In the case of Tillman v Egon Zehnder [2019] UKSC 32, the UK Supreme Court, for the first time in over 100 years, has examined the law of post-termination restrictive covenants. As well as providing clarity of the law, the decision serves as a reminder of the importance of the doctrine of restraint of trade, which, in the words of Lord Wilson, who delivered the judgement: “is one of the earliest products of the common…

The President of Ireland is on track to sign into law a new amendment to parental leave laws after the country’s upper house (“Seanad Éireann”) approved it on May 8, 2019. The law had previously passed the lower house (“Dáil Éireann”) on June 13, 2018. The amendment now returns to Dáil Éireann for final approval before the President signs and enacts it into law. The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 (the “Parental Leave Bill”) expands existing…

Hairstyles are gaining more attention in the labor and employment context. Earlier this year, Austria’s Supreme Court allowed a former employee to reopen his discrimination claim upon discovering evidence that the employer may be engaging in discriminatory conduct by imposing hairstyle-related requirements on employees. In 9 ObA 4/19g, a staffing agency’s employee was denied a position on account of his long hair, and sued the staffing agency for sex discrimination under the Equal Treatment Act,…

Mexico Overhauls Federal Labor Law in Workers’ Favor On May 1, 2019, International Workers’ Day, Mexico published amendments to its Federal Labor Law in the Federal Official Gazette and secured the right of Mexican workers to organize and enter into collective bargaining agreements. The Mexican Senate voted 120 to 0 to pass the Labor Reform Decree, which will regulate amendments made to Mexico’s Federal Constitution in February 2017.[1] The Decree also ensures Mexico’s compliance…

On December 13, 2018, the National Assembly of Thailand approved significant amendments to the country’s Labor Protection Act (“LPA”). The amendments took effect on May 6, 2019. Under the amendments, employees with 20 or more uninterrupted years of service will be entitled to receive 400 days’ pay as severance. This is an increase from the current maximum payment of 300 days’ pay for employees with 10 or more uninterrupted years of service. The amendments also…

Per our previous post, the European Parliament and the Member States agreed to adopt new rules that would set the standard for protecting whistleblowers across the EU from dismissal, demotion, and other forms of retaliation when they report breaches of various areas of EU law. According to a press release issued by the European Parliament on April 16, 2019, the Parliament approved these changes by an overwhelming majority. The new rules require that employers…