On 19 October 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union, in Case C-660/20, stressed that only objective reasons can justify treating part-time and full-time workers differently.
The Court ruled that domestic legislation that requires part-time employees to work an extra number of hours equal to that required of full-time employees to obtain a pay supplement is contrary to EU law.
That provision is discriminatory as it unfavourably treats part-time employees, who must perform more extra hours of service than their full-time colleagues to receive the same additional remuneration.
On 24 August 2023, the Federal Labour Court declared the legitimacy of a dismissal without notice of an employee who sent insulting, racist, sexist, and violent comments about managers and colleagues in a private chat group with other colleagues.
It requires employers with more than 50 employees will have an obligation to have an internal reporting channel to which employees can report misconduct.
It transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on protecting persons who report breaches of EU law (the Whistleblowing Directive).
On 31 May 2023, the German Federal Labour (Bundesarbeitsgericht) rejected the claim of a German agency worker. It confirmed that the German collective labour agreement aligns with the EU Directive on temporary agency work.
It follows the preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice of 22 December 2022 case C-311/21.
On 5 April 2023, the European Commission published the 2022 annual report on intra-EU labour mobility, which identifies trends in the free movement of workers.
The 2022 edition focuses on cross-border workers in the EU and EFTA, on the one hand, and mobility of persons with specific occupations.
On 22 September 2022, HORNBACH Baumarkt announced that, from 2023, employees will be able to change their working hours to suit their needs.
The new working hour system aims to facilitate employees’ work lives and work-life balance and to address recruitment problems due to Germany’s growing shortage of qualified, skilled workers.
On 23 June 2022, the German parliament passed a bill to implement the Working Conditions Directive (EU) 2019/1152 into German law.
The German Bundestag passed the draft law (BT-Drs. 20/1636, 20/2245) in the committee version (20/2392). If Bundesrat passes it without any objections, the new law will come into force as of 1 August 2022.