A robust railway network is seen as part of Europe’s decarbonisation strategy. But the railways in the Balkans have been long neglected and the modernisation process is slow.Read the full article
Europe is ageing. Fewer and fewer Europeans are being born, and while younger generations increasingly concentrate in large cities, much of the remaining territory is falling behind in development. Long an existential problem in Eastern Europe, these trends are increasingly fuelling inequality [...]Read the full article
Katsuji Okada has spent a lifetime laying millions of kawara tiles. We spoke with him to learn about the details of this ancestral craft, part of an indigenous architecture that is now on the verge of extinction.Read the full article
Tamara Gausi:To round up the year, each Equal Times editor picks the stories that have stayed in their heart and mind, long after publication.Read the full article
Atahualpa Blanchet:“The declaration by Mercosur human rights ministers on artificial intelligence stands as a guiding light in the search for a fair balance between technological innovation and the protection of rights.”Read the full article
Ronald Janssen:“Strong wage formation institutions together with robust social dialogue allow workers to catch up with inflation by bargaining for higher wages and, more generally, to negotiate a fair sharing of the cost-of-living crisis. It is shocking to observe that in 2022 top CEOs benefitted from [...]Read the full article
Iraq’s private sector has suffered greatly from years of armed conflict. Today, the country’s entrepreneurial landscape is comprised of a mosaic of small and medium-sized enterprises that contribute, to a greater or lesser extent, to the country’s economic [...]Read the full article
In an environment of accelerating automation and digitalisation, will lifelong learning be the key to staying in our chosen job or profession? How should we address the challenge of informal work? What will happen to jobs impacted by the climate crisis? And what role will trade unions play in [...]Read the full article
The Dutch system flies in the face of a key principle under international labour standards: that of equal pay for equal work. “If you have more skills or qualifications or expertise, you should be better remunerated. But not just because you are [...]Read the full article
According to data published in 2023 by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the number of foreign students in Georgia’s both public and private universities has almost doubled from around 14,000 from before the war to just over 25,000 [...]Read the full article
Recurring floods are forcing emerging sportsmen and women from rural India to quit their sports or severely reduce their training in order to help support their families, whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by extreme weather events caused by climate [...]Read the full article
Christina Colclough:Across the world, workers are increasingly subjected to digital systems and technologies. Unless workers and their unions build the capacity to understand how these technologies work, and what causes the harms and otherwise negative impacts on workers, they will forever be one step [...]Read the full article
Job automation could affect the quality of work more than the quantity. The issue is not machines taking over our jobs but pushing us into poorer quality employment. The best way to avoid this is to invest in preventive training and to call on companies to act [...]Read the full article
Online grocery delivery businesses in the Netherlands have been accused of “trying to find paths toward profitability that essentially lead over the backs of workers” but delivery riders and their trade unions are fighting back.Read the full article
Mass layoffs have hit large tech companies since the end of last year. Previously well-paid workers suddenly became the target of brutal firings. It is a move that might have been taken to silence workers, but it might just have the opposite [...]Read the full article
The growing popularity of artificial intelligence software, capable of generating images, sound and even text in a matter of seconds, is opening up a debate on technological transformation: are our education systems ready for a world where AI is [...]Read the full article
The creative AI revolution has sparked fascination and fear in equal measure. Could AI be exploited to cut costs, to demand more work in less time, to make sectors such as design even more precarious or to automate the easiest [...]Read the full article
Experts have applauded the Canadian government’s decision to move toward a universal childcare system, but are also warning that it will exacerbate geographic disparities and create long waiting lists for subsidised childcare.Read the full article
“Nobody has been preparing to provide services to people who are running from war. Everybody is working with trauma now, but it’s hard to have those skills.”Read the full article
Australia’s political leaders have long supported the coal industry. With the industry now in decline, workers and trade unions are taking the lead to ensure a just transition.Read the full article
Walton Pantland:Multinational corporations dominate the global economy, but labour laws exist at national level, with no international body to defend workers from violations in supply chains. How do we seek justice and remedy for the world’s [...]Read the full article
An entire generation of children in Syria has been forced out of school at an early age and into a war-torn labour market. Many are having to do work that involves very hard labour or puts their life at risk.Read the full article
Ana Belén Muñoz Ruiz:Safety at work can be and already is being used as grounds for collecting and processing employees’ data, but the measures must be part of a rationale of prevention.Read the full article
In an interview with Equal Times, Patah discusses the conditions that digital platform workers in Brazil face, particularly the country’s nearly 300,000 motoboys and the options available to unions for organising these workers.Read the full article
Sharan Burrow:The 2022 ITUC Global Rights Index reveals a dire situation for working people across the world. We must reverse this trend.Read the full article
Poland has closed two-thirds of its mines over the last 30 years, reducing the number of jobs in the sector from 300,000 to 80,000. The energy transition raises both hopes and fears. While miners understand the need for change, they fear for their future and the future of their [...]Read the full article
Teleworking has expanded rapidly and haphazardly due to the pandemic. The risks include teleworking being confused with work-life balance and certain costs being placed on workers.Read the full article
Producing electric vehicles requires fewer jobs than combustion engines, creating a challenge for European workers. In large car-producing countries such as Slovakia and Czechia, unions are working to ensure a just transition for [...]Read the full article
Waste pickers call for their voices to be heard in negotiations for a global treaty on plastics that some compare to the Paris climate agreement.Read the full article
After years of setbacks for civil society in both countries, these victories have helped to reinvigorate their respective labour movements. The ability to maintain pressure over long periods of time, build broad-based coalitions, and use legal channels proved key, and labour leaders in India [...]Read the full article
Although the concept of ’decent work’ is gaining ground, the recent coup d’état and military takeover, in addition to ongoing insecurity in the country, magnified by chronic food crises linked to climate change, will not facilitate the task at [...]Read the full article
Svitlana Iukhymovych :Chronic informality and gender inequity have paved the way for the platform economy’s current success in Ukraine.Read the full article
“Employers have taken advantage of the coup to overthrow the unions. They are violating labour rights, cutting wages, forcing workers to work and violating all previous labour agreements.”Read the full article
In Turkey, tech companies are pushing back hard against any attempts to unionise, to prevent riders from being able to demand basic labour rights.Read the full article
Today, it is hard to imagine a world without the internet, so much so that many are calling for internet access to be recognised as a universal and inalienable human right. Those opposed to the idea, however, warn that it is a source of [...]Read the full article
Rejimon Kuttappan:There are an estimated nine million Indian migrants in the Middle East region. In his new book, journalist and researcher Rejimon Kuttappan sheds light on the lives and struggles of some of those trapped by the kafala system.Read the full article
Inhabitants of remote areas, vulnerable populations, people trapped in humanitarian crises: how can information and communication technologies applied to healthcare benefit patients, public health and health systems?Read the full article
Owen Tudor:Ten years ago, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 189 and Recommendation 201 on the rights of domestic workers. Since that ground-breaking step, 35 countries around the world have ratified C189, but only seven of them are in the Commonwealth, which covers a third of [...]Read the full article
Sharan Burrow:This year’s Nobel Prize in Economics is an indictment against the disproven theory that providing economic security for workers will cost them their jobs.Read the full article
“If you protest on the job, if you demand your rights, they’ll tell you ‘If you don’t like it get out, I have 3,000 people out there who will do it for half the money.’”Read the full article
“Unions have had the climate at their hearts for a long time. When members’ livelihoods are at risk, unions stand up – and members’ livelihoods are at risk with climate change.”Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:Current technological momentum points toward the inevitable militarisation of space. The Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967 with the express purpose of prohibiting the use of space for military purposes, remains the only international agreement of its kind. Will it be [...]Read the full article
Ruwan Subasinghe:“A just transition towards a low carbon economy is not only possible, but an urgent necessity. Climate change will continue to impact workers worldwide, and such impacts are likely to be significant and disruptive unless workers are an integral part of the [...]Read the full article
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the discrepancy between the pivotal social, economic and public health role of India’s sanitation workers and the fact that they “remain at the bottom of society”.Read the full article