On July 31, 2019, in the case of Nano Nagle School v Daly, the Supreme Court of Ireland delivered its decision in a long-running disability discrimination lawsuit between a paraplegic special needs assistant (“SNA”) and the school that ended her employment based on her disability.  The Court’s decision provides a thoughtful analysis of an employer’s obligations to accommodate a disability and an interesting comparison to the approach under American law. Facts In 1998, Marie Daly…

Background On June 12, 2019, the Dubai International Financial Center (“DIFC”) in Dubai, UAE announced its new employment law regime, which will come into force on August 28, 2019.  This new employment code replaces the DIFC’s previous employment code from 2005 and aims to rectify various issues that arose under the old system.  While many changes to the law can be viewed as employee-friendly, others push back on employee rights.  As Dubai is increasingly becoming…

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,…