) Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 539–585 Abstract: This paper captures the plight of workers within the U.S. food supply chain. It describes the zero-sum thinking in our social discourse about the food and agricultural workers well call heroes. This thinking presumes the miseries of their marginalization as essential workers are somehow essential to society’s survival and that we use the language as a self- soothing device to put moral distance between ourselves and those our dependencies actively marginalize. The discussion begins by canvassing statistical data outlining the structure and composition of this workforce as well as the nature of their working conditions. It examines how the impeachment fight and China’s trade war with China factored in the slow U.S. response to the pandemic before chronicling covid19’s immediate impacts – all of which produce dramatic supply chain disruptions. The paper links these disruptions to law’s role in narrowly limiting the autonomy of workers inside the food supply chain while giving license to anti-lockdown protests. The paper culminates in an argument about heroism’s role in glossing over these disparate treatments of autonomy as a kind of balm that both essentializes and ignores oppression.
Will, Jennifer, ‘The Case for the “No-Collar” Exemption: Eliminating Employer-Imposed Office Hours for Overworked, Remote-Ready Workers’ (2022) 15 University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy (forthcoming) Abstract: The conventional 40-hour workweek has been a fixture of the American workplace for almost a century. Standard working hours of nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday, are customary even for workers exempted from overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). But the traditional 40-hour workweek is no longer a fit for the modern family or the modern worker. It is time for its demise. In the decades since passage of the FLSA, the influx of women in the workforce and the growth of exempt knowledge work have rendered the traditional 40-hour workweek both needlessly restrictive, in the case of work-life conflict, and effectively meaningless, in the case of the information age worker who labors 24/7. The recent revolution in remote work, precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, auspiciously permits a new approach to working hours, especially for exempt, ‘remote-ready’ workers—that is, white-collar workers engaged in cognitive labor, who have the proven capacity to work offsite. Where exempt, remote-ready workers are already widely expected to work outside of so-called office hours, they should not be beholden to keep regular office hours, too. We should release them from the false confines of nine-to-five, for more fluid integration of work and life. By amending the FLSA regulations to make scheduling freedom a condition of white-collar exemption, and restricting employers from setting hours of work for this cohort, we could productively disrupt the outdated workweek for all.
Williams, Colin, ‘COVID-19’s Impact on Enforcement Authorities’ Work and Priorities’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper No 4066691, 1 October 2021) Abstract: The eleventh meeting in plenary of the European Platform tackling undeclared work (the Platform) was held in Bratislava on 21-22 October 2021 as a hybrid meeting both onsite as well as online. The first day of this meeting was a thematic day dedicated to examining COVID-19’s impact on enforcement authorities’ work and priorities. This report summarises the presentations and discussions at the thematic day. The first section reports the presentations in the opening session setting the scene and addressing the changes in the labour market and the operations of enforcement authorities. The second section reports discussion of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic for the organisation of inspections, including a workshop on the use of alternative types of inspection to the physical inspection to detect and prevent undeclared work as well as a parallel workshop on changes in the planning and conduct of physical workplace inspections to detect and prevent undeclared work. The third section then reports discussion of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic for the organisation of inspectorates, covering both a workshop on changes in ways inspectorates operate when tackling undeclared work and the new skills and competencies required by inspectorates, as well as a parallel workshop on teleworking and other changes in the world of work and their implications for inspectorates. The fourth and final section summarises the key learning outcomes in terms of the practical recommendations on the way forward.
Williams, J Corey et al, ‘Reopening the United States: Black and Hispanic Workers Are Essential and Expendable Again’ (2020) 110(10) American Journal of Public Health 1506–1508 Introduction: By May 15, 2020, all 50 states had announced plans to reopen their economies. These plans emerged on the heels of an increasing awareness that COVID-19 had hit minority communities particularly hard, especially Black communities. Despite constituting only 13% of the US population, Blacks have made up 24% of the deaths from COVID-19 nationally, rendering them at least twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than are other groups. A recent survey from Johns Hopkins University and the American Community Survey indicated that the death rate for predominantly Black counties is sixfold higher than the rate in predominantly White counties. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities has been partly attributed to the racial composition of the workers in economic sectors deemed essential, including home health care, nursing homes, and community food and housing services. In these sectors, where employees are likely to come into contact with COVID-19 (i.e., high-contact jobs), Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be employed than are Whites. Data from a recent McKinsey Report2 show examples from critical economic sectors where the laborers are predominantly people of color. For example, in jobs such as psychiatric aid, nursing assistant, and orderly, Blacks make up more than twice their relative proportion of the broader US population (i.e., 13%). Because it is difficult for these jobs to be performed remotely, racial minorities have shouldered more than their share of essential labor during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their communities have been disparately endangered as a result.
Williamson, Sue, Linda Colley and Sally Hanna-Osborne, ‘Will Working from Home Become the “new Normal” in the Public Sector?’ (2020) 79(4) Australian Journal of Public Administration 601–607 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic compelled large sections of the workforce out of their workplaces and into their homes to work. Many commentators suggest this has forever changed how and where we work. This article analyses how Australia’s biggest employers - state and federal governments - approached the transitions to working from home, and back into regular workplaces. It considers the timing of policy responses to the pandemic as one indicator of resistance to, or acceptance of, widespread working from home. The article also demonstrates previous resistance to working from home for public servants, and questions widespread conjecture that it will become the ‘new normal’.
Wilson, Claire, ‘Manage the Risks of a Fire and Rehire Strategy’ (2020) 213(September) Employment Law Journal 31–37 Abstract: Highlights the risks for employers who elect to ‘fire and rehire’ employees on new employment terms and conditions, instead of making them redundant following the expiry of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Offers advice on how employers can make changes to terms and conditions safely, and persuade employees to agree to the changes. Notes other ways in which employers might seeks to reduce costs without relying on dismissal and re-engagement.
Winlo, Camilla and Hannah Jackson, ‘Additional Security Risks Arising from Home Working’ (2020) 110(July) Privacy Laws & Business United Kingdom Newsletter 8–9 Abstract: Highlights additional measures which employers might wish to adopt, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, to guarantee data security and privacy as employees work from home more regularly. Sets out steps which organisations can take to mitigate the risks posed by remote working. Notes the changing regulatory approach of Information Commissioner’s Office.
Wiryawan, I Wayan Gde, Lis Julianti and Emmy Febriani Thalib, ‘Legal Protection for Company Employees Who Are Under Self-Isolation Caused by Covid-19 Infection in Indonesia’ (2022) 2(1) Journal Equity of Law and Governance 24–30
Abstract: This study aimed at analyzing regulations concerning legal protection for employees who are under self-isolation caused by Covid-19 infection. Moreover, there is the latest regulation concerning Protection and Business Continuity of Workers/Manpower related to prevention and control of Covid-19 Pandemic. This is a juridical-normative study with a statutory approach. The finding of this study showed that the legal protection scheme on the employees under self-isolation in a company affected by Covid-19 has been regulated in some Government Regulations. Therefore, principally the business owner should give wages fully to the employees as well as providing sick leave base on the established regulations.
Wong, Patrick et al, ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: Ethical and Legal Aspects of Inadequate Quantity and Quality of Personal Protective Equipment for Resuscitation’ (2021) 74(1) Korean Journal of Anesthesiology 73–75 Extract: The legal duty to ensure that ‘safety is reasonably practicable’ is open to interpretation. If employers breach their duty of providing adequate PPE (in appropriate quantity and quality), they may be liable to prosecution depending on local regulations. Furthermore, negative publicity and legal risk may ensue [9]. On the other hand, disadvantages of non-disclosure include the inability to conduct investigations and provide treatment (e.g., counselling and isolation), risk of further transmission, and potential harm (e.g., COVID-19) [9]. To balance this, ‘disclosure should be the norm, even when the probability of harm is extremely low’.
Wright, Katharine AM, Toni Haastrup and Roberta Guerrina, ‘Equalities in Freefall? Ontological Insecurity and the Long‐term Impact of COVID‐19 in the Academy’ (2021) 28 (S1) Gender, Work & Organization 163–167 Abstract: This intervention focuses on the impact of the global crisis resulting from the COVID‐19 pandemic on existing racialized and gendered inequalities within the academy and in particular our discipline of Politics and International Relations. We argue that responses to recent crises within the academy have exacerbated ontological insecurity among minoritized groups, including women. When coupled with increased caring responsibilities, the current crises call into question who can be creative and innovative, necessary conditions for knowledge production. While university managers seek to reassure university staff of the temporary nature of COVID‐19 interventions, we argue that the possibilities for progressive leaps at a later state of institutional regeneration is unlikely when efforts to address structural inequalities are sidelined and crisis responses are undertaken which run counter to such work.
Wrigley, Jaklyn, ‘Impact of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’ (2020) 67(3) Mississippi Lawyer 31–33
Yaroshenko, Oleg M et al, ‘Current Problems of Legal Regulation of Remote Work in the Context of the Introduction of Restrictive Measures Caused by the Spread of Covid-19 in Ukraine and the EU’ (2022) 1(34) Relações Internacionais No Mundo Atual 1–16 Abstract: The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has spread to all countries of the world, has posed new challenges in terms of legal, socio-economic, political, and social development. The pandemic produced a need for a mechanism of legal regulation of a special organization of the remote work, working hours, workplace, working conditions, etc. The study aims to analyze and compare the legal regulation of remote work under the introduction of restrictive measures caused by the spread of COVID-19 in Ukraine and the EU. The leading method was the method of comparative analysis. It helped to compare the specifics of the practice of EU member states in the field of legal regulation of remote work under the above conditions in Ukraine and the EU, identify how these issues are regulated in other EU countries. In Ukraine, it is necessary to improve the rules for regulating the responsibilities of the employer to compensate for the costs of a remote worker, enshrining in law the obligation of the employer to provide the employee with computer equipment, means of communication. The experience of European countries proves it is necessary to implement ‘right to disconnect’ in Ukraine. Information and knowledge gained from the experience of different EU countries can be used as a basis for the adaptation and development of new relevant provisions in Ukraine.
Yearby, Ruqaiijah, ‘Protecting Workers That Provide Essential Services’ in Scott Burris et al (eds), Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19 (Public Health Law Watch, 2020) 193–198 Abstract: States and localities, which retain the right to protect the health and safety of their citizens, have designated more than 55 million Americans as ‘essential workers’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most essential workers are employed in health care (30%) and in food and agricultural (21%) (McNicholas & Poydock, 2020). A majority (76%) of all essential health care workers are women, while half of all essential food and agricultural workers are racial and ethnic minorities. Consequently, many women and racial and ethnic minorities are unable to shelter at home or socially distance themselves because they are deemed ‘essential workers’ (Yearby & Mohapatra, 2020). Even though these workers are deemed ‘essential workers,’ they have not been provided with the employment and safety protections (e.g., paid sick leave, health insurance, and workers’ compensation) that are essential to keeping them and their families healthy and safe. To address the lack of economic protections, which is discussed in more detail in Chapter 28, essential workers should be provided with a guaranteed basic income, paid sick leave, health insurance coverage, and survivorship benefits regardless of their worker and/or immigration status (Yearby & Mohapatra, 2020). To keep workers from being killed or otherwise harmed at work, the government (federal and state) must issue mandatory health and safety laws and regulations that are aggressively enforced to prevent workplace COVID-19 infections and deaths. Finally, to ensure that essential workers and their families do not suffer financially if they contract COVID-19, the government (federal and state) and businesses should be financially responsible for the harm caused as a result of a worker’s COVID-19 infection or death.
Yearby, Ruqaiijah and Seema Mohapatra, ‘Structural Discrimination In COVID-19 Workplace Protections’ (Saint Louis University Legal Studies Research Paper No 2020–09, 29 May 2020) Abstract: Workers, who are being asked to risk their health by working outside their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, need adequate hazard compensation, safe workplace conditions, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Sadly, this is not happening for many essential workers, such as those working in home health care and in the meat processing industry. These workers are not only being unnecessarily exposed to the virus, but they are also not receiving paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, and affordable health care and childcare. The lack of these protections is due to structural discrimination and has disproportionately disadvantaged women of color and low-wage workers. This leaves them and their families more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and death. In this context, structural discrimination refers to the ways in which laws are used to advantage those in power, while disadvantaging powerless workers. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of legal protections for many workers is a reflection of structural discrimination.
Yi̇ği̇t, Yusuf, ‘Evaluation of Emerging Working Conditions Following Mandatory Labor Law Changes Due to the New Coronavirus (COVID-19)’ [2020] (78) Istanbul Hukuk Mecmuasi 265–297 Abstract: Our study discusses the individual labor law measures that have been taken and their effect on working life. Potential problems are addressed due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The main effect of compulsory and challenging changes to working life is the danger of redundancies and unemployment, as the production of goods and services shrinks significantly. Although some labor legislation measures have been designed to decrease the negative effects of the crisis, they are subject to certain conditions, and not every employee can benefit from this. The adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy cannot be eliminated and except for the short-time working allowance (although conditions have been alleviated) due to the temporary legislative regulations introduced (although conditions have been alleviated) cash fee support to those who cannot benefit from this payment has been given. In this situation, the employer has the right to suspend labor contracts unilaterally for three months for compelling reasons, therefore the right to terminate employment was restricted, and employers were banned from terminating employment contracts except for ethical and good conduct.
Yildirim, T Murat and Hande Eslen‐Ziya, ‘The Differential Impact of COVID‐19 on the Work Conditions of Women and Men Academics during the Lockdown’ (2021) 28 Gender, Work & Organization 243–249 Abstract: That the COVID‐19 pandemic has affected the work conditions of large segments of society is in no doubt. A growing body of journalistic accounts raised the possibility that the lockdown caused by the pandemic has affected women and men in different ways, due mostly to the traditionally gendered division of labour in society. We attempt to test this oft‐cited argument by conducting an original survey with nearly 200 academics. Specifically, we explore the extent to which the effect of the lockdown on childcare, housework and home‐office environment varies across women and men. Our results show that a number of factors are associated with the effect of the lockdown on the work conditions of academics at home, including gender, having children, perceived threat from COVID‐19 and satisfaction with the work environment. We also show that having children disproportionately affects women in terms of the amount of housework during the lockdown.
Young Ran (Christine) Kim, ‘Taxing Teleworkers’ (2021) 55(2) U.C. Davis Law Review 1149–1226 Abstract: Since COVID-19 has forced many governments to restrict travel and impose quarantine requirements, telework has become a way of life. The shift towards teleworking is raising tax concerns for workers who work for employers located in another state than where they live. Most source states where these employers are located could not have taxed income of out-of-state teleworkers under the pre-pandemic tax rules. However, several source states have unilaterally extended their sourcing rule on these teleworkers, resulting in unwarranted risk of double taxation -- once by the residence state and again by the source state. At this time, there is no uniform guideline by state or federal governments. Recently, New Hampshire, supported by fourteen other states, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to exercise its original jurisdiction challenging Massachusetts’ telecommuting taxes of non-resident teleworkers. Tax commentators believed this case would be one of the most significant tax decisions in recent years, but the Supreme Court declined to hear it. New Jersey also opposes New York’s long-standing telecommuting taxes under the ‘convenience of the employer’ rule. This Article examines the constitutional challenges of maintaining pre-pandemic work arrangements for tax purposes, arguing that a source state’s extraterritorial assertion to tax non-resident teleworkers’ income likely violates the Dormant Commerce and Due Process Clauses. Also, this Article finds the Supreme Court’s decision not to exercise original jurisdiction dissatisfying in light of the substantial increase in remote work. The problem of taxing teleworkers is not temporary because the pandemic drastically reshaped where and how people work. Recognizing the need for a uniform long-term solution, this Article argues Congress should enact federal law to pre-empt conflicting state law positions and enforce the primacy of residence-based taxation on teleworkers’ income. This proposal would reduce the impact various source states’ tax laws have on interstate commerce, preserve due process, and bolster policy rationales, such as taxpayers’ choice in where they reside and pay taxes as their social obligation to the community.
Zhang, Alex, ‘Pandemics, Paid Sick Leaves, and Tax Institutions’ (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3729500, 20 July 2020) Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic is currently ravaging the world, and the United States has been largely unsuccessful at containing the coronavirus. One long-standing policy failure stands out as having exacerbated the pandemic in our country: the lack of a national mandate of paid sick leaves, without which workers face financial and workplace-cultural pressures to attend work while sick, thus spreading the virus to their fellow employees and the public at large.This Article provides the blueprint for a national, subsidized mandate of paid sick leaves and two additional insights about our tax institutions as mechanisms of effectuating broader societal goals. It first justifies a paid-sick-leave mandate on the grounds of market failures (both cognitive biases and externalities) and workplace equality. It also argues for the need of subsidies in order to protect lower-income workers from unemployment risks imposed by a national mandate. Second, the Article critically assesses the current federal legislative approach utilized in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The Article then proposes designing a national employer mandate of paid sick leaves funded by general-revenue business tax credits and providing partial wage replacement.This Article’s discussion of paid sick leaves yields two insights about our tax institutions. First, it questions the role of payroll taxes, which are highly regressive, impose burdens almost exclusively on labor, and are normatively unjustified when the spending funded by payroll taxes benefits the broader non-wage-earning public. Second, the Article reveals the malleability of tax institutions with respect to funding, administrability, and costs. These comparative advantages of tax institutions make them perennially popular in times of crisis. :
Zulkarnaen, Ahmad Hunaeni, ‘Settlement of Termination of Employment Due to the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic Based on the Legal System in Indonesia’ (2021) 5(10) American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research 138–147 Abstract: The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) has recorded approximately 50,000 (Fifty Thousand) workers/laborers laid off since the beginning of 2021 due to the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Therefore, the authors researched this problem. This study aims to analyze the process of resolving layoffs due to the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic following Law Number 2 of 2004 concerning Industrial Relations Dispute Settlement (UUPPHI) based on Pancasila theories of justice aspects of legal change. This article concludes that layoffs are one type of industrial relations dispute regulated in Law Number 2 of 2004 concerning Industrial Relations Dispute Settlement (UUPPHI); there are 2 (two) categories of causes for layoffs, violations of the law, or absence of law violations. The Covid-19 pandemic does not include layoffs in the category of legal breaches, layoffs due to the Covid-19 pandemic an effort to prevent companies from losing money or closing, however layoffs for any cause must be stopped, employers, workers/laborers, trade unions/labor unions with all their might and efforts must be made in order to avoid layoffs, for workers/labourers layoffs are the beginning of suffering, layoffs must be carried out in very forced conditions (force majeure) while still maintaining harmonious industrial relations (industrial peace), in the event that layoffs cannot be avoided, then the purpose of layoffs must be resolved by deliberation (bipartite), if the bipartite settlement is not successful, termination of employment can only be carried out after obtaining a determination from the Industrial Relations Dispute Settlement Agency (LPPHI) in accordance with UUPPHI accompanied by granting rights to workers/laborers in the form of working conditions, both normative (labor legislation) as well as terms of employment as regulated in Law Number 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower (UUK) and Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation (UUCK) following aspects of legal change (Standard of conduct, as a tool of social engineering, as a tool of social of control, as a facility on human interaction) based on Pancasila Industrial Relations (HIP) and theories of justice (Distributive, Commutative, Utility, Protective) so that workers/laborers are laid off due to the Covid-19 pandemic in addition to receiving protection to obtain the working conditions as described above, as well as getting empowerment and utilization to have work competencies so that they can work for other companies or be able to do entrepreneurship independently.
Katsabian, Tammy, ‘The Telework Virus: How COVID-19 Has Affected Telework and Exposed Its Implications for Privacy’ (2022) Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law (forthcoming)