Valerio De Stefano

Possibly of interest for @mattpolprof.bsky.social

Algorithmic Management and EU Law: Quo Vadis? | Keynote by Valerio de Stefano YouTube video by FES Global

Sharing a recent keynote: algorithmic management is expanding employer power (hiring, pay, scheduling, monitoring, discipline). Privacy law helps, but we need collective counterbalances - co-determination and collective bargaining - so we stay citizens, not subjects, at work youtu.be/493uQv6gfxg?...

Artificial Intelligence at Work - International Conference

Happy to share the program of an International Conference on Artificial Intelligence at Work that we will hold online and in person in Toronto on January 22 & 23. We have a stellar lineup of speakers and hope to see many of you there or online. Share widely! Register at www.yorku.ca/events/aiatw...

Artificial Intelligence at Work - International Conference

Happy to share the program of an International Conference on Artificial Intelligence at Work that we will hold online and in person in Toronto on January 22 & 23. We have a stellar lineup of speakers and hope to see many of you there or online. Share widely! Register at www.yorku.ca/events/aiatw...

Shaping the Future of Digital Work: A Bold Proposal for Platform Worker Rights A new draft convention proposes to establish a comprehensive rights and protections for platform workers globally.

A great blog by @valeriodeste.bsky.social on a proposal for an ILO Convention on Platform Workers - Could not be more topical and could not be more interesting! www.socialeurope.eu/shaping-the-...

We’re criticising GDPR for all the wrong reasons The new EU Commission is all about ‘competitiveness’, but their plans to cut data protection rules are extremely short sighted.

✂️ “Simplify”. “Streamline”. “Scale back”. Brussels is all about boosting competitiveness by cutting red tape. The intention to stimulate the economy is laudable, but there is a real risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Trimming will achieve little.

theconversation.com/were-critici...

On @ssrn.bsky.social, a new paper with Sangheon Lee @ilo.org on the World Bank's Business Ready project. Focusing on the #B-READY Labor Topic, we highlight significant divergence from ILO standards and domestic labour laws, and an endorsement of very poor quality jobs. bit.ly/BRSSRN

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🚨 A note for readers: Starting from the next volume, new issues of the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal will be available at this website: digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cllpj/

We hope you find this special issue insightful! 🔍📖 #LaborLaw #WorkerRights #CLLPJ

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📌 Eric Tucker – Something Old, Something New & a Lot That’s Blue
From a Marxist perspective, Tucker examines how worker subordination has intensified over 50 years & calls for a progressive legal reform agenda.

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📌 Elena Gramano – Nothing, Yet Everything New Under the Sun
She contends that subordination remains a crucial legal concept, despite changing work environments, and should include organizational control as a key factor.

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📌 Valerio De Stefano & Nicola Kountouris – Lifting the Private-Law Veil
They challenge the idea that employment contracts are freely negotiated & argue that employer authority is historically shaped by public law & power.

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The issue features peer-reviewed articles by leading labour law scholars:

📌 Alan Bogg & Cindy Estlund – Between Authority & Domination: Taming the Managerial Prerogative
They argue that "managerial prerogative" should be rethought with stronger checks & balances to ensure worker freedom.

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This issue explores:
🔹 The legitimacy & limits of employer authority
🔹 The nature of worker subordination in democratic societies
🔹 Strategies to ensure managerial prerogatives align with the rule of law

It’s open access & fully available here: cllpj.law.illinois.edu/archive/vol_...

Very thrilled to announce the publication of a special issue of the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, titled "New Perspectives on Worker Subordination."

Edited by Valerio De Stefano, Sara Slinn, & Eric Tucker (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto). 🧵👇

go.bsky.app/E9coisV

@kanarinka.bsky.social
@valeriodeste.bsky.social
@hessiej.bsky.social
@beckyunions21.bsky.social
@nickscott.digital
@vdignum.bsky.social
@salome.bsky.social
@dana.witchy.business

Spent the morning at Markham Campus of York University talking to incoming Sport Management students.

(Lots of interest in the Sports Law course!)

The campus is really cool. Hung out on the Makr room checking out 3-D printers and our new e-sports lab!!

Thank you!

Another nudge to ease the exodus from Twitter/X:
A starter pack of interdisciplinary voices on Bluesky exploring the intersection between employment relations and labor inequalities.
Feel free to suggest more people to add to the list!

Would love to be added if possible

We all have many new followers since the last couple of days (Hi Everyone!), so I am reposting this blog on “back to office mandates” and overreaching employer authority

@huwthomas.bsky.social @alexjwood.bsky.social @stephross.bsky.social @valeriodeste.bsky.social @eidlin.bsky.social @gencoderrelapalme.bsky.social @kjacobs9.bsky.social are some good names to add.

… that courts and policymakers should do more to ensure that employers’ mandates are reasonable and proportionate. The blog is based on a recent article showing how employer powers are still imbued with authoritarian elements at odds with democratic norms papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Amazon’s office mandate: The hidden power play behind workplace control Amazon’s office mandate exposes workplace power dynamics and the need to rethink employer control.

+ NEW BLOG OUT + Nicola Countouris and I discuss Amazon’s recent “back to office mandate”. This case shows again that employers’ powers, rooted as they are in public law, should be better hold accountable to avoid arbitrariness in democratic societies and… www.socialeurope.eu/amazons-offi...

‘Gig’ workers in Europe: the new platform of rights A presumption of employment and rights on algorithmic management are at the heart of the revived platform-work directive.

Finally #platformwork will be regulated in 🇪🇺 Cringey that the 🇩🇪 & 🇫🇷 governments did not support it.
Read this first assesment by @valeriodeste.bsky.social & Antonio Aloisi
www.socialeurope.eu/gig-workers-...

‘Gig’ workers in Europe: the new platform of rights A presumption of employment and rights on algorithmic management are at the heart of the revived platform-work directive.

The Platform Work Directive introduces a shift of the burden of proof in favor of platform workers, and groundbreaking protections against abusive algorithms at work. Not everything that was needed, but a step forward. A preliminary analysis with Antonio Aloisi www.socialeurope.eu/gig-workers-...

My book on digital labour platforms is now open access - and I will be presenting it in Bristol on Tue 28 Nov, 1pm, in room 2.13, Wills Memorial Building. Here is the link to the book: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/digital-w...

Also a few quotes from yours truly and reference to a special issue co-edited with Virginia Doellgast in this great story about AI surveillance at the workplace

Despite a good across-the-aisle compromise by the EU Parliament, Member States blocked the Platform Work Directive because they couldn’t get EP to agree to watered-down protection. Unsurprising that Conservatives Govs did so; bizarre that liberals & progressives aligned with them, swayed by lobbying

The ILO submitted to the International Court of Justice the documents about its referral re: the protection of the right to strike in International Labour Law (and ILO Conv 87, specifically). This is likely one of the most important labour cases worldwide this century www.icj-cij.org/case/191