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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently issued two rulings, on 14 March 2017, regarding religion in the workplace, one a Belgian case, the other a French one. On 15 March 2017, we reported on the Belgian case in detail (see: European Court of Justice Rules for the first time on Discrimination Based on Belief). In what follows, we set out our reaction to the…
The ECJ has ruled on a Belgian case about whether an employer can justify having a neutral dress policy and on a French preliminary question on a similar theme. It confirms that a dress code aimed at neutrality can be used to justify discrimination based on belief. In the Belgian case, a female receptionist was employed by a Belgian business. The business had an internal…
The ‘Employment’ Act of 8 August 2016 has initiated the rewriting of the labour code: collective agreements must become central and the law must become more subsidiary. In concrete terms, the labour code will set out for each of its ‘themes’: public order rules (which can not be changed or negociated); measures that can be negotiated; the measures that apply in the absence of an…
Most of the time, taking medication in the workplace creates no problems. Most prescription drugs have little impact on an employee’s ability to work safely. Some drugs, however may affect the employee’s safety or ability to focus. There is therefore considerable potential for prescription drugs to raise problems in the workplace. Indeed, when faced with this issue, employers, who generally have a safety obligation towards…
Technology is changing how, when and where we work. With these changes come shifting attitudes in how workers view their relationship with employers. The “on-demand” economy purports to bridge this gap, giving workers flexibility to choose when to work and connecting employers with available skilled labor when they need it most. The on-demand model would appear to provide both workers and employers what they want….
We’ve just put the rackets away and it’s already time to take out the football cleats. The EURO 2016 started on Friday 10 June and with it arises the perpetual question of whether it is possible to watch matches at work. Both the astute and the disgruntled may be surprised to see this type of article flourishing around the time of the EURO, since the…
Multinational employers with smaller sites in France quite often are surprised to hear that, during international restructurings, the requirements of French law may cause them to rethink their timeline, strategy and/or general approach when implementing measures that affect their French entity. We describe one such special requirement which has the potential to make restructurings grind to a halt. Requirement to search for a purchaser in…
Changes to legislation in the past years have changed the landscape for employing trainees in France. We provide a brief overview of the current legal framework. What are the general principles? Under the law in force since 12 July 2014 regarding traineeships and professional training periods (Law n°2014-788, dated 10 July 2014), the legislator wanted to accomplished three objectives: to encourage the development of good…
French companies looking to restructure or close sites may have to anticipate a lot of employee pushback. Recent press has extensively covered cases where staff did not even shrink from physical violence against managers and senior employees. This of course raises a multitude of questions – how can companies protect themselves and their staff, and not endanger the restructuring process at the same time? In…