European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
L.N. 268 of 2022 - Digital Platform Delivery Wages Council Wage Regulation Order, 2022
L.N. 268 of 2022 introduced new laws to regulate digital platform work and provided more safeguards for digital platform workers’ employment status and rights.
The Legal Notice aims to promote fairness, transparency, and accountability in algorithmic management (Article 1). The Legal Notice establishes the presumption of an employment relationship (Article 4) between the digital platform worker and the digital labour platform or work agency, and ensures the application of employment law and rights to digital platform workers, including overtime rates and sick leave. The Legal Notice makes reference to the application of, inter alia, the Employment and Industrial Relations Act; the Social Security Act; the Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act; the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations; and the Employee (Information and Consultation) Regulations. An employer under this L.N. is required to give the worker a letter of engagement or a signed declaration within seven days from the commencement of the employment relationship (Article 15).
Transparency includes informing platform workers about the automated monitoring and decision-making systems used by the platform, and protecting the employees’ personal data against any processing not intrinsically related and necessary to their work (Article 17). Employers are also required to make such information available to the Director General for Employment and Industrial Relations and to platform workers’ official representatives (that is, a lawyer representing the worker, a trade union representative, or an information and consultation representative who has been appointed in accordance with the Employee (Information and Consultation) Regulations), if they so request.
While the legislation makes reference to trade union representatives, it is worth noting that unionisation is low among workers on 'atypical' contracts (Debono, 2018). It is the author's understanding that measures related to access to algorithmic measures are yet to be used by the Director General for Employment and Industrial Relations and platform workers’ official representatives.
Eurofound (2023), Malta: Algorithmic management, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/algorithmic-management/malta
Between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, almost 300,000 employees working for ‘big tech’ companies were laid off across the world, making headlines for months in global media. This development has been a shock, considering the high numbers of jobs in well-known tech corporations with a reputation for offering good working conditions and well-paid positions.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions. Many banks in the sector have been undergoing serial restructuring since the global financial crisis, and it is one of the few service sectors with stagnant or declining employment.
Since 2011, the Restructuring support instruments database of the EU PolicyWatch has been collecting information on measures that assist companies and workers to anticipate and manage restructuring. This article looks at measures in the database aimed at supporting employees and employers during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022).
Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor database reveals the impact of the energy crisis on employment in the EU. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, energy prices have hit record highs. The European Commission imposed sanctions and limitations on the import of oil and gas from Russia, which has reacted by reneging on supply commitments to many Member States.
