According to a recent ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court, employees dismissed during the Covid-19 pandemic are not automatically entitled to reinstatement.
The decision of 19 October 2022 clarifies an interpretative doubt that had led to the assumption that any dismissal linked to the Covid 19 crisis was forbidden, entailing its automatic nullity and the consequent reinstatement of the dismissed workers.
On 4 October 2022, the Slovak parliament adopted an amendment to the Labour Code (the "Amendment") effective from 1 November 2022.
It mainly aims to implement two EU directives: No. 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU and No. 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers.
The proposal to revise the Employment Protection Act (EPA), presented on June 2021, was finally adopted.
The reform described as the “greatest reform of Swedish employment law in modern times” entered into force on 30 June 2022 and applied for the first time as of 1 October 2022.
It seeks to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 to include a restraint of trade provision that will “prohibit the use of restraints of trade in employment agreements for lower and middle-income employees”.
The Bill will also require employers of higher income employees to carefully consider whether a restraint of trade is appropriate to those employees and, if they insist on a restraint of trade, to compensate the employees for it.
Effective from 1 July 2022, the Norwegian Government amended the regulations on working from home, adopted in 2002, aiming to adjust it to modern working life and to make it easier for employers to manage employees who work from home.
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.