Property, Tourism & Transportation

Qantas Airways fired 1,700 ground staff in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced the workers with outside contractors to cut costs. The Transport Workers’ Union took the airline to court over violations of the Fair Work Act, which protects employee rights. After three years, the Australian High Court ruled that Qantas’s action was illegal. Read More

In the 1980s, the UK government deregulated and privatized bus systems all over the country under a belief that greater competition would introduce greater efficiency. However the opposite happened - prices rose and service quality declined. Read More

Boipeba, an idyllic island in Bahia state, has some of Brazil’s most beautiful beaches. Mangaba Cultivo de Coco bought up a fifth of the island to turn it into a hotel resort threatening the local traditional community and ecology. Read More

Ramalingam Murugan, a migrant worker from Tamil Nadu, India, was employed by ship repair company Rigel Marine Services in Singapore. In January 2021, he fell off a company lorry and fractured his leg. Read More

Bayern Munich, Germany’s most famous soccer team, ended its 5-year sponsorship contract with Qatar Airways, after fans spoke out strongly about human and migrant worker abuses in Qatar. Human rights groups say the Qatari government (which owns the airline) turned a blind eye to abuses during the massive construction spree for the 2022 World Cup tournament. Read More

Erik Adolph, an UberEats food delivery driver in California, sued Uber in 2019 for failing to pay work-related expenses. The company argued that drivers aren’t employees and so they aren’t eligible for expenses. Uber also argued that the drivers signed contracts agreeing not to sue. The California Supreme Court ruled that such contracts violated the worker’s legal rights. Read More

Próspera, a company based in the U.S. state of Delaware, has invoked an investor-state dispute settlement treaty to try to force the government of Honduras to pay US$11 billion for outlawing the company’s plan to operate a privately run city on the island of Roatán. Read More

Residents of Dubrovnik, a coastal town in Croatia, have been fighting Razvoj Golf’s proposed €1 billion luxury golf resort since 2010. After the project was annulled by a Croatian court in 2016, the company sued Croatia in a World Bank arbitration tribunal for US$500 million. In May 2023, the tribunal ruled against Razvoj Golf. Read More

The United States is the only wealthy country that does not guarantee paid sick leave. By contrast France offers 21 days a year and Germany offers up to 84 weeks of paid sick leave at 70 percent of salary. So, when 5,000 workers at the U.S. rail giant CSX negotiated a guarantee for four paid days of sick leave a year, the unions rejoiced at the ‘significant accomplishment.’ Read More

Singapore Airlines has changed its policy of requiring air stewardesses to resign before the end of their first trimester of pregnancy. Instead, pregnant staff will be allowed to apply for jobs on the ground and provided with 16 weeks of paid maternity leave after giving birth. Read More