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Case Reports |
2020/52 An employer cannot compel an employee, without notice, to take deferred annual leave (FR) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Paid Leave |
Authors | Claire Toumieux and Susan Ekrami |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Case Reports |
2020/49 Employing the former employees of a former service provider represents transfer of undertakings (RO) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Transfer of Undertakings |
Authors | Andreea Suciu and Teodora Manaila |
AbstractAuthor's information |
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Case Reports |
2020/50 Transfer-related contractual changes void even if beneficial for employees (UK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Transfer of Undertakings, Employment Terms |
Authors | Lisa Dafydd |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that the provision under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) which renders changes to employees’ terms and conditions void if they are made because of the transfer applies to changes that are advantageous as well as detrimental to employees. On the facts of the case, this meant that owner-directors who had made significant improvements to their own employment terms before a TUPE transfer could not enforce these against the transferee employer. |
Case Reports |
2020/47 The Danish Supreme Court decides on reversed burden of proof (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Gender Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Supreme Court recently held that an employer had discharged the reversed burden of proof in a case concerning a physiotherapist who was dismissed shortly after her return from maternity leave. |
Case Reports |
2020/45 Non-Seafarers Work Clause: contributing to better employment conditions or not? (NL) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Unions, Miscellaneous |
Authors | Erick Hagendoorn |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In a summary proceeding, the Court of Rotterdam has held that it is not clear whether the Non-Seafarers Work Clause, prohibiting lashing work on board of container ships being carried out by the crew, does indeed contribute to better employment and/or working conditions of seafarers. As a result of which the Clause – at this time – cannot be held to be outside the scope of competition law and the claim for compliance with the provision has been rejected. In the media, unions have stated that they will continue to enforce compliance with the Non-Seafarers Work Clause. It remains to be seen whether a court in main proceedings will reach a similar verdict. |
Case Reports |
2020/51 Compensating untaken leave in case of termination without good cause – preliminary questions asked (AT) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Paid Leave |
Authors | Maria Schedle |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Austrian Supreme Court has asked preliminary questions about the lawfulness of Section 10(2) of the Austrian Law on Annual Leave which stipulates that an employee is not entitled to an allowance in lieu of annual leave in respect to the current (last) working year if they terminate the employment relationship prematurely without good cause. |
Case Reports |
2020/48 Norwegian parental benefits provisions disadvantaging men found outside the scope of Equal Treatment Directive (NO) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Parental Leave, Gender Discrimination |
Authors | Jonas Thorsdalen Wik and Dag Sørlie Lund |
AbstractAuthor's information |
On 13 December 2019 the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court held that a national provision that renders a father’s entitlement to parental benefits during a shared period of leave dependent on the mother’s situation, but not vice versa, fell outside the scope of Directive 2006/54/EC (the Equal Treatment Directive) since it did not concern “employment and working conditions” within the meaning of Article 14(1)(c) of that Directive. The action brought by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) was thus dismissed. The Court consequently did not consider whether the Norwegian rules amounted to unlawful discrimination under the Directive. Furthermore, no assessment was made as to the potential breach with the general principle of equality of gender under EEA law, as this had not been pleaded by ESA. |
Case Reports |
2020/46 Interim relief granted for employee who used union to lodge grievance over coronavirus measures (UK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Unions, Unfair Dismissal |
Authors | David Hopper |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This case involved an employee who claimed that he was unfairly dismissed for using a trade union to bring a grievance over measures his employer had taken on account of the coronavirus pandemic. The Employment Tribunal (ET) found that he was likely to be able to show at the full hearing of the case that this was an automatically unfair dismissal on grounds of his trade union membership or activities. It awarded the remedy of ‘interim relief’, ordering the employer immediately to reinstate him pending the full trial of the matter. The ET’s decision might signal a potential rise in claims for interim relief in future cases. |
Case Reports |
2020/23 The Supreme Court reiterates the importance of retention of an organizational and functional link between the business factors transferred, a prerequisite in the existence of a transfer of undertaking (GR) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Transfer of undertakings, Transfer |
Authors | Effie Mitsopoulou |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Greek Supreme Court, in a case about the transfer of a business and the obligation on the transferee to continue employing the transferred employees, underlined the importance of a thorough and genuine control on all factors to be taken into consideration in order to conclude on the existence of a transfer of undertaking or not: the business transferred must retain an autonomous economic identity, in the sense that the functional link between the different factors transferred is retained, thus allowing the new entity to use them in order to exercise an economic activity identical or similar to the previous one. |
Case Reports |
2020/18 Prohibition of dismissal of pregnant employee (RO) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Gender discrimination |
Authors | Andreea Suciu and Teodora Mănăilă |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Analysing the national legal framework in relation to the protection of pregnant employees and employees who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding, provisions which transposed the regulations of Directive 92/85/EEC and of the conclusions in case C-103/16, Jessica Porras Guisado – v – Bankia S.A. and Others, the Constitutional Court of Romania ascertained that the dismissal prohibition of a pregnant employee is strictly restricted to reasons that have a direct connection with the employee’s pregnancy status. As for other cases where the termination of the employment contract is the result of disciplinary misconduct, unexcused absence from work, non-observance of labour discipline, or termination of employment for economic reasons or collective redundancies, the employer must submit in writing well-reasoned grounds for dismissal. |
The Greek Supreme Court in Plenary Session, in a long-awaited decision, has ruled that an employee who has not been able to exercise his right to annual leave due to long-term sick leave is still entitled to his paid annual leave as well as to annual leave allowance. |
Case Reports |
2020/24 Transfer of actual control decisive for a transfer of undertaking, despite limited transfer of assets (NL) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Transfer of Undertakings, Transfer |
Authors | Zef Even and Eva Poutsma |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Within the context of a transfer of undertaking in an asset reliant group of companies, the court should not just focus on whether the assets have been transferred between the two separate group companies, but also on whether one group company had actual control over the operation of the other group company. |
Case Reports |
2020/26 Entitlement to allowance in lieu of untaken paid annual leave had lapsed because of garden leave (NL) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Paid Leave |
Authors | Lisa de Vries and Jan-Pieter Vos |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Applying the ECJ’s Maschek judgment, the Zutphen subdistrict court has found that an employee was not entitled to an allowance in lieu of untaken paid annual leave at the end of the employment relationship, as she had already received special leave. Moreover, the obligation to inform the employee concerning the right to (exercise) paid annual leave did not rest upon the employer. |
Case Reports |
2020/17 Capping of redundancy allowance in view of (future) entitlement to early retirement pension (NL) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Authors | Albertine Veldman |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has quashed a verdict of the Court of Appeal that held that a social plan provision stipulating the capping of a redundancy allowance in view of an entitlement to early retirement pension was invalid because of age discrimination. According to the Supreme Court, a more marginal justification test should have been applied to a social plan. The Court of Appeal, moreover, did not consider all the legitimate aims it specified and should also have taken additional social plan measures as well as pension measures from the past into account. By not doing so, it was not properly examined whether the social plan constituted age discrimination. |
Case Reports |
2020/14 Sickness absence related to employee’s disability (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination, Unfair Dismissal |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Recently, the Danish Eastern High Court found that an employee’s sickness absence was a result of the employer’s failure to comply with its obligation to offer reasonable accommodation for the employee’s disability. For that reason the employee, who was dismissed in pursuance of the Danish ‘120-day rule’, was entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal under the Danish Anti-Discrimination Act. |
Case Reports |
2020/21 Employer not liable for misuse of personal data by ‘rogue’ employee (UK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Privacy |
Authors | Richard Lister |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Supreme Court has allowed an appeal by one of the UK’s major supermarket chains, overturning a finding that it was vicariously liable for a rogue employee’s deliberate disclosure of payroll data related to some 100,000 co-workers, of whom 10,000 brought a group claim for damages. |
Case Reports |
2020/20 Dismissal unfair where decision-maker was not given accurate information (UK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Unfair Dismissal |
Authors | Ludivine Gegaden |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The dismissal of an employee for gross misconduct was unfair because the investigating officer failed to share significant new information with the manager conducting the disciplinary hearing who decided to dismiss, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. |
Case Reports |
2020/19 Relationship between time of notification of collective redundancies and time of notice of termination (GE) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Collective Dismissal |
Authors | Marcus Bertz |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The notice of collective redundancies required to be given to an employment agency pursuant to Section 17(1) of the German Protection Against Unfair Dismissal Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz, ‘KSchG’) can only be effectively submitted if the employer has already decided to terminate the employment contract at the time of its receipt by the employment agency. Notices of termination in collective redundancy proceedings are therefore effective – subject to the fulfilment of any other notice requirements – if the proper notice is received by the competent employment agency before the employee has received the letter of termination. |
Case Reports |
2020/16 Nature and extent of ‘reasonable accommodation’ to be provided to employees with disabilities (IE) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination |
Authors | Orla O’Leary |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In a recent Supreme Court decision, it was held by a 4-1 majority that there is no reason, in principle, why the provision of ‘reasonable accommodation’ for an employee with a disability should not involve the redistribution of duties. |
Case Reports |
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Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Discrimination, general, Health and safety, Unfair dismissal |
Authors | Gautier Busschaert |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Belgian Court of Cassation (Supreme Court), in a decision of 20 January 2020, has ruled that the prohibition for an employer to terminate the employment relationship of a worker for reasons related to a complaint for acts of violence and/or moral and/or sexual harassment at work does not, however, preclude the dismissal from being justified by motives inferred from the facts set out in the complaint. |