On your radar | Issue 15

May 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter "On your radar"!

It comes as no surprise that the majority of the contributions to this edition of On your radar involve government measures responding to COVID-19 and the workplace. Yet not all of them are COVID-19 related - as we mentioned in our last edition, workplace equality continues to be a prominent feature. The French Gender Equality Index is a composite indicator using 4 or 5 different measures to arrive at a total equality index figure.

In a sign that working from home looks set to stay with us in some form at least, many countries are planning ahead to regulate it. While the terminology varies between remote working, teleworking and the ‘home office’: the concepts all involve working away from the office, (although local laws should always be checked to understand subtle but important variations). The Czech Republic discusses plans to regulate home working which are not yet in place. Other countries have already passed legislation in this area. In Austria an employer must provide digital work equipment for employees who regularly work from home (or bear the reasonable costs of the digital work equipment provided by the employee) whereas the new Turkish regulation on remote working applies to those who permanently carry out remote working. In Slovakia, in addition to a new regulation on working from home, a right to disconnect has been introduced.

Measures on the availability of workplace testing are introduced in Belgium and Germany, with Italy reporting that vaccination for health workers is now compulsory. For more information on international variations with workplace testing and vaccinations please see our Expert Guide on COVID-19 vaccination and testing from employment law perspective. Both of these measures will play an important role in the safe re-opening of workplaces as countries move out of restrictions and lockdowns.

The CMS Employment Team