04 International Labour Law
- Algorithmic management: Decisions on work – assignment, pay, rating, suspension – taken by a platform’s software; regulated by Directive (EU) 2024/2831 and ILO Convention No. 193
- Collective agreement: A contract on working conditions negotiated between one or more trade unions and an employer or employers’ association; may be declared generally binding for a whole industry
- Collective bargaining: The negotiation between employers (or their associations) and trade unions on wages and working conditions
- Convention (ILO): A binding international treaty adopted by the International Labour Conference; binds a state once it has ratified it
- Dispositive law: Rules of the law that apply only if the parties have not agreed otherwise (opposite: mandatory law)
- Employee: A person who works for an employer under the employer’s instructions, integrated into the employer’s organisation, in return for a wage or salary
- Employer: A person or company that employs the services of another under an employment contract (not a client of a freelancer)
- Employment law: The law governing the private relationship between employer and employee
- Entrepreneurial risk: The risk a self-employed person bears: own investment, own clients, the risk of not being paid; its absence indicates employment
- Freelancer (self-employed person): A person who works independently for clients, not integrated into their organisation and bearing the entrepreneurial risk
- Fundamental Conventions: The ten ILO Conventions that bind every member state by the mere fact of membership: freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labour, child labour, discrimination, occupational safety and health
- Labour law: The mandatory, usually public or international law protecting workers (working time, safety, minimum standards)
- Legal presumption of employment: A rule under which a platform worker is presumed to be an employee if the facts indicate control; the platform must prove the opposite (Directive (EU) 2024/2831)
- NORMLEX: The ILO database of international labour standards, ratifications and comments of the supervisory bodies, by country
- Platform work: Work arranged, assigned and usually priced through a digital platform (e.g. Uber); also called gig work
- Ratification: The formal act by which a state binds itself to an international treaty, e.g. an ILO Convention
- Recommendation (ILO): Non-binding guidance adopted by the International Labour Conference, often supplementing a Convention
- Social security contributions: Payments by employers and employees to social insurance (old age, unemployment, accident); the main cost difference between employees and freelancers
- Supervisory system (ILO): The ILO procedures examining how member states apply ratified Conventions: regular reports, representations and complaints
- Trade union: An organisation of workers that negotiates wages and working conditions with employers
- Tripartite: Involving the three parties of labour relations – government, employers and workers (trade unions); the principle on which the ILO is built
- Worker (UK): A middle category of UK law between employee and self-employed: minimum wage and paid holidays, but no protection against dismissal
04 International Labour Law
