Equal Times

17 November 2025

Bad vibes: is the new mechanical vibrations standard fit for purpose?

Updates to a standard designed to prevent a common and debilitating workplace injury have been described as a “huge step forward” on one hand and insufficient on the other. So does ISO 5349 do enough to protect workers from the hidden dangers of hand-arm vibration injuries?Read the full article

“Climate change leaves no room for complacency” but are EU states ready to invest in the long-term prevention of forest fires and the professionalisation of its undervalued workforce?

14 November 2025

Environment

“Climate change leaves no room for complacency” but are EU states ready to invest in the long-term prevention of forest fires and the professionalisation of its undervalued workforce?

Forest fires rage every summer across ever-larger stretches of Europe. The best way to keep them at bay, as the saying goes, is to ‘extinguish them in the winter’, but the precarious employment of firefighters and political short-sightedness in the face of climate change leave us [...]Read the full article

31 October 2025

Labour

A trade union to defend the rights of Tunisia’s women farm labourers

“The most important thing is that more and more women day labourers are aware of their rights and want to defend them collectively. That’s how changes will come.”Read the full article

The women looking after the elderly in Colombia also need care

14 October 2025

Labour

The women looking after the elderly in Colombia also need care

Every day, millions of women quietly care for elderly people, both inside and outside the home. With its new National Care Policy, Colombia has an opportunity – and a duty – to protect and give dignity to those who support life, day after day.Read the full article

“How many more Satnams have to die” before the deadly and systemic exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Italy is dismantled?

30 September 2025

Labour

“How many more Satnams have to die” before the deadly and systemic exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Italy is dismantled?

Despite widely reported tragedies, including the horrific death of a young Indian migrant worker, Italy’s agricultural sector remains heavily reliant on the invisible and severely exploited labour of thousands of undocumented workers. This situation is sustained by deliberate political choices.Read the full article

Trump's cuts to global labour rights funding hits US6m, new analysis reveals

16 September 2025

Human rights

Trump’s cuts to global labour rights funding hits US$726m, new analysis reveals

US funding cuts “will expose people who’ve spent their lives on the frontlines defending labour rights – some in very dangerous places and at great risk to themselves – and will put a target on their backs.”Read the full article

Caring in silence: the invisible work of grandmothers in the Andes

2 September 2025

Politics & economy

Caring in silence: the invisible work of grandmothers in the Andes

In the Andean region, grandmothers hold family life together – not only with love, but through hard work. This labour goes largely unseen and unpaid. Caught in a vicious cycle of time poverty and neglected by public policy, they continue to care for others as they grow older – in [...]Read the full article

Subcontracting and algorithmic management in e-commerce are turning the logistics sector into a laboratory for labour abuses, warns academic Silvia Borelli

29 August 2025

Politics & economy

Subcontracting and algorithmic management in e-commerce are turning the logistics sector into a laboratory for labour abuses, warns academic Silvia Borelli

“The problem is always the same: the automated system increases the power to control and redirect workers, but in an opaque way, because you don’t see it, you don’t have a specific person giving orders. This type of control is becoming increasingly more intense and less [...]Read the full article

Solution or threat? Methane buried beneath Lake Kivu divides local communities

15 July 2025

Environment

Solution or threat? Methane buried beneath Lake Kivu divides local communities

Beneath the tranquil waters of Lake Kivu, which straddles the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, lies a valuable yet volatile resource: methane. While its extraction could provide much-needed electricity to surrounding villages, it also carries the risk [...]Read the full article

Working conditions in Spain's tourism sector: precariousness and exhausting working hours

11 July 2025

Labour

Working conditions in Spain’s tourism sector: precariousness and exhausting working hours

In Spain, a world power in terms of the number of visitors it receives, the discontent over mass tourism is coupled with the poor working conditions in the sector. What pathways are being explored for improvement and could they be ‘exported’ to other major tourism hubs?Read the full article

Artificial intelligence, dehumanisation and precarious work: translators on the frontline of tech-induced job degradation

6 June 2025

Politics & economy

Artificial intelligence, dehumanisation and precarious work: translators on the frontline of tech-induced job degradation

Translators work in a changing and competitive field, where the use of new technologies – currently AI – is once again leading to the dehumanisation of their work and the deterioration of their working conditions, a trajectory that looks set to be the future for many other specialised professions.Read the full article

The Polish delivery app workers organising to stop digital platforms taking them for a ride

13 May 2025

Labour

The Polish delivery app workers organising to stop digital platforms taking them for a ride

Platform work is gaining ground, impacting an increasing number of workers and profoundly transforming the way we work and relate with each other. A response to this model, which poses significant challenges in terms of labour rights, is now taking shape.Read the full article

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