Current Externally-Funded Projects
DFG Research Project on the Topic: "The right to adequate remuneration for solo-entrepreneurs”
In April 2022, the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG” (German Research Foundation) approved funding for a German-Austrian research project in the D-A-CH Lead Agency Process on the topic “The right to adequate remuneration for solo-entrepreneurs”. The project leaders are Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Monika Schlachter and Dr. Thomas Klein (both working at the IAAEU), in cooperation with Dr. Karin Lukas from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights in Vienna.
The project aims to take a closer look at the situation of the solo-entrepreneurs, who, due to their weak negotiating position, are unable to negotiate appropriate terms of contract with their contractual partners in order to protect themselves from labour exploitation and to achieve an adequate standard of living. For this purpose, international and European human rights law standards, in relation to the rights of solo-entrepreneurs and their implementation in Austrian and German law, will be analysed, and possible tensions between international obligations and EU Law will be highlighted. The project focuses on four objectives:
Contact
Dr. Thomas Klein
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(+49)651 / 201 - 4746
- Identifying the international and European human rights obligations of states to protect the solo-entrepreneurs and possible approaches to prevent their exploitation
- Analyzing the implementation of international human rights obligations to protect the solo-entrepreneurs at national level in Austria and Germany
- Assessing the implementation of international human rights obligations in line with EU Law
- Developing targeted legal recommendations to improve the situation of solo-entrepreneurs in accordance with international human rights and EU law
Contact
Dr. Thomas Klein
(+49)651 / 201 - 4746
Project by the “Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung“ (Foundation for the Promotion of Science): Whistleblowing in Labour Law - The Whistleblower Protection Directive of the European Union, Need for Implementation in German Law under Consideration of Data Protection Aspects and Protection of Trade Secrets
The director of the legal working group of the IAAEU, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Monika Schlachter, received approval for a third-party funded project by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for the promotion of science in June 2020. The project deals with the protection of whistleblowers from the perspective of labour law, especially with the requirements of implementing the European directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union Law (Whistleblower Protection Directive). A particular focus is on the implications of data and trade secret protection. The project has a duration of 2 years and the funding amount is € 40,000. These funds will mainly be used to finance the position of a research assistant, who will particularly investigate the need for implementation in German law.
Contact
Thomas Lehnart
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(+49) 651/ 201 - 4763
Contact
Thomas Lehnart
(+49) 651/ 201 - 4763
The IAAEU Secures a Third-Party Project: Crowdsourcing as a New Form of Labour Organisation
The directors of the IAAEU, Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Monika Schlachter and Prof. Dr. Laszlo Goerke, as well as Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf, were able to secure a third-party funded project from the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" (German Research Foundation, DFG) in August 2017. The project deals with crowdsourcing as a new form of labour organisation and specifically focuses on the regulatory requirements and welfare effects of crowdsourcing. The research project is scheduled to run for 3 years and the funding amounts to approximately €460,000. These funds will be used primarily to finance three research associates who will examine the economic and legal aspects of crowdsourcing. The economic part of the research project is mainly supervised by Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf, who switched to a professorship at the University of Bremen on October 1st, 2017.
Contact
Dr. Thomas Klein
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(+49) 651 / 201 - 4746
Contact
Dr. Thomas Klein
(+49) 651 / 201 - 4746
Completed Externally-Funded Projects
European Database Projects
Since 1997, the legal team of the IAAEU has been compiling a list of references from journal articles and judicial decisions on European labour law. This collection served as an important information system for comparative legal research.
Working Beyond the Legal Retirement Age
The funding for the research project was approved in 2014 by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" (German Research Foundation, DFG) for a period of 24 months. It dealt with the question of whether and how the rigid legal retirement age in German law could be replaced by flexible regulations in order to enable employment even after retirement age and thus be able to take better account of the requirements of demographic change. Here, the legal framework conditions in working time legislation, right of termination, right of limitation and right of discrimination were examined and analysed on the basis of national legal systems, following the example of the success Nordic countries had with this method. The results were presented in several publications and lectures. The project was supported by the "Elder Law" working group at Lund University and by Prof. Niklas Bruun, University of Helsinki.
Publications:
Publications:
- M. Schlachter: Reasonable Accommodation for Continued Employment of Older Workers, in: Festskift till Ann Numhauser-Henning, Juristförlaget i Lund 2017, 737-749.
- M. Schlachter/A. Vaitkeviciute: Working Beyond The Legal Retirement Age: The Legal Situation in Finland, in: EuZA 2015, 283-30.
Labour Disputes in Public Services
The comparative legal research project was funded by the "German Israeli Foundation" and carried out in cooperation with the collaborator Prof. Mordehai Mironi from the University of Haifa. Due to international participation, it presented various possibilities of how a balance between the interests of the companies, those of the "general public" and the labour disputes of the employees could be implemented in practice. On the basis of international safeguards of labour disputes as a human right (ILO, UN, Council of Europe), the current conflicts in various countries were presented, a distinction concerning the companies of "public services" was made in all participating countries and the possibilities how to limit strikes were classified. The final goal was to prepare information on the actual use of limitations on labour disputes and the legal framework upon which those limitations are built and to do this in such a way that the governments who wish to discuss new avenues of regulation have access to the comparative research upon which they can base those discussions.
The results of the research project were published in the following monograph:
The results of the research project were published in the following monograph:
- M. Mironi/ M. Schlachter: Regulating Strikes in Essential Services - A Comparative "Law in Action" Perspective, Wolters Kluwer 2018.
