consilium.europa.eu (11.03.2024) EU employment and social affairs ministers confirmed the provisional agreement reached on 8 February 2024 between the Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the platform work directive. This EU legal act aims to improve working conditions and regulate the use of algorithms by digital labour platforms. The directive will make the use of algorithms in human resources management more transparent, ensuring that automated systems are monitored by qualified staff and that workers have the right to contest automated decisions.

Swiss voters have given themselves an extra month's pension each year - in a nationwide referendum focusing on living standards for the elderly. The government had warned that the increased payments would be too expensive to afford. But almost 60% of voters said 'yes' in Sunday's poll. Separately, 75% rejected raising the pension age from 65 to 66. The maximum monthly state pension is €2,550 (£2,180; $2,760) - not enough, many say, to live on in Switzerland.

ilo.org (31.12.2023) This paper discusses the expansion or penetration of digital economic activity in the context of developing economies, and what this may mean for economic or structural transformations for countries in the global South. We ask what possibilities new jobs and forms of work in the digital economy hold – in particular platform work – for the productive transformation of economies in ways that contribute to achieving the goals of human, inclusive and sustainable development. What are the impacts on work and workers in this process?

la-croix.com (03.03.2024) La Suisse, dont la population vieillissante est confrontée à un coût de la vie en hausse, a voté dimanche en faveur d'un 13ème mois de retraite, un pas "historique" selon ses défenseurs, mais a rejeté le relèvement de l'âge du départ.

bnnbreaking.com (26.02.2024) The World Bank recommends mandatory retirement savings for digital platform workers in Malaysia to safeguard informal workers in the gig economy. Explore the challenges faced by informal workers and the government's response to ensure economic security.

cornell.edu (05.02.2024) The Future of India’s Social Safety Nets: Focus, Form, and Scope explains how an array of social welfare programs (comprising the safety net) have emerged as a leitmotif of social policy in independent India and explores the key challenges and scope for innovations in redesigning India’s social safety net system for the future. This open-access book provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s safety net by combining insights from a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship on economic development, social protection, and the social policy process.

radiofrance.fr -Esther Duflo (26.02.2024) Depuis 2018, le Kenya expérimente le revenu de base garanti. Une expérience qui, non seulement n'a pas créé d'oisiveté, mais en plus a permis aux bénéficiaires de s'émanciper. Ils ont investi, sont devenus plus entreprenants et ont gagné davantage.

ILO Working paper 108 (19.02.2024) Youth employment challenges are always a critical concern for policymakers. There is recurring and mounting evidence that labour market challenges, such as unemployment, informality, lack of social protection and inactivity, disproportionately affect youths.

TIME (19.02.2024) Some 24.5% of South Koreans aged 70 and above were still working as of January, local media reported Monday, as officials increasingly look to keep more elderly in the workforce to address a demographic crisis. Elderly employment figures have seen a steady increase since the country’s statistics authority started to collect the data in 2005.  South Korea is projected to become the world’s most aged by 2044 and the number of people in their 70s exceeded those in their 20s for the first time ever last year.

OECD (19.02.2024) In many countries, public expenditure, including transfers, plays a major role in reducing income inequality. The report reviews the various ways that budgeting can be used to this end. A first includes taking a broad approach to results-based budgeting, taking social and distributional goals into consideration. A second relies on integrating distributional impact analysis directly into the budget process.