European Working group on Labour Law
About
The European Working Group on Labour Law (EWLL) is a cooperation network of Labour Law Professors at six European universities.
Its members focus on studying, researching and teaching both individual and collective labour law and social security law in their social, historical, societal and economic context.
Members
Seminars
The EWL organises an annual conference for the training and development of graduate students. During the seminars, students present reports on a common topic and compare the different national approaches to the topic.
First, four students from each participating university present their written report on national law on the annual theme of the conference. The students are then divided into four groups comprising one representative of each participating university. Each group is given a comparative research question to explore culminating in a group presentation on the final day of the conference.
Below, with more information on the seminars, we also provide some of the reports. Please bear in mind that the reports are the products of students and that the laws and circumstances described may have become outdated due to developments after completion of the reports.
The next students‘ seminar will take place at the University of Strasbourg, France, March 25th to 28th, 2025.
Information on the seminars
- Utrecht, Netherlands, 2024: The Legal Effects of Collective Labour Agreements
- Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, 2023: Employment and Self-Employment in Platform Work
- Napoli, Italy, 2022: COVID-19: A Pressure Test for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)
- Leicester, UK, 2021: The EU-Directive 2019/1152 "on transparent and predictable working conditions" in the Member States (online seminar)
- Poznań, Poland, 2020: Worker representation in undertakings (the meeting had to be cancelled due to the corona pandemic - but students' reports have been published)
- Ciudad Real, Spain, 2018: dismissal for non-economic reasons
- Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, 2017: privacy and data protection at the workplace
- Strasbourg, France, 2016: working time
- Utrecht, Netherlands, 2015: collective bargaining
- Leicester, UK, 2014: reconciling work and family life
- Cassino, Italy, 2013: pay
- Almagro, Spain, 2012: economic dismissal
- Utrecht, Netherlands, 2011: employment without contract
- Strasbourg, France, 2010: the rights of agency workers
- Hannover, Germany, 2009: European Works Councils
- Leicester, UK, 2008: the right to strike
- Cassino, Italy, 2007: affirmative action
Research
Members of the network meet regularly to pursue joint research projects or organise workshops and conferences in the field of comparative and European Labour Law. Doctoral researchers are encouraged to conduct research abroad within the EWLL network.
Some of EWLL’s publications:
- The results of a research project on restructuring of enterprises have been published in: C. Sachs-Durand (ed.), La place des salariés dans les restructurations en Europe Communautaire / The Situation of workers in restructuring in the European Union, Strasbourg, 2004.
- To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the EWLL in 2009, a collection of essays was published: E. Ales, T. Jaspers, P. Lorber, C. Sachs-Durand, U. Wendeling-Schröder (eds), Fundamental Social Rights in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities, Antwerp: Intersentia 2009.
- The group also published the results of a research project lead by Edoardo Ales: E. Ales (ed.), Health and Safety at Work, European and Comparative Perspectives, WoltersKluwer, 2013.
Academic workshops and conferences:
- EWLL organised a panel on collective labour law in Europe in a comparative perspective at the Labour Law Research Conference in June 2015 in Amsterdam.
- In the context of the 2018 students’ seminar, an International Labour Law Seminar took place on March 15th, 2018. Topic: “Developments in dismissal regulation in the last 10 years: the case of Spain”.
- The event that was planned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EWLL, had to be cancelled due to the Corona pandemic.
- In the context of the 2022 students' seminar, a roundtable discussion took place on 13 May 2022 in Naples ("COVID-19: A Pressure Test for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)")