2017/17 No legal protection against termination for a pregnant employee who does not hold a valid work permit (FR)

A pregnant employee with no valid work permit in France does not benefit from protective legal provisions forbidding or restraining her termination.

2017/12 Court of Appeal rejects argument that Christmas strikes are unlawful under EU law (UK)

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that industrial action called with the object or purpose of infringing the cross-border freedom to establish and receive services would be unlawful. It rejected the argument that industrial action would be unlawful if it made it unattractive for foreign companies to operate in the UK or if cross-border services might potentially be disrupted. These wider tests would be inconsistent with European case law on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) and would be incompatible with proper protection of the right to strike.

2017/20 Data gathered by GPS as a basis for disciplinary dismissal (PT)

Distance-related data gathered by GPS and data reported manually by the employee (a sales representative at a pharmaceutical company) are valid and admissible sources of evidence in the context of a disciplinary dismissal procedure. This decision is innovative in that it contradicts the usual view of the Supreme Court of Justice on the scope of ‘distance-controlled supervision’ for the purposes of assessment of employee conduct.

2017/14 Dansk Industri revisited: the Danish Supreme Court overrides the EU Court of Justice (DE)

On 6 December 2016, the Danish Supreme Court delivered its long-awaited judgment on the case of Ajos, addressing the issue of whether a private employer was entitled to refuse to make a redundancy payment in reliance on the former section 2a(3) of the Danish Salaried Employees Act or whether the general principle against discrimination on grounds of age needed to take precedence. It concluded that the employer was entitled to refuse to pay.

ECJ 2 March 2017, case C-496/15 (Eschenbrenner), Freedom of movement

A frontier worker who claimed insolvency benefit was offered a smaller amount that he would...

ECJ 27 April 2017, C-620/15 (A-Rosa Flussschiff), Free movement, social insurance

An E101 certificate, issued by the institution designated by the competent authority of a Member State under Article 14(2)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71, is binding on both the social security institutions of the Member State in which the work is carried out and the courts of that Member State – even when it is found by those courts that the conditions under which the workers carried out their activities did not fall within the scope of the provisions of Regulation no 1408/71.

2017/12 Court of Appeal rejects argument that Christmas strikes are unlawful under EU law (UK)

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that industrial action called with the object or purpose of infringing the cross-border freedom to establish and receive services would be unlawful. It rejected the argument that industrial action would be unlawful if it made it unattractive for foreign companies to operate in the UK or if cross-border services might potentially be disrupted. These wider tests would be inconsistent with European case law on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) and would be incompatible with proper protection of the right to strike.

2017/20 Data gathered by GPS as a basis for disciplinary dismissal (PT)

Distance-related data gathered by GPS and data reported manually by the employee (a sales representative at a pharmaceutical company) are valid and admissible sources of evidence in the context of a disciplinary dismissal procedure. This decision is innovative in that it contradicts the usual view of the Supreme Court of Justice on the scope of ‘distance-controlled supervision’ for the purposes of assessment of employee conduct.

2017/14 Dansk Industri revisited: the Danish Supreme Court overrides the EU Court of Justice (DE)

On 6 December 2016, the Danish Supreme Court delivered its long-awaited judgment on the case of Ajos, addressing the issue of whether a private employer was entitled to refuse to make a redundancy payment in reliance on the former section 2a(3) of the Danish Salaried Employees Act or whether the general principle against discrimination on grounds of age needed to take precedence. It concluded that the employer was entitled to refuse to pay.

ECJ 2 March 2017, case C-496/15 (Eschenbrenner), Freedom of movement

A frontier worker who claimed insolvency benefit was offered a smaller amount that he would...