LABOUR LAW AND CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK: LESSONS FOR ADVANCING MACEDONIAN LABOUR LEGISLATION AND ITS APPLICATION IN PRACTICE
Venue: Ohrid, Hotel “Metropol”
Date: May 29-30, 2025
The world of work has been facing profound changes for several decades now, which are emerging under the influence of globalization, new forms of organization of business and production processes and business models, and technological innovations fueled by increased digitalization, automatization, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic management.
Changes in the world of work are also deeply affecting the unreformed Macedonian labour law and legislation. Is the personal coverage of persons (workers) established in the existing regulations in the field of labour law and social insurance broad enough to cover all workers in need of adequate protection? Should and what regulatory measures should the long-awaited Labour Relations Law introduce in terms of combating informal employment and work, and what are the prospects for establishing new non-standard forms of work aimed at formalising certain informal arrangements and reducing the precarious position of workers? How to remove legal obstacles and encourage the employment and work engagement of young workers (including workers under the age of 18), while taking into account their dignified working conditions? To what extent do modern technologies affect the ways in which employers exercise their managerial, normative and disciplinary prerogatives in the employment relationship and how do employers exercise these prerogatives when labour legislation does not define internal general regulations, nor does it determine their content, manner of adoption and relation to other sources of labour law, in particular collective agreements? Does the existing legal regime of working hours establish clear boundaries between workers’ professional and private time; does it provide mechanisms for control and protection against excessively long working hours, and to what extent does it enable and encourage flexible and innovative forms of working hours organisation in the interest of workers and employers? Does the legal framework for pregnancy and maternity protection and the measures and policies of leave from work intercept the increasingly stressed demands and objectives for a better work-life balance and greater gender equality not only in the sphere of employment and employment relationship, but also in the sphere of performing unpaid care work in the family and other household chores? Do changes in the world of work, and above all, the increased use of algorithmic management, the use of a large amount of workers’ personal data in the employment relationship, and the increased prevalence of various non-standard forms of employment, require both changes and adjustments in the legal framework for regulating termination of employment and workers’ dismissal protection? What steps should the new labour legislation take to address the problems and challenges related to strengthening the freedom of association and the workers’ right to organise and collective bargaining? These are just some of the more current issues, dilemmas and challenges that affect the individual and collective aspects of the employment relationship and which are expected to be addressed by the new labour legislation of North Macedonia.
Considering the above, the Association for Labour and Social Law of North Macedonia (ZTSP) issues a Call for submission of a topic (paper title and abstract) for participation in the Annual Conference, pertained to all interested theorists, practitioners and researchers from the country and beyond. The topic can be submitted via the electronic form at the following link (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScprN2yE1Lycxvz6r7t_RnMUVXyqHeOd08yQ_x9Gy-HeDRTRA/viewform?usp=sharing) or by e-mail ztspsm@gmail.com with the following subject: Submission of topic for participation in the Annual International Conference of the ZTSP. The selected and submitted topic should as closely as possible correspond to the above issues and dilemmas of interest to the forthcoming reforms of the Macedonian labour legislation, i.e. to the broader title of the changes in the world of work and global, comparative and national labour law responses to such changes. The topic (paper title and abstract) and the final paper should be submitted in Macedonian or English. As a rule, the working languages of the conference are Macedonian and/or English. As an exception, the presentation can also be delivered in other languages similar to Macedonian that are understandable to the audience.
The deadline for submission of topics (paper titles and abstracts) is March 28, 2025, and for sending final papers is September 15, 2025.
Final papers should be sent to the following e-mail address: ztspsm@gmail.com
Guidelines for writing the papers can be found on the following link (https://trudovopravo.mk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Guidelines-for-authors-2023.pdf).
The papers will be presented in the program part of the Conference, titled as “conference session”. In addition, a number of activities with different concepts and content will be held, which will include: promotion of a scientific monograph, panel discussions on current issues of labour legislation and its application in practice, and other contents. Each session or panel will be followed by sufficient time for an interactive discussion with opportunity to ask questions and engaging participants and guests in a fruitful scientific and professional discussion. The papers and other contents of the Conference will be published in the Macedonian scientific and professional journal of labour and social law “World of Work” (https://trudovopravo.mk/chasopis/).
The organization of the ZTSP Annual Conference and the printing of the publication are supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
President of ZTSP,
Prof. Todor Kalamatiev, PhD
