Austria made headlines this week by becoming the first country in Europe to implement a general mandate for vaccinations against COVID-19.
The regulation applies to all adults, with limited exemptions for individuals who are pregnant, who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, and who have recovered from COVID-19 within the last 180 days.
Continue reading “Austria Implements Sweeping COVID Vaccination Mandate”
On January 12, 2022, Luxembourg’s Minister of Justice submitted to the country’s legislature Bill 7945, which transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1937, otherwise known as the Whistleblower Protection Directive (“Directive”). The official deadline for EU member states to transpose the Directive into national law was December 17, 2021, however, nearly every state, including Luxembourg, failed to meet this deadline. Now that Bill 7945 has been presented to the legislature, experts will review it and compare the legislation against the requirements of the Directive. Given the expiration of the deadline for transposition in December, the legislature is expected to act quickly in passing Bill 7945 into law, so as to avoid the European Commission taking legal action for non-implementation.
Bill 7945 provides a framework to protect individuals who have obtained information in the work context about acts or omissions that violate national law or are against the public interest, and report protected information in any of the manners proscribed by the draft law. Specifically, Bill 7945 protects reports made by current and former employees, prospective employees, volunteers, trainees, self-employed individuals, shareholders, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers. To be protected under the draft law, individuals must have reasonable grounds to believe the information they report is true and that it falls within the scope of the measure. The measure prohibits retaliation against individuals based on them reporting protected information in accordance with the draft law’s provisions.
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Recent Employment Tribunal (ET) decisions have shed light on the risks that can arise for employers where employees refuse to attend the workplace because of COVID-19 concerns. We consider below how ETs have dealt with claims of discrimination and automatic unfair dismissal related to COVID-19.
In X v. Y (ET 241947/2020), an employer withheld an employee’s wages after she refused to attend the workplace due to her fear that she would contract COVID-19 and pass it on to her vulnerable husband. The employee brought a claim for unlawful discrimination arguing that her opinion regarding the risk of COVID-19 and the need to protect herself amounted to a philosophical belief that was capable of constituting a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. The ET disagreed. It found that the employee’s view was not a philosophical belief protected under the Equality Act 2010 but “a widely held opinion based on the present state of information” and a “reaction to a threat of physical harm”. Her claim therefore failed.
On January 21, 2022, France’s Constitutional Council approved a law requiring individuals who are 16 or older to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 (a “vaccine pass”) before entering certain public places, such as restaurants, bars, and stores. The law also permits business owners to check a customer’s vaccine pass against the customer’s identification documents where they have good reason to suspect that the vaccine pass being shown does not genuinely belong to the customer presenting it.
Currently, individuals in France are required to present proof of vaccination or of a negative test result to enter public venues. Under the new law, which will take effect on January 24, 2021, a negative test result will no longer be accepted.
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The United Arab Emirates rang in 2022 by becoming the first country in the world to adopt a four-and-a-half-day workweek. Effective January 1, 2022, all federal government entities in the country will operate four-and-a-half days per week, with the weekend starting mid-day Friday and lasting through Sunday. Work hours are now 7:30 am to 3:30 pm on Monday through Thursday, and 7:30 am to Noon on Friday. Previously, employees of government entities in the UAE worked a five-day workweek, with a Friday-Saturday weekend.
Continue reading “UAE’s New, Shorter Workweek Becomes Effective in 2022”
Germany announced that it will impose new restrictions on individuals who are not vaccinated. Although an official version of the rules has yet to be released, Germany’s government website has provided a summary of the new restrictions.
Based on that summary, individuals who have not been vaccinated are allowed to shop only in grocery stores, pharmacies and drugstores. Only individuals who have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 are allowed to enter all other stores. Restaurants, cinemas, movie theaters, and other “leisure facilities” are limited to vaccinated and recovered individuals as well.
Continue reading “Germany Restricts Access to Non-Essential Businesses for Unvaccinated Individuals”