Three directors of PostNL have been arrested in Belgium, suspected of human trafficking among other things. Abuses also exist in the Dutch parcel delivery sector. Why does the Netherlands act less firmly?

On Tuesday 22 January 2019, Beryl ter Haar participated in a comparative law lecture featuring labour law cases of the constitutional court of South Africa at the Kutafin State Law University Moscow, Russia. Topics discussed included short term employment contracts, the right to strike and the right…

This week the European Court of Justice ruled that companies in the European Union as of now have to register the amount of hours their employees work. Member States will be responsible for ensuring employers establish such registration systems.

Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour Law, recently spoke at a meeting of experts in Amsterdam on the future of the Dutch incapacity benefit system.

In an attempt to retain employees and tackle shortages in the labour market, some employers are now prepared to go further in offering attractive employment benefits. Dutch news programme 'Nieuwsuur' has discovered that large international companies, like Uber, McKinsey, and Salesforce, are prepared…

Ms. Kollmann, a home care worker in the Netherlands, is demanding pension and unemployment benefits from the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV). An exception in the law means that home carers working for private individuals are not automatically entitled to benefits under social security schemes.

On 13 and Friday 14 July 2017 the International Congress took place in Porto, Portugal. The conference was bilangual with simultaneous translations between English and Portuguese/Spanish. In total there were about 350 participants from 23 different countries, however, most of the participants came from…

Ralph Keuning, the former director of Museum de Fundatie, a museum for the visual arts in Zwolle, stepped down in 2022 following complaints about authoritarian leadership. On top of that, an independent investigation has shown that he received almost €200,000 from the struggling museum after his departure.…

Uit onderzoek van het NRC blijkt dat het salaris van oud-directielid Van Hove, van het inmiddels wegens grensoverschrijdend gedrag op de werkvloer in opspraak geraakte theatergezelschap ITA, bij menigeen de wenkbrauwen doet fronsen. Gerrard Boot, hoogleraar arbeidsrecht, spreekt zich over deze salariskwestie…

On invitation by prof. Nikita Lyutov (Kutafin State Law University Moscow), Beryl ter Haar participated in a kick-off meeting on a comparative research paper on the free movement of workers within the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union held by Kutafin State Law University on the 24th of January 2019…

Social Policy is increasingly incorporated as a subject of European law. The Social Dialogue with labour and management organisations leads to agreements that can be transformed into Directives of the Council

Professor Paul van der Heijden (international labour law Leiden University) has been appointed the honorary Marcel Storme chair at the University of Ghent. The Marcel Storme chair is a rotating professorship at the law faculty of the University of Ghent which according to the regulations is solely…

Donderdag 7 februari is prof. mr. dr. P.F. van der Heijden benoemd tot Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau. Hij kreeg de koninklijke onderscheiding uit handen van minister Koolmees van Sociale Zaken.

Labour law is constantly changing. Concurrently, the laws dealing with workers address fundamental issues which are invariably of major significance and value. The research carried out at the Department of Labour Law and Social Security focusses on both the (constant) changes in labour law and social…

The Dutch temporary bridging measure for self-employed professionals (known as Tozo) was set up to help Dutch self-employed professionals who are experiencing financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last week, the ombudsman announced an investigation into the scheme for the self-employed.…

Self-employed workers’ hours have significantly decreased during the coronavirus crisis. Their average hours worked decreased most at the start of the crisis, by more than five hours per week. And it was difficult to return to their pre-crisis hours in the quarters that followed. This is the conclusion…

For many years, human rights have mostly been a theme where states constituted the most important actors. Influenced by globalisation and the worldwide integration of the economy, multinational corporations have grown to feel more responsible for compliance to human rights.

This PhD research sets out to unravel and explain the socio-structural and cultural impacts of oil-industrialization on the local Bakhtiari community in general and the industrial laborers it provided in specific.

Decent work involves opportunities for work that delivers a fair income, care for occupational health and safety, freedom for people to organize and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. The Labour Law department at Leiden University conducts research and provides education on…

Gerrie Lodder has published an article in the Dutch legal periodical Nederlands Juristenblad on the exploitation of labour migrants from the perspective of human rights.

From 25-27 June 2017 the 3rd Conference of the Labour Law Research Network took place in Toronto, Canada. Beryl ter Haar participated in two panels. The first panel dealt with strike law from a comparative perspective between South Africa, Russia, The Netherlands, and Europe. The contribution of Beryl…

Professor Paul van der Heijden (International Labour Law) has been awarded a grant of 50,000 euros by the city council of The Hague to start building a Business & Human Rights database.

Paul van der Heijden, professor emeritus International Labour Law, was recently appointed by the British Minister for Trade as an independent arbitrator under the dispute settlement provisions of the United Kingdom’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Japan.

In store is now the Research Handbook on Labour, Business and Human Rights Law edited by prof. Janice Bellace of the University of Pennsylvania and ass. prof. Beryl ter Haar of Leiden University. The book is publisehd in Edward Elgars series on Human Rights.

The labour market has seen significant changes in recent decades, not least in terms of greater flexibility and digitisation. Leiden University is keen to prepare students for a working life in which flexibility, resilience and adaptability will be essential qualities. The university’s vision on teaching…

The key subject of the research programme Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence 1500-now (CMGI) is Inequality (at local, national and global levels). We study this from an intersectional perspective: gender, class, ethnicity or race, religion, sexuality, age, ability/disability, citizenship and…

Due to an exception in the law, domestic workers employed by private persons cannot automatially benefit from social security schemes. Home help Carol Kollmann did not agree with this and took her case to court.

In 2014, the Dutch Ministry of Defence received signals from employees and former employees suspecting that they had become ill from working with chrome paint and CARC. Among them, former and current employees who had previously worked at the former American storage sites (POMS-sites). As a response,…

Kees Goudswaard has been appointed as a board member of the GAK Institute on 1 October.

This question was discussed on the Dutch NPO Radio 1 broadcast with Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour Law. On 4 September, Americans celebrate Labor Day, a day on which the hard-working American takes centre stage.

The UN is highly critical of the Netherlands over the effect of its Work and Income (Capacity for Work) Act (WIA). Contrary to agreements, workers who are less than 35% incapacitated for work receive no benefits and the income of their partner is taken into account when they apply for welfare benefits.…

North Korean labourers are still being forced to work in the European Union. According to researchers, including Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker at Leiden University, Dutch companies are buying ships from a dockyard that uses North Korean workers.

Beryl ter Haar is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland. The Law School is the oldest part of the university (founded in 1808), followed by the School of Medicine (founded one year later). The two schools became the heart of Warsaw University which was founded in 1816 by…

On 23 March 2023 Weidong Zhang defended his thesis in Leiden on achieving decent work in China. This research analyses to what extent China is achieving decent work based on a case study of decent working time. The word ‘achieving’ underlines that China is still in the process of securing this aim.…

The programma structure of the advanced master International Children's Rights of Leiden University can be found on this page.

22 September 2017 the second biannual conference took place organised by IAAEU of the University of Trier and the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute of Frankfurt. The theme of the conference was the European Pillar of Social Rights. Under the heading of the conference’s title, International Labour Law as a stimulus…

Comparing Mycenaean tomb building with labour and memory

Career and apply for jobs

Throughout the world fundamental labour rights in supply chains are being violated. Since the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh shook the world, we can no longer turn our heads away.

Master's students in labour law Just Bakker and Tess van der Putten are to participate in the prestigious Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court Competition. This EU Labour Law competition will take place in Vienna from 20 to 23 June 2024.

A discussion is currently being held about whether a demonstrating policy official employed by the Municipality of The Hague, who is also a local councillor in Rijswijk, can remain in office after she participated in Extinction Rebellion’s recent climate protest. The VVD party in The Hague claims this…

The research report by the independent committee on the future of the work disability system in the Netherlands ('Onafhankelijke Commissie Toekomst Arbeidsongeschiktheidsstelsel' (Octas)) was published this week. While the number of people unable to work has dropped considerably, the system is still…

A civil servant in the Zuidplas municipality stole a saddle from an old bicycle from the municipal waste depot. Although the theft concerned an item of little value, the subdistrict court agreed with the municipality's decision to dismiss the employee with immediate effect. Lecturer in employment law…

Rose Horstman bewerkte haar scriptie tot een artikel met de titel ‘de L-factor’ over de rol die de leeftijd van een werknemer speelt bij de begroting van de billijke vergoeding. De billijke vergoeding is een financiële tegemoetkoming die onder bijzondere omstandigheden bij ontslag wordt verstrekt.

Human trafficking is a very topical social problem, which because of both its social and legal complexity, can only be studied in an interdisciplinary way. Combating human trafficking currently features high on national and international policy agendas.

Opportunities and challenges of digitalisation, the platform economy, and flexibilisation of European labour markets.

For many years, human rights have been considered a playing field in which states were the most important actors. It is they who in multilateral relations, such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have written international…