Author: Chris Van Olmen In December 2021, the EU Commission proposed a Directive to offer more protection to platform workers. One of the main innovations of this proposed Directive is the introduction of a rebuttable presumption to determine the correct employment status workers. If the platform workers meet at least two of the five criteria […]
Dominican Republic: 24-percent Increase in the Minimum Wage for Construction Workers
Author: Amado Sánchez de Camps President Luis Abinader and the Minister of Labour, Luis Miguel De Camps, announced on 18 April an increase of 24% in the minimum wage for construction workers, of which 21 % began to be applied on 1 May, and an additional 3% in October. The decision results from a consensus […]
China: Termination for Employee’s not Reporting Cross-provincial Trip Was Held as Legitimate
Authors: Carol Zhu and Yinbing Chen Mr. Sun (“Employee”) joined the education and training company (“Company”) in 2018 and served as a market planning specialist. In March 2020, the Company informed all staff via WeChat group that, before risk of the pandemic across the nation is completely eliminated, travelling out of the province requires reporting […]
Canada: Spring Cleaning: Out with the Old COVID-19 Regulations
Author: Natalie Garvin On 14 April 2022, the Ontario Government filed O. Reg 346/22: Revoking Various Regulations, which, effective 27 April 2022, will revoke almost all remaining COVID-19-related regulations and orders under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020. However, in an effort to manage the current wave of COVID-19, existing provincial masking requirements […]
Canada: Bill 88 Passes Third Reading
On 7 April 2022, the Ontario Government passed Bill 88, the Working for Workers Act, 2022. Bill 88 is omnibus labour and employment legislation that will: establish employment rights for digital platform workers (including rights to information, minimum wage, and recurring pay periods and pay days) through the enactment of the Digital Platform Workers Rights Act, 2022; amend […]
Canada: Arbitrator Finds Vaccination Policy Did Not Violate the Charter
Author: Emily La Mantia In Toronto District School Board and CUPE, Local 4400 (PR734 COVID-19 Vaccine Procedure), 2022 CanLII 22110 (ON LA), Arbitrator Kaplan concluded that the Toronto District School Board’s (the “Board”) mandatory vaccination policy did not violate section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”) and that the Policy was, on a […]
Canada: Recent Amendments to the Canada Labour Code Regulations: New Record-Keeping Requirements, Administrative Penalties, and More
Author: Charles Muriithi Background Context In recent years, the Parliament of Canada legislated amendments to Code, with an aim to modernising the employment-related rights under Part III of the Code and supporting flexibility in the workplace. These amendments were introduced through the Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, which received Royal Assent on December 14, 2017, and the Budget Implementation […]
Belgium: Overview of upcoming social Belgian legislation
Author: Chris Van Olmen The Belgian government is currently working on several important new and amending laws and rules regarding employment law. Below, we provide a concise overview and an estimated timeline for their implementation. Labour deal In February 2022, we wrote about the Labour Deal of the Belgian federal government. This political deal included […]
Austria: Update on Cross-Border Staff Deployment
Author: Anna Mertinz Cross-border staff deployments from EU countries to Austria entail a large number of administrative obligations for the companies involved. The Austrian Wage and Social Dumping Act (LSD-BG – Lohn- und Sozialdumping-Bekämpfungsgesetz) stipulates many administrative duties and regulations if companies with their seat in EU countries deploy their employees to Austria (even if […]
Australia: Positive Duty to Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Workplace yet to be Legislated, but some Employers are already Ahead of the Game
Authors: Emma Pritchard and Maria Markoulli In March 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission (Australia’s national human rights institution) published its Respect@Work Report, making 55 recommendations to the Commonwealth Government (as well as states and territories, employers and industry groups) to prevent and address sexual harassment in the workplace. The focus of many of the […]