Government plans significant changes to labour legislation For some time the government and labour market organisations have been trying, without success, to agree on reforms to employment rights in Finland. Now, in an attempt to break the deadlock,...

The Supreme Court judgment in the Alstom case In the ALSTOM case, the judgment of the Supreme Court (No 3-2-1-80-15) dated 21 September 2015 deals with how to make a claim for employment litigation costs. In addition, the judgment explains the damag...

Determining exempted employment categoriesAustrian employment law exempts certain  part-time employment from payment of health, pension and unemployment insurance contributions. In 2015 the maximum monthly salary is EUR 405.98 per month or EUR ...

Court expands discrimination lawThe CJEU has ruled that EU law covers indirect discrimination by association - a decision which expands the reach of discrimination law. It decided that an individual may claim indirect discrimination under the EU Rac...

Introduction to Abu Dhabi Global Market – Employment Regulations In 2013 the Abu Dhabi Global Market (“ADGM”) was established as a financial free zone in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Since then, the ADGM has implemented its own rules and regul...

Labour Brokers and Clients: The Assigned roles of Employers In recent years South Africa has experienced progressively stricter regulation on the use of labour brokers (also known as employment agencies in some other jurisdictions - placing workers ...

Working hours in Hong Kong Some employers are surprised to learn that (save for rules regarding children, young persons in industrial undertakings, statutory holidays and rest days) there is no regulatory framework restricting or monitoring standard...

A digital age of evidence in employment disputes In China, when an employer wishes to terminate an employee’s employment, the burden of proof falls on the employer to show that the statutory grounds for justifying the termination have been met...

Reform of section 2103 of the Italian civil code, concerning modification of work duties Section. 3 of law decree no. 81 of 2015 significantly amended section 2103 of Italian civil code. In its original form the rule set out that “an employee ...

Working after pensionable age – new legislation takes effect Over the coming years the Dutch pensionable age (currently 65) is set to increase gradually, in order to offset the costs associated with an ageing population. By 2021 the pension ag...

Changes to fixed term (definite term) employment contracts On 22 February 2016, an amendment to the Labour Code on definite period employment contracts will come into force. This amendment will introduce new rules allowing an employer to conclude no...

Court extends flexible working rights under the Spanish Constitution?In a recent case involving a request for flexible working, the court found in favor of the employee by granting his request for a flexible starting time, relying on Article 39 of t...

Amendment to the Labour Code and the Employment Act On 1 October 2015, amendments to the Czech Labour Code and the Employment Act came into effect and brought about substantial changes to Czech labour law, affecting most employers in the Czech Repub...

Swiss working time regulations simplified for higher ranked employees On 1 January 2016, new articles 73a and 73b of the Swiss Ordinance relating to the Labour Law Act (OLLA1) entered into force. Reflecting the reality of today’s work life, th...

Major new anti-slavery law affecting global organisations doing business in the UK in force The Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires commercial organisations with a turnover of £36 million and above and supplying goods or services to publicly repo...

Important EU data protection changes are a step nearerAfter years in the offing, the EU Parliament, Council and Commission representatives have reached political agreement on the drafting of the new EU data protection framework. Although minor modif...

UAE employers be aware - new UAE employment requirementsThree new Ministerial Decrees came into effect on 1 January 2016. These Decrees, issued by the Ministry of Labour (“MOL”), impact upon the way job offers are made and have implicati...

Ministry of Labour makes numerous labour law changes The Ministry of Labour made a number of changes to labour law with effect from 18 October 2015. Amongst other things, the amendments cover disciplinary procedures, training, Saudization privileges...

New requirement to issue itemised payslips and key employment terms With effect from 1 April 2016, all Singapore employers will be required to issue itemised payslips and key employment terms to employees covered under the Singapore Employment Act. ...

Latest developments in temporary employment (agency or leased workers) In Germany, the provision of temporary personnel is strictly regulated by the German Law on Labour Leasing Act (AÜG). The principle is straightforward: the agency is the emp...

2016 – A new year and a new employment claims system in Ireland 2015 brought a number of changes to the Irish employment law landscape. The most significant change was the introduction of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 (the “Act”...

Increase in parental leave days Swedish parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave when a child is born or adopted. In principle, each parent is entitled to 240 days’ leave, some of which is available exclusively for that parent&...

Private sector wage increasesAn increase of 6% has been agreed for private sector pay, following a negotiation between the UGTT and UTICA. This agreement provides for an increase of 6% on basic salary, plus an increase in the transport allowance by ...

A number of employment law changes have taken effect at the start of 2016… Increased fines for unfulfilled employment quotas Employers with more than 25 employees must employ at least one employee with a disability for every 25 employees in t...

Supreme Court rulings on fixed term and overtime work In its recent rulings, the Supreme Court of Estonia has clarified appropriate compensation for the early termination of a fixed term employment contract and also how to determine overtime work wh...

Prescription (the lapse of arbitration awards) in employment  There have been a number of conflicting judgments dealing with the prescription of arbitration awards and how the term “debt” should be defined in the employment arena. ...

New legislation on occupational accidents and diseasesThe Act on occupational accidents and occupational diseases (459/2015) came into force on 1 January 2016. By combining the earlier three Acts on occupational accidents and diseases into one, the ...

Compulsory provision of health insurance by employers in FranceThe safeguarding of employees’ wellbeing is a key focus of French employment legislation. From biannual consultations with employees to evaluate the psychological impacts of their ...

More flexibility for group companies to enforce proprietary rights and restrictions against employees? The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance (Cap. 623) (the “Ordinance”) came into force in Hong Kong on 1 January 2016. The Ord...

FSA survey on AIFMD – aiming to provide support to AIFMs On 11 March 2013, the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) published new web-pages on the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”), including an o...

On 19 March, the Financial Services Authority published its much anticipated second consultation on AIFMD: “Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive” – CP 13/9. The FSA paper came hot on the heels of HM ...

On 25 March, HMRC published a briefing on the tax treatment of payments of trail commission which is rebated to investors in collective investment schemes and other investment products such as life insurance policies. The briefing relates to any reb...

In our previous briefing we reported on HMRC’s recent briefing on the tax treatment of payments of trail commission rebated to...

The Community Right to Bid has now been in place for half a decade and whilst its impact has perhaps not been as significant as first thought it has undoubtedly had an impact on assets linked to higher education institutions such as playing fields, ...

Encouraging settlement of employment disputes outside of the courts and tribunal system remains the cornerstone of employment legislation.  It also remains the case that the vast majority of parties resolve employment disputes without the ne...

Encouraging settlement of employment disputes outside of the courts and tribunal system remains the cornerstone of employment legislation.  It also remains the case that the vast majority of parties resolve employment disputes without the ne...

On 1 October 2005, the statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures were one year old. The procedures were introduced when the Employment Act (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 (the Regulations) came into force on 1 October 2004. As we reporte...

For the past 14 months, cases clarifying the complex statutory dispute resolution procedures have been eagerly awaited. Our patience has been rewarded by a sudden flurry of cases all of which deal with the statutory grievance procedures (SGPs). In t...

The first EAT decision on the statutory grievance procedures (SGPs), Thorpe v Poat and Lake was reported in briefing 232. Hot on its heels come four further EAT decisions ( Sher...

The extent to which payments in lieu of notice (PILONs) may attract tax has for a long time been a complex issue and one which has not always received consistent treatment by HM Revenue and Customs. The issue is straightforward if the payment is ma...

Amicable terminations: a new way to terminate ?   Apart from dismissal and resignation, French law provides for a third way to end an employment contract: the amicable termination. However, this way is rarely encountered in practice, especiall...

Protection against unfair dismissal during the probationary period Introduction The key sources of Swiss labour law are to be found in Arts. 319 - 362 of the Swiss Code of Obligations and in the Swiss Federal Labour Act. In comparison to most othe...

Background The Employment Bill is currently on its passage through Parliament and will, when enacted, have a significant impact on dispute resolution within the employment relationship. It is anticipated that relevant provisions within the Bill wil...

The repeal of the fated statutory dispute resolution procedures moved a step closer last week when ACAS issued, in draft, a revised Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance for consultation.  The Code has been significantly amended and simp...

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has this morning given a ruling that represents a significant victory for the charity Age Concern in their fight to have certain parts of UK age discrimination legislation ruled unlawful. As expected, the ECJ has...

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