Summer of (labour) law

Author: Andrej Poruban (Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín)

Summers are usually very mild, but we've been in the midst of a labour law heat wave recently. The number of new issues never stops growing, even during the vacation, and we could enjoy couple of juicy fruits from courtrooms. On 15 July 2021, the European Court of Justice ruled in the awaited joined German cases C-804/18 and C-341/19 (WABE and MH Müller Handel) on religious dress code bans in the workplace (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62018CJ0804). However be sure first read inevitable piece from prof. Filip Dorssemont 'Freedom of religion: a tale of two cities' (EELC Subscibers | EELA Members.

On the same day, the EFTA Court followed the famous Tyco decision (EELC Subscribers | EELA Members) and the maybe not so famous ruling of EFTA Court E-19/16 (see The Norwegian Supreme Court finishing: EELC Subscribers | EELA Members). The Court delivered judgment E-11/20 (Eyjólfur Orri Sverrisson v The Icelandic State) and concluded the time spent travelling abroad for his employer and back is to be considered working time within the meaning of the Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (https://eftacourt.int/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/11_20_PR_EN.pdf).

The governments of the EU Member States got a slight sunstroke on the very same day. The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending letters of formal notice for non-conformity of national legislation with the Directive 2014/67/EU on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_21_3440). Only Portugal, Spain and Sweden are not concerned by the infringement procedure (have a nice day Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia).

No employment enthusiast can take a break when the EU apparatus is in business. Three days earlier, the EU Commission and the European External Action Service issued Guidance on due diligence for EU businesses to address the risk of forced labor in their operations and supply chains (https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2021/july/tradoc_159709.pdf). This non-binding document is intended to provide European companies with practical guidance to implement effective human rights due diligence practices to address the risk of forced labour in their supply chains.

Meanwhile, almost all of the EU Member States are zealously working on transposition of the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (by 17 December 2021), Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union (by 1 August 2022) and Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers (by 2 August 2022) as well.

Anyway, if you think that labour law is in high season, you should rather wait for an indian summer!