work

The idea of a 4-day working week has already captured minds in many places around Europe. Like UBI, it is a devilishly sweet temptation that is almost impossible to resist.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said at Davos that Slovakia could become a country that will experiment with a four-day working week. It is a flattering topic and so several media immediately picked up on it.

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute, together with its partners Free Trade Europa and law firm TGS Baltic, is holding a roundtable discussion to discuss new forms of work that have been created via digitalization and the changing nature of employment that is being sought by platforms and individuals alike. 

Social policy can be seen from a fragmented perspective with a purpose to justify growing costs of welfare and ideological battles against the free market economy. Such policies try to advocate limits of the market economy or even undermine its role, for the sake of making ‘progress’ in changing the economic system.

The term \"wage\" and its size are very important in national discussions about labor markets, taxes and insurance payments, but also part of international comparisons for investors deciding to build a factory or to place investments in a specific country. A lot of confusion has been created by the introduction of gross wage with arbitrary distinction between \"employee paid\" and \"employer paid\" taxes and contributions.

A second initiative to collect signatures to support a petition calling for an unconditional, universal basic income (UBI) for all citizens in the European Union (EU) has ended. The required one million signatures were never reached. Why?

The solutions to combat inflation that Danuše Nerudová proposes are not good ones. A price cap on energy can lead to nothing but shortages. Financially incentivizing households and industry to reduce energy consumption is useless in a world of market prices.

The special purpose law on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine should take into account the demand for recognition of a significant range of professional qualifications acquired in Ukraine.

We are yet to find out what the nitty-gritty of the EC’s proposal will be, but the general idea is to make people operating via digital platforms, such as ride-hailing drivers and food delivery couriers, reclassify as workers.

The media have experienced a recurring tide of reports about the four-day working week. The topic plays on the right strings - most people are employees and work five days a week.