G20 Labour Ministerial meeting took place in Sicily on 23 June 2021 and focused on three main areas: more, better, and equally paid jobs for women; social protection systems in a changing world of work; and working patterns, business organisation and production process in the digitalisation era.
The B20, the Business at OECD (BIAC) and the IOE have published a joint paper calling on G20 leaders to promote and facilitate access to trade finance to boost the economic recovery post COVID19 pandemic.
Following Spanish Supreme Court decision on Deliveroo’s workers, Deliveroo announced it will leave the Spanish market by the end of October 2021, but only for economic reasons, aiming to focus investment and resources on other markets.
International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) partnered with ECOP to launch their new eCampus platform,
ECOP will offer online courses on topics such as industrial relations, human resource management, occupational safety and health, entrepreneurship, management development and employee development.
According to some Italian Court, the employer can suspend an employee from work and pay, based on the judgment, by the competent doctor, of her temporary unfitness due to refusal to undergo the vaccine Covid, or if the vaccinations she refused are an essential requirement for exercising the profession.
According to the Trento Labour Court, it is lawful to dismissal of an employee, who repeatedly refuses to wear a face mask in the workplace.
UK Supreme Court judgment in the Uber v Aslam case has affected the common law relating to employment relationship. This could have ramifications in other jurisdictions, such as South Asia, which follow the principles of English Common Law in determining the existence of an employment relationship.
On 4 August 2021, the Australian High Court unanimously allowed an appeal from a judgment of the Full Court of the Federal Court concerning the nature of casual employment, the so-called “Rossato case”.
Although the meaning of a ‘casual employee’ is now defined in legislation (the Fair Work Act) due to an amendment which came into effect in March this year, this decision still has legal and policy implications.
The High Court held that a "casual employee" is an employee who has no firm advanced commitment from the employer as to the duration of the employee's employment or the days (or hours) the employee will work, and provides no reciprocal commitment to the employer.
In determining whether a “firm advance commitment” exists, the focus must be on contractual obligations between the parties, because where there are express terms of the contract of employment (as varied from time to time), they must be given effect unless they are contrary to legislation.
Reliance on non-contractual aspects of the employment relationship (e.g. working in accordance with a roster) to assert there was a “firm advance commitment” was not accepted, as there were not express or implied terms of Mr Rossato’s contract. The Court unanimously determined that Mr Rossato was a casual employee, considering that his employment was expressly on an "assignment-by-assignment basis", he was entitled to accept or reject any offer of an assignment, and at the completion of each assignment the company was under no obligation to offer further assignments.
On 19 June 2021, Government Gazette A’ 101 publish the Law 4808/2021 (), which introduces crucial reforms on individual employment relationships in compliance with ILO Conventions 190 and 187, and transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1158.
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