The German Federal Labor Court (BAG) has surprisingly ruled (BAG, 13.09.2022 – 1 ABR 22/21) that employers are legally required to record not only overtime and Sunday work, but all of their employees’ working hours.
Obligation to record working time
Part Year workers holiday not pro-rated
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed the appeal in the case of Harpur Trust v Brazel which considered the holiday entitlement of those workers who are on permanent contracts but only work for part of the year (part year workers).
The claimant was a part-time music teacher who worked variable number of hours during
Necessary contents of employment contracts – change in law as of August 1, 2022
The “Act on Proof of the Existence of an Employment Relationship” (Nachweisgesetz – NachwG) requires employers to set out the essential contractual terms of the employment in writing to their employees. The German legislature has now passed an amendment to the Nachweisgesetz, which comes into force on August 1, 2022, and has the effect of transposing the EU Directive (2019/1152) on Transparent and Foreseeable Working Conditions (the Directive) into national law. Accordingly, employers will be required to provide employees with more comprehensive information than before, either as part of the employment contract or in separate documentation. Failure to comply with the new requirements, can lead to fines for the employers. In this post, we summarize the most important legal effect of the amendments.
Global Employment Law: What do your employees want and need? Transforming Workplace #4
During the pandemic, employees rethought their relationship with work. Employees now seek roles that offer competitive remuneration with other benefits including flexibility, health, well-being and work-life balance. Read more on this in our next article in the Transforming Workplace series.
What do your employees want and need?
This article is part of our Transforming Workplace
Global Employment Law: The “Great Enlightenment”: Why and how employees have rethought their relationship with work. Transforming Workplace #3
In the next in the Transforming Workplace global series we examine why and owe employees have rethought their relationship with work.
The “Great Enlightenment”: Why and how employees have rethought their relationship with work
This article is part of our Transforming Workplace series. Other articles exploring the opportunities, challenges and risk of the transforming workplace
What to expect in employment law in Germany in 2022
Legal innovations
Amended regulations apply to this year’s works council elections taking place from March 1 to May 31, 2022. Pursuant to Section 24 (2) of the Election Regulations of October 8, 2021 (BGBl. I 4640/2021), HR departments are required to provide, in addition to the typical employee data used to draw up the electoral list (surname, first name, date of birth, etc.), details of those employees who are expected to be absent from the workplace after the election committee letter has been issued and prior to the election for non-work related reasons (“in particular due to suspension or incapacity for work”). This refers in particular to employees on long-term sick leave and employees on care or parental leave. Furthermore, meetings of the election committee may in future also be held by video or telephone conference subject to are solution by the election committee agreeing to this. However, certain tasks, such as checking lists of candidates or processing absentee ballots must be carried out in person.
Stricter rules on compensation for data protection violations?
The correct handling of personal data requires special care by employers. The German Federal Labour Court (BAG, 26.08.2021 – 8 AZR 253/20 (A)) has referred essential questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for clarification. The BAG’s decision, which, if confirmed by the ECJ, could now tighten the standard of due diligence and increase financial risks for companies in the event of breaches of employee data protection.
Short-time work: Proportionate vacation reduction permissible
A recent decision by the German Federal Labour Court (BAG, 30.11.2021 – 9 AZR 225/11) will have significance for employers who have made use of short-time work. Individual working days which are lost due to short-time work, have to be taken into account when calculating annual leave. As a result, employees might have to adjust the amount of annual leave that they believe is due to them.
The right of substitution in worker status cases.
The UK Court of Appeal has delivered its judgement in another case looking at the issue of employment status regarding those working in the gig economy.
In the UK there are three levels of employment status: Self-employed, worker and employee. Determining employment status is important for understanding the employment rights to which an individual is
UK Government respond to consultation on tipping.
On the 24th September the government published a response on its consultation on how to ensure the protection of tips received by workers and employees in the hospitality, leisure and service sectors.
Currently, there are no rules for what proportion of a tip earned by a worker should actually be paid to the worker.