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8 Eur. Lab. L.J. 3 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/eulalaj8 and id is 1 raw text is: 




                                                                     ELLJ

                                                                       European Labour Law journal
                                                                              2017, Vol. 8(I) 3-4
Editorial                                                                  ©@ The Author(s) 2017
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                                                                    DOI: 10. 1177/2031952517711036
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                                                                                  OSAGE




At the time of writing this editorial, the Spanish Uber-drivers case is pending before the Court of
Justice of the European Union (C-434-15 - Uber Spain, App. 16/10/15). The question before the
Court is not whether these drivers are employees or not, as the referral deals rather with services
and transport law issues. Nevertheless, after the decision of an English employment tribunal
(Aslam &  Farrar v. Uber, Case n' 2202550/2015), which held that Uber-drivers are employees,
it can be expected that there will be a spill-over effect of this case in the labour law field. A Dutch
tribunal in The Netherlands, dealing with a taxi licence discussion (College van Beroep, 8 Dec
2014, Case AWB   14/726), for example reasoned about Uber activities that Uber and the individual
drivers have an intended and close cooperation, in which Uber plays an important role. The fact
that Uber does not provide cars itself and is not a party to the transport agreement, does not matter.
Uber, furthermore, selects the drivers and gives them access to the application through which the
contact with the passengers is realized. Uber, the Dutch tribunal continues, determines the prices
for the transport and the payment of a ride goes through the Uber app via a by Uber selected
payment  service. These reasonings, operated in an economic law case, will be equally valuable and
relevant in an employment case. So, therefore, the European Court's forthcoming decision, and the
Advocate-General's Opinion  in the meanwhile, will be interesting.
   In our current issue, we have included various academic contributions drawing on national,
comparative and European wide debate. Vivian Bij de Vaate discusses changes in dismissal law in
different European countries, such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The reforms in these
countries all aimed at greater flexibility and creating some form of legal certainty. The interesting
finding of this article shows that in order to successfully encourage early settlements of dismissal
claims, a reduction in substantive dismissal protection seems to be required. Margarite Helena
Zoeteweij-Turhan   discusses the seasonal workers Directive, which entered into force in 2014.
This directive is, as well known, a key instrument in the broader migration discussion. A point of
discussion is the position of third-country nationals who come as seasonal workers. They are
entitled to equal treatment with nationals of the host Member State. However, the author concludes
that, taking into account the limited scope of the Directive, there remain many rights gaps between
different groups of migrant workers and between  non-EU   migrant workers and  EU  citizens.
Vincenzo  Pietrogiovanni  and Andrea  lossa discuss the issue of workers' representation and
labour conflict at company level, taken from an Italian and Swedisch comparative perspective.
The authors evaluate the recent trends in Italian industrial relations and highlight the clash between
Italian constitutional principles and the autonomous development of self-regulation and collective
bargaining. Katayoun Alidadi deals with the law on labour market discrimination in the context of
religion and unemployment benefits. She shows that it is not a pure labour law discussion only, as
there is a lot of interaction between labour law and social security law provisions. The dismissal of

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