The ECJ has followed the Opinion of EU Advocate General Pitruzzella in ruling that, under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the EU Working Time Directive, member states must require employers to set up an “objective, reliable and accessible” system for recording the actual number and distribution of hours worked by individual workers each … Read more
In RE v Praxair MRC SAS the European Court of Justice has ruled that the calculation of compensation payments for dismissal and redeployment of an employee on a full-time contract, who was on part-time parental leave (as permitted under French law), must be carried out on the basis of the full-time salary. Calculating these payments based on … Read more
Where disputes involve individual employment contracts, EU jurisdiction rules provide that the employee can only be sued where they are domiciled. In Bosworth v Arcadia Petroleum, the ECJ has ruled that for an individual to have an employment relationship for these purposes, they must perform services for and under the direction of another person, implying the … Read more
On 23 November 2018, the European Data Protection Board published its draft guidelines on Article 3 of the GDPR, being the provision that sets out the territorial scope of Europe’s data protection legislation. The GDPR seeks (via Article 3) to extend its reach beyond European borders, making non-EU organisations directly subject to its obligations when processing … Read more
Our article Recruitment and protection of talent: a boardroom issue for pharma is available on our pharma hub here. Technological advancement is key amongst the forces driving change in the pharmaceutical healthcare sectors, with businesses increasingly partnering with non-traditional players such as tech giants, agile biotech start-ups and insurers. In this article we explore how the … Read more
The Global Pound Conference (GPC) Series is a unique and ambitious initiative to inform how civil and commercial disputes are resolved in the 21st century, collating views from over 4000 people at 28 conferences spanning 24 countries worldwide. Herbert Smith Freehills teamed up with PwC, IMI (International Mediation Institute) to identify key insights emerging from the extensive … Read more
The European Commission has published a new draft directive to strengthen whistleblower protection across the EU. The proposal is to provide EU-wide protection for blowing the whistle on breaches of specified types of EU legislation (for example, legislation on financial services, public health and safety, data protection and competition rules), although Member States are encouraged … Read more
Described by some as the “new oil” for the digital economy, there is no doubt that data are now seen as critical for organisations to succeed. Data are a powerful and lucrative fuel for productivity. If not adequately protected, data are vulnerable to leaks that can cause widespread damage, and their true value is only … Read more
Under German law, an employee having a major influence on a competing company can justify a termination for good cause with immediate effect of an employee. In a recent judgement in April 2017, the Higher Regional Labour Court of Schleswig Holstein decided that holding 50% of the shares in a competing company without obtaining prior … Read more
