What rights and protections are there for part-time workers?

This post was also contributed by Dimitri Schaff, Trainee, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP (Munich).

Currently, about one quarter of all employment relationships in Germany are based on part-time models, the proportion of part-time to full-time employees having increased by about 12 per cent since 2001. Furthermore, as a result of the implementation of the EU Part-time Workers Directive 97/81/EC into German law in 2001, an enforceable right for current full-time employees to switch to part-time work exists in Germany. Besides this, employees with children (under the age of eight) may additionally claim the right to part-time parental leave.

Although employers … Continue Reading

What rights and protections are there for part-time workers in the UK?

By Claire Darbourne (UK) on October 19, 2016 Posted in Discrimination and harassment, Europe, UK

In the UK, before June 2000 there was no express protection for part-time workers against less favourable treatment when compared with those who work full time. Their only options for legal redress were by way of an equal pay or sex discrimination claim. In 2000 the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations (the Regulations) came into force providing specific protection for part-time employees and workers.

What is a part-time worker?

In the Regulations, a part-time worker is defined as a person who is paid wholly or in part by reference to the time they work, and who is … Continue Reading

Part-time employment: additional hours may result in an employment contract being requalified as a full-time contract

By Judicaël Fouquet on February 17, 2015 Posted in Europe, France

The legal background

Under French employment law, part-time work is subject to specific rules the purpose of which is to ensure that employees benefit from a minimum level of stability and predictability in their working time schedule. More specifically, the relevant legal provisions state that the additional working hours that an employer can require an employee to perform may not exceed 1/10^th of the working time stipulated in the employment contract and that they cannot, in any case, result in the employee working the equivalent of a full-time employee. The relevant case law has construed such provisions so that … Continue Reading