There are no legal requirements for the wording of a job advertisement to contain particular details about the job. However, em...
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There are no specific legal restrictions on checks an employer may carry out on job applicants. However, employers must be careful not to discriminate against certain candidates. The employer has the right to check personal, educational and...
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Probationary periods are allowed only for permanent indefinite-term contracts and m...
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An employer must not use a probation period more than once with the same employee. The employer must also not fill the same position with a succession of employees on probation, as this is considered abusive. D...
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Job applicants may bring claims for unlawful discrimination against a prospective employer based on pre-contractual liability. If the prospect...
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Foreign nationals cannot travel to Argentina without a visa, and the Immigration Office has authorised the entry of foreign nationals only for working or professional reasons. To obtain such a visa, a local employer registered at the Immigr...
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The following documentation is required from employees: a copy of the employee’s passport; a copy of the Argentinean ID (’Documento Nacional de Identidad’) issued by the Interior Ministry in temporary and permanent residence visas; t...
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Yes, employers can keep records of candidates they...
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Employers must not ask for any personal or private information that is not relevant to t...
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Under Argentinean law, the circumstances of the employment relationship determine whether a person is an employee or a self-employed worker. The legal, technical and economic circumstances are key factors in determining the existence of an ...
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There are no legal distinctions between types of employees. However, economic dependence is a key factor used to determine employment status and it is t...
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Contract law governs directors. However, directors may opt out of the social security system. If directors have executive responsibilities, they must be considered as employees. Therefore, many dire...
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There is specific law in Argentina relating to part-time contracts. Employers must not treat part-time workers less favourably than full-time, indefinite-term employees. Part-time workers must not work more than two-thirds of the...
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Under labour law, the employment contract may be for a fixed term. Fixed-term contracts terminate on the expiry of the specific term for which they were agreed, but require between one and two months’ notice. The contract must be formalis...
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If the employer does not give notice or formalise the con...
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Local law does not prohibit the employment of temporary workers through an employment agency. However, if the employer cannot justify the arrangement or if the contract with the third party agency is illegal, temporary work...
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There are no specific legal restrictions on whether an employer may put its employees at the disposal of another...
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There are no formal requirements for indefinite-term contracts, therefore, is not necessary for these contracts to be in writing. However, employees must: be registered with the Social Security Administration; have a social security...
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It is not common practice in Argentina for the employer to issue an offer letter in addition to the contract, but it is...
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There are no legal restrictions about the language of the employment contract. However it would be appropriate for the contract to be drafted in the local language, so it can be used more effectively as evidence in the case of a dispute. If...
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For indefinite-term employment relationships, there is no obligation to execute an employment contract in writing. However, the employment contract must not revoke any other employee rights granted by law or collective bargaining agreements...
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It is possible to incorporate, at any time, terms from other agreements or documents, including a collective b...
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The employer is only permitted to unilaterally introduce changes to the employee’s terms and conditions if such changes are reasonable, only affect non-essential labour conditions and do not cause moral or financial harm to the employee. ...
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Employers usually provide employees with various policies and rules. These typically include: a code of conduct; a confidentiality policy; an IT policy; email and communications policies; a disciplinary policy; an harassment polic...
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The Committee for the Minimum Wage, composed of representatives from the government, employers and employees, sets national minimum wage rates. Starting from March 2021 full time employees must not earn less than ARS 21,600 per month.�...
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There is no requirement or system for wages to be adjusted for inflat...
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Tax Income tax and social security must be withheld by the employer from the employee’s salary, together with the employer’s contribution. Payments of the taxes and other contributions to the tax authorities are made by the employe...
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In Argentina, for an employee with an income of EUR 100,000, the rate of income tax is 31% of the employee’s total income. However, if the employee is married with two children, he or she may treat approximately EUR 2,731.87 as non-ta...
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Senior executives are usually rewarded with bonuses according to the organisation’s performance and the executives’ individual achievements. There are no rules restricting how much emplo...
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All employees have the right to a 13th month payment, which is paid in two instalments in June and December. During ...
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Under employment law, certain social benefits are made available to employees. These are social security services that the employer grants the worker directly or through third parties. These benefits are not considered as salary, not paid i...
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According to employment law, the working day must not exceed eight hours per day and the working week must not exceed 48 hours, except in the following cases: Directors and managers. Team work, provided that during a three-week period the ...
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The Ministry of Labour may provide for exceptions to the regulations and can authorise working time over the limits prescribed by law. The law establishes a ...
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Argentinean working time regulations are applicable to all employees except for directors and managers of...
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The employer must keep a record of overtime worked....
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Argentinean labour law does not prohibit agile working as long as the working time regulations are observed. There are no specific legal rules on agile working, though many companies include provisions regarding agile worki...
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The maximum number of overtime hours is restricted to 30 per month a...
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A worker must not be com...
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A worker paid on a monthly basis and performing duties during the week is not entitled to any additional payment if he or she does not exceed the maximum legal limit of 48 hours week or the ...
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An employee must not be made to work between 13:00 on Saturdays and midnight on Sundays except where authorised by the Labour Ministry or by any regulation, in which case the worker must be compensated with a rest period of equa...
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Infringements for exceeding daily or weekly limits on working hours or the rules on rest periods are governed by specific laws. Infringements could result in a fine to be paid by the employer. Control...
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The statutory minimum annual leave entitlement ranges from 14 days to 35 days. Note that this includes days falling on the weekend....
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During annual leave, each employee has the right to a ‘vacation bonus’. This is calculated by dividing the employee’s...
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Employees are not required to work on national holidays. Those who do work are entitled to a 100% increase on their normal rate of pay. There are normally fifteen public holidays each year in Argentina. They are: 1 January, New Year’s Da...
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Employees with less than five years’ seniority are entitled to up to three months’ paid leave per year in the case of illness. If the employee has more than five year...
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As well as the right to double the usual period of paid sick leave, employees who are parents receive a family allowance from the social security administration. The main rights to family-related leave and pay are summarised below. Maternit...
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The law establishes paid leave for: marriage: 10 days; death of spouse, child or parent: 3 days; death of brother or sister: 1 ...
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Employers are responsible for protecting employees and their possessions and for guaranteeing a safe and healthy workplace. This includes a safe workplace, safe equipment and work that is safe for physical and mental wellbeing. Therefore, a...
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Health and safety duties are regulated by extensive legislation. The Labour Ministry can take action to penalise any act or omission in breach of the formal requirements or the recording obligations set out in the health and safety at work ...
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If an employer breaches health and safety rules, inspectors from the Labour Ministry can issue an ‘improvement notice’ requiring the breach to be remedied, and the company may be penalised with a fine. The employer’s insurance premium...
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An employer can be liable for harm caused to employees or other visitors by unsafe premises, where t...
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The employer must notify the insurance company covering risks relating to work accidents, who has the legal obligati...
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Employment law prohibits discrimination based on any of the following grounds: sex; race; national origin; religion; political or union opinion or affiliation; and age. In addition, anti-discrimination law prohibi...
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It is possible to treat people differently without discriminating against them, depending on the circumstances of each case. The law prohibits arbitrary or unfair discriminatory treatment, but not all differences in treatment. Therefore, un...
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The legal system prohibits indirect discrimination. This kind of discrimination may be less easy to spot than direct discrimination, but it is unlawful nevertheless. Sometimes, a policy, r...
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Under Argentine labour law an employer must provide all reasonable adjustments to allow a disabled employee to perform his or her duties, but this does not include an obligation to create a special position for such a purpose. A...
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In the private sector there is no specific legislation against harassment. However, general rules against discrimination based on sex can be applied to protect employees against sexual harassment. In addition, ‘mobbing’ is considered fa...
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There are no specific provisions to protect people ag...
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The potential consequences of successful claims for the employer depend on the specific situation. If discrimination, harassment, victimisation or retaliation is deemed to amount to indirect dismissal, the employee is entitled to claim a se...
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According to case law, in discrimination claims the burden of the proof...
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Employers are liable for the acts of employees that occur in the course of perfo...
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There are no statutory obligations regarding gender pay gap reporting in Argentina. There is a consti...
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Argentinean law requires employers to take all necessary measures to ensure the mental and physical integrity of their employees, and they are responsible in the event of a breach of this duty. Along with the employer´s duty to guarantee t...
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Discrimination claims are very common in Argentina, especially cases of discrimination based on union activity, f...
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No statutory provisions exist regarding the amount of compensation for unlawful discrimination, and the amounts ...
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There are no rules that are specific to the protection of employee information, but general data protection law protects employees’ personal information. The law defines personal data as any information about a living individual or a lega...
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Under data protection law, if an employer fails to comply with the rules, the National Direction of Personal Data Protection, a statutory regulator, can apply sanctions and impose fines from ARS 1,000 to ARS...
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The employer must comply with labour, health and safety and social security laws. In order to do so, the following information must be collected at the beginning of any labour relationship: employee personal details; the employee’s famil...
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There are no significant restrictions on monitoring as long as the surveillance is not carried out in a discriminatory way, is reasonable and does not constitute an invasion of privacy. The local labour administration (‘Ministerio de Trab...
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The use of social media either at work or when off duty is not regulated by law. It is therefore advisable for employers to implement policies regarding the use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and other social media. The employer shou...
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There is no special protection for whistle-blowing in...
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Argentinian employment law establishes a general duty of fidelity in all contracts of employment. As a result, an employee must keep work-related information confidential. This duty of confidentiality exists in relation to the following typ...
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Under Argentinian law, the employee is bound by a duty of fidelity during the employment relationship and is expected to act in good faith during the relationship. The law states that the employee must observe all the duties of fidelity tha...
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After the employment contract has ended, employers can protect confidential information by including post-termination restrictions on an employee’s activities in the employment contract. These clauses are called ‘restrictive covenants�...
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Non-compete clauses are becoming common in Argentinian employment practice, especially for directors and senior employees. In order to be enforceable, these clauses must be reasonable and not excessive an...
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Trade unions represent most types of workers in Argentina, sometimes including executives and professionals. The right to represent workers is awarded by the Ministry of Labour by means of a resolution of recognition called a ‘Personeria ...
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According to the most recent studies, as of 2021 27% of the formal workforce is unionised. ...
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Only officially recognised trade unions can represent the collective interests of employees. As a...
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Employees who are represented by a trade union can elect representatives to further their interests. The number of representatives is determined as follows: If an organisation has between 10 and 50 employees, one representative may be elect...
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The right to strike is protected, but only recognised trade unions may call a strike. This legal principle was confirmed in June 2016 by the Supreme Court. Before deciding to go on strike or lockout, the parties must follow a certain proced...
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In Argentina, based on the Constitution, the employer may terminate an employment contract without cause but must pay mandatory severance pay. If the termination is discriminatory and therefore unlawful, the employee will be entitled to req...
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Employment is presumed to be for an indefinite term and can be terminated by the employer without penalty only for cause. Employees hired for an indefinite term who have mo...
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The employer may terminate an employment relationship with or without cause. If the employer is ending the relationship without cause, the law provides that the employer must give appropriate prior notice of termination. If the employer is ...
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Certain reasons for dismissal are automatically considered unfair. If one of these reasons applies, the legal rules about fair procedure are not relevant. There are particular rules prohibiting the termination of union representative ...
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There are different notice periods according to the employee’s length of service: one month for service of up to five years; and two months for service over five years. During the trial period for indefinite-term cont...
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Employers can make a payment instead of the required notice. Typically, employers do not provide prior notice and often make payments in lieu of notice. The payment is subject to inc...
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No. The resignation is regarded as a voluntary termination of the employment, ...
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It is possible to retire an employee compulsorily in the following circumstances: the employee has at least 30 years of pension contributions and is therefore entitled to receive retirement ben...
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The employer must pay one month’s remuneration for each year of service or any period longer than three months, based on the ‘highest normal, habitual salary’ accrued during the last year of service. For example, if the employee has w...
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An employer can settle purely contractual claims by agreement with the employee, but this can be challenged as invalid by the employee, unless it meets certain conditions. ‘Separation agreements’ by mutual consent must be made before a ...
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Employers can generally decide to close plants and terminate employees without consultation, provided they make full severance payments to the affected employees. If the employer can show that there is a downturn in work volumes or force m...
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When collective dismissals are expected, the employer should initiate a crisis prevention procedure by informing ...
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In a crisis prevention procedure, the employer must submit a plan to the Ministry of Labour. Within two days, the Ministry will invite the employer and the union to a hearing at the Ministry of Labour, and there will be a first attempt at...
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If the employer does not invoke the special ‘crisis prevention procedure’ that applies to mass redundancies for economic reasons or reasons of force majeure, it w...
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The employer must start with dismissals of employees with ...
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The severance payment for collective redundancy amounts to half of the severance payment ...
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By law, if a share takeover does not reduce the liability of the existing employer, there is no specific protection for employees. Employees only have a right to stop working and make a claim for constructive dismissal if a s...
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Sale of a business If a business is sold, the existing labour relationships will continue with the new employer on their existing contractual terms and conditions. The buyer company must take account of length of service with the old...
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Where a business is transferred, all the obligations arising from the employment contract between the transferor and employee at the time of the transfer pass to the transferee. The employment contract continues with the transferee and the ...
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Employees can challenge a transfer if their employment conditions change substantially. If that is the case, they may make a claim for constructive dismissal. If successful, they will be entitled to mandatory severance. An employee...
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Terms The terms of employment and all rights and obligations under it transfer to the transferee. A transfer does not constitute grounds to change the terms of employment contracts. Employment terms can only be changed in accordance wit...
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The transferor and transferee are jointly and severally liable for employment obligations existing at the time of the transfer. This applies whether the transfer is temporary or permanent, whether or not the trans...
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In both transfers of businesses and transfers of employment contracts, collective agreements remain in force and cannot be chan...
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In general terms, the employer has the power to introduce any changes it likes to the form and content of the employment contracts, provided they do not involve an unreasonable exercise of that power, alter the essential terms of the contr...
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There is no statutory term (apart from the notice period for dismissal) that employers need to observe before they can carry out redundancies. Thus, the transf...
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There is no legal requirement to consult with employees or their representatives before a business transfer takes place. However, employees are often given notice that their labour relationships will continue with the buyer from the ...
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The name of the new employer, the date on which the transfer will become effective and details of the employees’ ...
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There is no obligation to consult, but in practice it may be wise to do so if the business activities are going to change, people’s jobs will alter, or if the business is going to be reorganised in such a way that this increases the ris...
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In the case of a ‘transfer of establishment’, if an employer fails to inform employees about the transfer, the employee demand to be given information and/or consider that he or she has been dismissed. In the ca...
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Argentina labour law does not provide for work councils. Employee representatives will continue their position and duties with the new employer. ...
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In 2008, Argentina returned to using a pay-as-you-go system (‘PAYG’) for retirement, based on the ‘redistribution principle’. In general terms, the following conditions apply to mandatory retirement: workers must have made ...
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The only requirement for an employer, with regards to providing access to a pension scheme, is to pay the mandatory contributions to the Social Security Administration. When an employee has reached the retirement age of 70 ...
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An employer may not fund and operate its own pension scheme instead of the state pension scheme, as the state l...
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An employer has statutory duty to consult affected employees in connection with any change to a private pension scheme, except where ...
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In Argentina, pensions are given the same tax treatment as salary and so the income an individual earns from pens...
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Nothing needs to be put in t...
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An investigation must be conducted before any disciplinary action may be taken for a breach of the employment contract, a breach in the duties ...
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Yes, employees are obliged to report any suspected misconduct. It is best practice for employers to remind employees o...
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The law does not establish any specific deadline to start the investigation after the alleged misconduct. However, it requires that the disciplinary action must be ‘contemporary’ to the misconduct, so the sooner the ...
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Employees are not obliged to participate in an investigation conducted by an employer, but the employee must cooperate...
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Yes, but it does not happen frequently except in the most serious cases. ...
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Yes, in order to adequately support the eventual disciplinary action. ...
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There is no special protection for whistle-blowing in the law, and employers are not required to put systems in place to allow for anonymous reporting. ...
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The standards and procedures for low performance are a series of disciplinary actions that can take place gradually. The first step is a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, and then suspension without payment of salary....
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There are no statutory rules regarding employee grievances, but the employer can be bound by an internal policy for handling grievances. The employer can decide whether or not grievances are or can be anonymous, and can establi...
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There are no formal requirements in relation to the form or content of job advertisements in Australia. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that advertisements and statements made in the course of pre-employment negotiations are not mi...
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In broad terms it is permissible for an employer to conduct reference and qualification checks in the context of a recruitment process. This can include seeking information about a job applicant’s previous work history and confirmation...
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In principle, it is permissible in Australia to make employment subject to a period of probation, and there are no formal rules as to the duration of any such period. At the end of the probationary period the employer may terminate t...
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See section 1.3 above. ...
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Anti-discrimination legislation in all Australian jurisdictions makes it unlawful to discriminate against potential employees, as well as against actual employees. For example, it is unlawful for an employer to take ‘adverse action’...
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Individuals who are not Australian citizens can work in Australia only when they possess a valid visa which enables them to undertake the work in question. It is important, therefore, for prospective employers to ensure that job applicant...
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Employers should keep records of any relevant information relating to the sponsorship of a foreign worker. This includes any correspondence with the Departme...
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Potential privacy law issues can arise in circumstances where an applicant provides personal information to a prospective employer and that applicant is not hired, and the business intends to store or otherwise use that information. As note...
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Employers cannot ask questions in job interviews which evince, or might be taken to evince, an intention unlawfully to discriminate against a prospective employee. This would, for example, preclude questions about an applicant’s trade uni...
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Characterising work relationships Australian courts have adopted a number of ‘tests’ in order to determine whether a particular work relationship is one of employer and employee or of principal and contractor. The traditional approach w...
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Almost all employees in Australia have their terms and conditions of employment regulated to a greater or lesser extent by federal or state industrial legislation. In particular, the great majority of employees fall within the scope of the ...
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It is common practice for a company director to be classified as either an executive director (who is also an employee of the company) or a non-executive director (who is not an employee of the company). Whether or not a director is also an...
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Part-time employment Under Australian law, employees who ordinarily work 38 hours or less per week are commonly described as ‘part-time’ employees, including in awards and agreements made under the Fair Work Act. Around 30% of all emplo...
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Fixed-term contracts Employers and employees are generally at liberty to enter into contracts that are expressed to remain in force until the occurrence of some pre-determined event such as a specified date or the completion of a specified ...
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Fixed-term employment may convert into open-ended employment in a range of circumstances. The most straightforward is where the employer and employee formally negotiate such a conversion. Conversion may also occur where an employee has been...
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The engagement of temporary workers through an employment agency or supplier is commonly referred to in Australia as ‘labour hire’. It typically involves the supplier providing a service to another organisation (‘host’) by supplying...
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Employers (‘first employer’) may also enter into arrangements whereby some of their employees are ‘loaned’ or ‘seconded’ to another employer (‘second employer’), such as a fellow member of a corporate group. Such arrangement...
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Employment contracts in Australia can be written, oral, or a combination of the two. They may also include terms implied by law and by conduct. It is not strictly necessary for employment contracts to be in writing. It is, howeve...
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It is common practice for an offer letter to set out core terms and conditions of employment and upon acceptance, to become the employment contract. Sometimes the offer letter is accompanied by a separate document which the employ...
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Employment contracts can be in any language. For obvious practical reasons, it is preferable that they be in English. Furthermore, Australian law requires employers to make and keep ‘employee records’ in relation to a rang...
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Contracts of employment in Australia may contain terms implied by law and terms implied by conduct. Both forms of implied terms will yield to express provisions to the contrary. They will also yield to any inconsistent provision of a statut...
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It is possible to incorporate terms from other agreements and documents, including industrial instruments, into a contract of employment. This is most effectively done by expressly referring to the relevant agreements and documents in the...
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Variation of an employment contract requires the agreement of both the employer and the employee. An employment contract cannot unilaterally be varied. Any attempt to do so is likely to constitute a breach that would enable the emplo...
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Employer policies and procedures are commonly made available to employees at the beginning of employment, and may be supplemented or varied during the currency of the employment relationship. Typically, employment contracts will...
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The great majority of Australian employees are covered by one of 122 ‘modern awards’. These awards set minimum terms and conditions of employment for the employees who fall within the coverage of the award in question. Failure to ...
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Minimum wages are not automatically adjusted in line with inflation. However, the Fair Work Commission must take inflation into account when setting minimum wage rates under the NMWO and through variations to modern award minim...
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Tax Under the Pay As You Go system, Australian employers are required to withhold tax at a specified rate from any payments made to an employee. The employer must remit this amount to the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’). T...
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Income tax deduction EUR 100,000 equates to approximately AUD 165,000. For an employee who is married with two children and earning this salary, and without accounting for any other factors affecting income tax thresholds and rates...
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Bonus entitlements (if any) will be regulated by any applicable awards, enterprise agreements or individual employment contracts, and/or by employer policies. These instruments and policies commonly (but not invariably) provide ...
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The National Employment Standards (‘NES’) set out in the Fair Work Act comprise minimum terms and conditions that apply to all employees. They include provision for annual leave, carer’s/personal leave, compassionate leave, par...
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Australian employees are commonly (but by no means invariably) provided with access to salary sacrifice arrangements (‘SSA’) whereby they contractually agree to give up part of their salary in exchange for a benefit of a similar value. ...
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There is no comprehensive legal limit on daily hours of work, although industrial instruments (modern awards and enterprise agreements) may impose restrictions on daily hours of work, and requiring employees to work excessive hours ma...
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It is not permissible for an industrial instrument to exclude any provision of the NES, and any contractual provision that purported to derogate from the NES would be unlawful. It follows that it would not be possible to exceed the wee...
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The minimum terms and conditions in relation to working time as set out in sections 5.1 and 5.2 above apply to all employees who fall within the Fair Work Act. This means that they apply to the overwhelming majority of employees...
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The Fair Work Act and the accompanying Regulations set out detailed requirements in relation to the keeping of employee records and the provision of pay slips to employees. The required records must include basic information...
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Self-management, open-plan offices and remote working Generally, the capacity of employers to provide open-plan offices or self-managing interdisciplinary teams is a matter of managerial discretion, providing that the arrangement is ot...
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As indicated in section 5.2 above, any request by an employer that an employee work additional hours must be ‘reasonable’ under the criteria set out in the law. The law does not, however, set a specific limit on the...
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The law does not contain any express requirement that the employer obtain consent from employees to work additional hours or overtime. However, as set out in section 5.2 above, an employee may refuse to work additional hours if they...
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There is no legislative provision which dictates how overtime is to be paid. Industrial instruments or employment contracts will typically set out the relevant rates of pay, including overtime rates. Such rates are generally cal...
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Labour legislation does not expressly provide a statutory entitlement to breaks or rest periods. Meal breaks are commonly dealt with in industrial instruments or contracts of employment, most often in terms to the effect that a...
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Working hours A contravention of the rules regarding working hours set out in the NES, a modern award or an enterprise agreement constitutes a contravention of a civil remedy provision of the Fair Work Act. An affected employee, th...
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Under Australian law all employees (except casual employees) are entitled to a minimum of four weeks of paid annual leave per year. Those who are characterised as ‘shiftworkers’ are entitled to an additional week of paid�...
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Payment in respect of statutory annual leave is calculated at the employee’s base rate of pay for their ordinary hours of work. It therefore does not include any overtime, penalty rates, or&nbs...
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Employees who would ordinarily work on a day that coincides with a public holiday are entitled to be absent from work and to receive payment at their base rate of pay for their ordinary hours of work on that day. Casual employees who are no...
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All employees (except casual employees) are entitled by law to ten days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year. Personal/carer’s leave can be taken: when the employee is unable to work due to personal illness or injury; or to pr...
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Unpaid parental leave The law provides for unpaid parental or adoption leave. Employees with at least 12 months of continuous service are entitled to up to 12 months’ unpaid leave relating to the birth or adoption of a child who is in t...
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Long service leave (‘LSL’) This is a distinctively Australian form of leave entitlement which was originally intended to provide colonial public servants with an opportunity to take an extended period of leave in the ‘home country...
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In Australia, there is no single work health and safety (‘WHS’) law that applies across the country. However, the WHS laws in each of Australia’s nine jurisdictions are very similar, and seven of them have enacted a model Work Health ...
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The WHS laws of each jurisdiction are administered and enforced by a jurisdiction-specific WHS regulator. Under the Model Act the relevant regulator has responsibility for monitoring and enforcing the legislation, and for conducting legal p...
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In all Australian jurisdictions breaches of work health and safety duties are criminal offences and can result in substantial penalties. However, it is important to note that breach of the Model Act involves only criminal penalties; it does...
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Employers could be criminally liable for the activities of third-party contractors under the Model Act in some circumstances. First, the Model Act provides that a PCBU must ensure that the health and safety of ‘other persons’ is not put...
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Obligation to notify regulator of notifiable incidents Each jurisdiction in Australia has a WHS regulator charged with enforcement of the jurisdiction’s WHS laws (see section 7.2 above). PCBUs are required to ensure that the WHS regulato...
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Each of the Australian jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth, has enacted legislation that is intended to prevent discrimination in employment and in other contexts against people on the ground that they possess specified ‘protected a...
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All anti-discrimination statutes contain a range of general and specific exceptions, exclusions and exemptions that, if established, have the effect that acts of discrimination that fall within their scope are not unlawful. It is import...
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Australian anti-discrimination statutes prohibit both direct and indirect discrimination. The test for what constitutes indirect discrimination differs between jurisdictions, but will generally be taken to occur if a condition or requir...
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Disability discrimination law requires employers to make, or propose to make, ‘reasonable adjustments’ to try to reduce or remove barriers and promote equal opportunity for people with disabilities. Where failure to do so has or would h...
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Harassment Harassment based on a protected characteristic is prohibited by a range of provisions at both the Federal and State and Territory levels. For example, Federal race discrimination law prohibits offensive behaviour based ...
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Anti-discrimination legislation at the Federal and State and Territory levels prohibits victimisation of a complainant, a person who supports a complainant and a person giving evidence regarding a complaint. By way of illustration, unde...
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Discrimination The consequences of, and remedies for, discrimination claims vary depending on whether the action is pursued under anti-discrimination legislation (Federal or State or Territory), or under the general protections provisions...
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Burden of proof The standard of proof under the anti-discrimination statutes and the general protections provisions of employment law is the ‘balance of probabilities’. The burden of proof is reversed for claims under employment leg...
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Vicarious liability Under Federal anti-discrimination legislation, an employer or an individual in a managerial or supervisory position may be found vicariously liable for unlawful discrimination by its employees in connection with their ...
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The Workplace Gender equality legislation requires non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees to submit a report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) each year. The reporting process requires employers to complete a qu...
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Workplace health and safety legislation requires a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the physical and psychological health and safety of workers engaged or caused to be engage...
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There are no reliable centralised data on the numbers of complaints made to the various regulatory bodies that have responsibility under Federal and State and Territory anti-discrimination legislation. At the Federal level, formal complai...
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Historically, awards of compensation in discrimination cases in Australia have generally been low. In part, this can be attributed to the fact that in some jurisdictions there are legislative caps on awards of damages, and such caps are set...
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Employees in Australia are under an implied duty of fidelity. Amongst other things, this requires employees not to injure their employer’s interests by disclosing or misusing confidential information acquired in the course of their employ...
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The duty of fidelity requires that employees not engage in business activities that compete with their employer during the employment relationship. That does not necessarily mean, however, that employees cannot ...
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Once employment is ended, the duty of fidelity no longer operates to protect the confidentiality of the employer’s information. That does not mean, however, that such information is entirely unprotected. There are...
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The common law doctrine of restraint of trade means that an employer cannot protect itself against all competition by a former employee. It may, however, be possible to secure a measure of protection against certain forms of post-employment...
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Despite declining membership levels in recent years, trade unions continue to play an important role in social, political and industrial life in Australia. The Fair Work Act is the principal piece of legislation governing workplace relation...
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In Australia, some industries have moderately high rates of union density, whilst others have almost no union presence. Density is highest in the public sector – notably in education and training, public administration, and...
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Under the Fair Work Act, employers can be required to negotiate with unions where a majority of the workforce wish them to do so,...
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Unlike many European countries, Australia does not have formal provision for works councils at either the level of the workplace or the enterprise. Many workplaces h...
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There is no freestanding ‘right to strike’ in Australian law. On the contrary, all industrial action by employees is, on its face, unlawful under both common law and statute. However, the Fair Work Act does permit the taking of lawful i...
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In principle an employer can lawfully terminate the employment of an employee on any grounds and in any manner, so long as it adheres to the terms of the relevant contract of employment. This principle must, however, be read subject to an e...
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The common law of employment offers only very limited protection to an employee whose employment is terminated, because the common law generally allows the employer to terminate at any time and on any ground, so long as it observes the term...
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To minimise exposure to claims arising out of termination of employment, employers should: have clear policies about which forms of conduct may lead to dismissal, communicate these policies to employees, and apply them in a consistent mann...
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Employees may bring a ‘general protections’ claim against an employer if the employer has taken ‘adverse action’ against the employee for a prohibited reason. Such reasons include that the employee: has a ‘workplace right�...
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Australian law sets out minimum notice periods that employers must give to employees: Period of employment Notice period One year or less one week One to three years two weeks Three to five years three weeks More than five years ...
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Provided it is permitted by the contract of employment, applicable modern award or enterprise agreement, employers can terminate employment with immediate effect by making a payment in lieu of the required notice. Payment in lieu of notice ...
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Employees who wish to resign are typically required to provide the employer with notice of resignation. There is no statutory minimum notice period for employees; the notice period will usually be set out in the applicable modern award, ent...
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It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee on the basis of age. This typically means that compulsory retirement polic...
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Severance for Redundancy An employee whose position is made redundant will generally be entitled to a redundancy payment. The matter is commonly dealt with in enterprise agreements, subject to the following statutory minimum payments: ...
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Where there is a risk that an employee may bring a claim against an employer, the employer may seek to enter into a separation agreement or release...
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Statutory duty to consult Australian law requires that where an employer has decided to dismiss 15 or more employees for reasons of an ‘economic, technological, structural or similar nature’, it must notify and consult with any union(s)...
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Information in relation to the statutory duty to consult The employer must notify each union that represents any of the affected employees of three things: the proposed dismissals and the reasons for them; the number and categories of empl...
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Both the statutory duty to consult, and the obligation to notify Centrelink, are couched in terms of notification ‘as soon as practicable’ after taking the decision to terminate employment, but before implementing it. The model consulta...
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If an employer fails to comply with the information or consultation obligations in an award or enterprise agreement, the employer will be in breach of the general statutory prohibitions on contravening awards or enterprise agreements, and a...
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There is no statutory selection order that must be applied under Australian law. In principle, practices such as ‘last on first off’ or ‘first on last off�...
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Australian labour law provides employees with a minimum entitlement to severance pay in all cases of redundancy. There are no ad...
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Under Australian law a share takeover of a company (as distinct from a business sale) does not result in a change in the identity of the employer. Consequently, the change of ownership will have no effect on the employment of the comp...
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There is no provision in Australian law whereby, on the transfer of all or part of a business, the workforce in that business is automatically transferred to the new owner of the business on the employees’ existing terms and conditions ...
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The new employer (transferee) is not under any obligation to offer employment to employees or former employees of the transferor. If, however, the transferee does offer employment to some or all of the transferor’s employees, then is...
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As noted in section 14.2 above, in a transfer of business situation employees are not automatically transferred, nor are they entitled to be provided with employment by the new employer/transferee. Rather, where there is a transfer o...
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Terms of employment contract Where a transfer of business occurs, the transferring employee’s employment contract with the old employer is terminated, and the transferring employee will enter into a new employment contract with the new em...
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Generally, liabilities stemming from any litigation (e.g. an unfair dismissal or work-injury claim) will not transfer, as the old employer remains the named respondent. Commercially, it is possible for transferors and transferees t...
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Where there is a transfer of business in the sense described in section 14.2 above, any ‘transferable instrument’ that covered the old employer prior to the transfer will normally cover the new employer and the transferring employ...
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As discussed in section 14.2 above, contracts of employment do not ‘transfer’ in Australia in transfer of business situations. The transferring employee’s employment contract with the old employer is terminated, and the transferrin...
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The transferee in a transfer of business situation is not obliged to offer employment to all or any of the employees of the transferor. In that sense, employees can ‘safely’ be dismissed at any time in the context of a transfer. If...
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A requirement to consult with employees or their representatives will generally be imposed only on the old employer, and can derive from: applicable industrial instruments, such as an enterprise agreement or modern award; and the...
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Industrial instruments Where the standard consultation clause under a modern award applies, the old employer is required to provide in writing to the employees and their representatives all relevant information about the change including ...
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Industrial instruments The form and procedure of the relevant consultation obligations may differ depending on the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement. Consultation generally involves discussing a framework of the proposed ter...
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Industrial instruments Failure to comply with a consultation term of a modern award or enterprise agreement could result in the imposition of civil penalties and the making of other court orders. Where a party (most typically a un...
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There are no statutory provisions relating to works councils in Australia. Any representative arrangements that may be in place at the transferor are a matter between the transferor and its employees and/or their unions. If those arrang...
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Australia has a comprehensive social security system that provides means-tested benefits to meet a range of circumstances. One element of this system is the Age Pension, which is provided to individuals of retirement age (‘retirement age�...
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Employers in Australia make contributions on behalf of employees to the employee’s chosen superannuation fund. If the employee does not choose a fund, a new employer must check to see if the employee has an existing fund (‘stapled fund�...
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It is legally permissible for an employer to operate its own superannuation fund, which could be a defined-contribution or defined-benefit fund. With the advent of mandatory superannuation arrangements, however, this is no longer c...
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Employers are responsible for selecting the default fund, and most employers simply pay the mandated Superannuation Guarantee contributions to the superannuation funds chosen by their employees (or to the default fund for employees that do ...
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Superannuation contributions typically receive favourable tax treatment. Superannuation Guarantee contributions are not generally included when determining an employee’s ‘assessable income’ for the purposes of income tax. Superannuati...
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Contracts of employment should specify whether the wages or salary provided under them is ‘inclusive’ or ‘exclusive’ of the mandated Superannuation Guarantee contribution. For waged employees who are paid by the hour, the rate of pa...
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Timing for starting an investigation With the exception of some specific types of public sector investigations which might be subject to regulatory timeframes, there are no specific requirements under Australian law relating to the timi...
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Must employees participate in a workplace investigation? Employees in Australia have an implied contractual duty to obey lawful and reasonable directions given by their employer, when those directions fall within the scope of their emp...
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An internal investigation is a fact finding, not disciplinary or legal, process and there is no right to legal representation in that process (unless provided for in an employer’s policies). However, employees are generally entitled ...
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In circumstances where an employer is seeking to rely on an investigation to take disciplinary action against an employee, there is no obligation for the employer to provide the employee with all evidence gathered in that investigation. ...
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Regime for whistleblowing There are effectively two regimes for whistleblowing in Australia, one in the private sector and one for government employees. Whether an employer is required to put systems in place for anonymous reporting will de...
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Australian law does not prescribe how an employer must deal with a poorly performing employee. However, some employers will be subject to rules about this, for example through industrial instruments that apply to the workplace or ...
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Rules about grievance handling Other than the requirements relating to investigations and whistleblowing discussed elsewhere in this chapter, Australian law does not prescribe how an employer must handle an employee grievance. Howeve...
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Job advertisements must not be worded in a discriminatory way. They must be worded gender-neutrally. They must specify the minimum wage according to law and the applicable collective agreement for the position. If no mandatory regulations o...
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The employer must not ask for details of health conditions that will not affect performance or are not relevant for the job (e.g. HIV where the position is office-based). An employer may check if the employee is in a state of health that wi...
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An offer of employment may be made subject to the completion of a probationary period. The probationary period must not be longer than one mo...
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During a one-month probationary period, either party may terminate the employment contract with immediate...
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Job applicants may bring claims for compensation against a prospective employer if their applications were rejected for...
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An employer must obtain a work permit for a foreign worker if the foreign worker does not have a permit allowing him or her to nominate an employer in Austria. There are various different types of work permits. For example, qualified employ...
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Foreign workers who do not belong to an EEA country or Switzerland require a work permit. Therefore, the employer must keep work permits on the premises and available for inspection. For foreign workers who remain subject to their home co...
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Under the GDPR, the controller is obliged to delete personal data without undue delay if that data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was initially collected or processed (i.e. the application process). Thus, the employer ...
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In principle, questions concerning the employee’s private sphere are impermissible due to the applicant’s privacy rights. Exceptions exist if the question directly affects the employment relationship. Questions about religious b...
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Whether an individual is considered to be an employee or an independent contractor depends predominantly on the following criteria: whether the individual must work fixed hours and in a specific workplace; whether the individual may assign...
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Austrian labour law distinguishes between blue and white-collar employees. Under the White-Collar Employees Act (Angestelltengesetz) a white-collar employee is a person who is employed predominantly in commercial or other higher, non-commer...
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There are some rules which apply specifically in connection with the employment of company directors, as they are always considered to be...
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In general, employees are not entitled to request part-time hours except for parental reasons. Essentially, there are no restrictions regarding part-time employment. Employers and employees are therefore free to agree on part-time working...
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Employees and employers are generally free to agree on fixed-term employment. However, employment contracts for a definite period cann...
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If there is no justification for concluding multiple fixed-term contracts in succession, the employment converts into an indefinite-term employment relationship (see above in 2.5). Further, a fixed-term contract may convert into an indefi...
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Essentially, employers are free to employ temporary workers through an employment agency. In fact, the employment n...
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The employer may put its employees at the disposal of another organisation, but some aspects of employment law will apply to it. The law provides for equal treatment during the assignment. So...
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There is no obligation to provide a written employment contract in Austria. However, the employee is entitled to written notification (‘Dienstzettel’) setting out the main duties and obligations arising from employment immediately after...
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It is not common practice i...
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There is no mandatory requirement in terms of the language that must be used in an employment contract. The contract may be in English as well as German provided all the parties understand it. Ho...
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Generally, statutory law, collective agreements and workplace agreements regulate a significant part of the employment relationship even if not explicitly set out in the contract. As a rule, individual employment contracts cannot change pro...
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Applicable collective agreements and workplace agreements regulate the employment relationship even if they are not set ou...
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Generally, if a change to the employees’ terms and conditions is not covered by the employment contract and/or is not reasonable (e.g. modification of the...
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All documents that are referred to in the ...
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There is no statutory minimum wage. However, minimum wages can be set in collective bargaining agreements. Therefore, the social partners have major influence on the minimum wage in Austria. At present, there are more than 850 collective ba...
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There is no explicit requirement to adjust wages in line with inflation. Wages are only adjusted by collective bargaining increases, which are usually agreed between the parties to the collective bargaining agreements every year. However, i...
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Tax and the employees’ social security contributions are deducted from the employees’ gross salary and paid to the relevant authorities by the employer. The employer is liable for the deduction and payment of the contributions. Tax ...
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For an annual gross salary of EUR 100,000 the tax payable would be approximately 26% (i.e. EUR 26,000) and the social security contribution approximately 13% (i.e. EUR 13,000). Therefore, the net amount would be a...
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There are no specific rules governing the payment of bonuses, other than the regulations set out in the Corporate Governance Codex that apply to members of management bo...
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Employers pay social insurance contributions for the statutory pension, health, unemployment scheme...
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The benefits that employers offer to employees...
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The daily limit on normal working hours is eight hours. The weekly limit is 40 hours. However, collective agreements may provide for lower limits of working hour...
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The limits on working hours may be exceeded by a flexible allocation of working time and overtime, generally based on collective bargaining agreements or works agreements. However, the new maximum daily working time introduced in September�...
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Most management staff are exempt from the law on working time and rest periods. The law provides that employees are excluded if they have been given independent decision-making (i.e. executive or managerial) authority and if they can set th...
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The employer must monitor employees’ working time and ensure ...
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Comin...
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Working time, including overtime, must not exceed twelve hours a day or 60 hours a week, ...
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Comin...
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According to Austrian law, overtime work must be remuner...
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If the daily working hours exceed six hours, the employee must take a 30 minute break. This break is usually unpaid unless otherwise agreed. Employees are also entitled to a daily rest period of at least 11 hours and a weekly rest pe...
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For exceeding the limits on daily or weekly working hours ...
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The statutory annual leave entitlement is 25 working days. If Saturday is included as a working day, the annual entitlement is 30 working days. The entitlement increases after 25 years of service to 30 working days and 36 working days if Sa...
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For periods of leave an employee is entitled to the remuneration he or she would have received if not on holiday. The method of calculation depends on the remuneration pattern: Remu...
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There are 13 paid public holidays in Austria which must be provided and are not included in the statutory minimum holiday entitlement. Employees may only work on public holidays as permitted by law. If they do work, they will receive salary...
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Employees who fall ill or who are injured unintentionally or without gross negligence are entitled to paid sick leave for: a minimum of six weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks at full pay; a further four weeks (i.e. after the 6 to 12-week ...
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Maternity rights Pregnant employees and mothers are protected from dismissal from the date of the pregnancy until at least four months after giving birth. During this time, these employees can only be dismissed based on a prior court orde...
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Educational leave Educational leave may be agreed between the employer and employee if the employee has worked for the organisation for a minimum of six months. This kind of leave must be used for the further training of the employee and ...
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Employers have a general obligation to organise working conditions in a way that protects the life and health of employees. Employers must also safeguard employees’ interests. Accordingly, the place of work must be equipped to avoid w...
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Mandatory health and safety measures are primarily set out in the Austrian Employee Protection Act (‘ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz’ or ‘ASchG’). Other laws that contain health and safety regulations include the Mother’s Protection...
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Health and safety provisions are enforced by the Labour Inspectorate (‘Arbeitsinspektorat’). The violation of statutory employee-protection provisions can lead to high administrative fines. The amount varies greatly according to t...
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In general, employers are not liable for the activities of third-party con...
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An employer must immediately notify the Labour Inspectorate (‘Arbeitsinspektorat’) of any accident at work resulting in an employee’s death or serious injury, unless a report has been made to the police (who are in turn requir...
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Equal treatment law aims to ensure that men and women are treated equally at work. In 2000, two EU directives came into force with the following objectives: to implement the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of raci...
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Exceptions to the general rules against discrimination may arise if the differential treatment is an occupational requirement and is therefore justified. For example, an exception would apply where religion or belief is a substantial, legit...
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Indirect forms of discrimination are prohibited. For example, part-time employees must not be treated less favourably than full...
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Disadvantages placed on employees with religious beliefs, for example Muslim women who wear a headscarf at work based on their religious conviction, can be considered prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, religion or ethnic origin....
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Harassment is deemed to be a form of discrimination under equal treatment law. Sexual and other forms of harassment are prohibited in this context, including any negative behaviour in relation to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religi...
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An employee must not be discriminated against or dismissed simply because he or she has brought an equal treatment claim or acted as a witness in discrimination proceedings. T...
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A job applicant who is discriminated against by an employer in the recruitment process is entitled to compensation. Essentially, the amount of compensation for not getting a job based on discrimination is equal to at least two months’ rem...
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If there is a claim for discrimination in employment, the claimant must present credible evidence of discrimination to the competent Labour and Social Court. The employer as defendant party has the burden to prove that the difference in tre...
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Equal treatment law not only prohibits discriminatory behaviour on the part of the employer, but also that of its representa...
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There is no general legal obligation for employers to report gender pay differences. However, employers of more than 150 people must prepare an internal income report every two years, covering the average income of all employees in the co...
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In general, employers have a statutory obligation to organise the working conditions in a way that protects the life and health of employees. In addition to physical health, Austrian labour law also protects mental health. This includes men...
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There is no publicly available information about recent types of claims. We are aware that discri...
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The typical amounts of awards made in cases of unlawful discrimination are limited by the minimum and maximum payment levels defined by the Austrian equal treatment law. In the event of a discriminatory failur...
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There are no rules that are specific to employee information, but the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are applicable for any person processing personal data belonging to someone else (which would include an emplo...
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Breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) can result in serious financial penalties: fines up to EUR 20 million or 4% of a company’s total global turnover in the previous fiscal year (whichever is higher) for the most ...
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An employer may collect and process confidential employee information, but if it is ‘personal data’ (that is, information relating to an identifiable living individual, who can be identified directly or indirectly by reference to the da...
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Employers may have a legitimate interest to protect by implementing technology that monitors the activities of its employees, but these interests must be balanced with an employee’s right to privacy, which extends to the person’s workpl...
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There is no case law concerning access of employees’ social media by employers. However, there is legal doctrine concerning the use of the Internet and emails by employees for private reasons to the effect that if private use of the Inter...
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In 2023 the EU Whistleblowing Directive was implemented into national law. The Austrian law (the ‘HinweisgeberInnenschutzgesetz’) covers the following areas: public procurement; financial services, products and markets and the pr...
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According to Austrian law an employee must act in good faith in relation to his or her employer. This means that he or she must safeguard the employer’s interests. The employee is obliged to keep professional secrets if the employer has a...
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By law, employees must not take part in activities that compete with their employer during the employment relationship. It is grounds for dismissal if employees operate an independent commercial enterprise or engage in trading act...
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There is generally only a duty to keep work-related informat...
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Generally, the prohibition against competition ends when the employment relationship ends, unless otherwise agreed. In accordance with the law for white-collar and blue-collar workers the duty not to compete can extend beyond termination ...
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The Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ‘ÖGB’) is an umbrella organisation of labour unions of employees. It is the only voluntary association of employees in Austria. It is subdivided into seven membe...
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The Austrian Trade Union Federation has approximately 1.20 million members (union density of approximately 40%), while the Chambers of Labour have appro...
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In Austria employers are not required to work with trade unions. The majority of employers are represented by the Austrian Federal Economic Chambers (Österreichische Wirtschaftskammer...
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A works council must be set up if a business permanently employs at least five employees over the age of 18. A ‘business’ means a workplace that forms an organisational unit that has a production process or operation largely independent...
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There is very little law about strikes and other industrial action in Austria. Only a few isolated regulations in constitutional law, labour law, and social security law exist. There is no law that obliges the unions to inform the employer ...
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Under Austrian law the employer can give notice without giving a reason. It is not necessary to demonstrate a redundancy situation or any other reasons. In principle, giving notice in writing is only obligatory when contractually agreed, bu...
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Employees employed for more than six months in a business with at least five permanent employees are entitled to general protection against termination. This means they have the option to appeal against a dismi...
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There are no statutory selection criteria that need to be used in redundancy situations. The employer can give notice without giving a reason. In terms of termination for employee-related reasons, such as poor performance, the employer may ...
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Special protection against termination applies to the following groups of employees: disabled employees who have been with the organisation for at least six months, with certain exceptions (the degree of disability must be officially deter...
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The statutory notice period for employees is one month from the end of each calendar month. It is possible to contractually agree on a longer termination period for the employee, but it must not be longer than the notice period for the empl...
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The employee is entitled to the same financial treatment during the notice period, as Austrian labour law does not provide for payment in lieu of notice. The employee is also obliged to work during the notice period. It is possible to relea...
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Ordinarily, an employee who resigns is subject to the same notice terms and notice period that apply to termination by the employer (see section 12.5). If the employee resigns with immediate effect, the employment will be deemed terminated ...
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It is not possible to retire an employee compulsorily when he or she reaches the statutory retirement age. T...
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The employee is entitled to the same financial treatment during the notice period as during ordinary employment and this covers the following: remuneration until the end of the notice period; pro-rata holiday pay (i.e. pay for unused annua...
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It is possible to settle claims by employees by means of a voluntary termination payment, bu...
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The employer must notify the works council if it plans to give notice of termination to an employee. The works council has one week to consent, disagree, or offer no views. This so-called ‘preliminary procedure’ must be observed for eve...
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In cases of collective redundancy, the employer must provide the Public Employment Service (the ‘Arbeitsmarktservice’, or ‘AMS’) with written notification of the planned dismissals within a 30-day period. Before notifying AMS, the e...
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There is no minimum consultation period, but it must be held when the works council still has a genuine opportunity to assess the consequenc...
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If an employer fails to conduct the so-called ‘preliminary procedure’ (i.e. the ...
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There is no statutory selection order for dismissals under Austrian law. However, if an employer is basing dismissals on operational reasons, the employer must prove...
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In principle, there are no compulsory additional payments to be made in addition to the statutory severance payment that dismissed employees may be entitled to (if they belong to the pre-2003 severance payment schem...
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A transfer of undertaking requires a change of the identity of the employer (owner). This will not generally be...
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Sale of a business If the business is sold, the buyer, as the new employer, becomes automatically bound by the rights and obligations contained in each individual employment contract. The employee transfer rules apply to sales, leases, and ...
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For the old employer: It must inform and consult in advance with the works council, if one exists, about the planned transfer. If no works council is established, either the old employer or the new employer must inform the employees in adv...
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There is no general right for employees to object a transfer and therefore the employment contract with the transferee remains valid. However, employees have a right to object that...
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Terms The transferee, as the new employer, must take over all rights and obligations contained in each individual employment contract. This happens automatically by operation of law. Therefore, employees may not be employed by the transfere...
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As soon as the transferee steps into the existing employment contract as the new employer, replacing the transferor, any liabilities resulting from that contract are also transferred. For obligations arising from the period prior to the tra...
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Upon transfer, the employment contract will be governed by the collective agreement of the transferee. If both the transferee and the transferor are subject to the same collective agreement, there will be no change. If a different collectiv...
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Changes to individual contracts can be made only by mutual agreement or if one party has reserved the right to unilaterally change employment conditions. This right can only be exercised in good faith and is usually connected to bonus or pr...
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Neither the transferor nor the transferee may dismiss employees by reason of the transfer. Such a termination might be effective at first, but the employee could bring an action for a declaratory judgment that the dismissal was based on the...
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The seller must inform and consult in advance with the works council, if one exists, about planned transfers. If no works council has been established, either the seller or the buyer must ...
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The following information must be provided: the date or proposed date of the transfer; the reason for the transfer; the legal, economic and social ...
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If a works council has been established and the changes are detrimental to employees, the works council may make recommendations to alleviate or avoid negative effects, and might wish to co-op...
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There are no direct sanctions if the obligations to inform and consult are disregarded, but the emplo...
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If the entire business is transferred, the existing works council and any works agreements remain unaffected. However, if only part of the business is transferred (i.e. becomes legally independent), the existing work...
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Both employees and employers pay social security contributions into the compulsory public ...
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Employers are required to pay contributions to the compulsory public pension scheme but there is no other requirement for an employer to provide its employees with access to ...
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Employers are free to provide company pension schemes for their employees. These pension schemes are regulated by a law which provides a framework to ensure the payment of benefi...
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A company group insurance scheme (‘Betriebliche Kollektivversicherung’) or commitment to a pension scheme (‘Pensionskassenzusage’) must be established by way of a works agreement. Pension schemes may be set up by co...
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Pensions are subject to taxation. However, employees�...
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A pension scheme can be based on an individual contract between the employer and the em...
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Employers have the right or, in some cases, the duty (e.g. in respect of a duty of care, establishment of a compliance organisation, antitrust audits) to carry out inspections and investigations. The main purpose of conducting investi...
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In general, where an employee’s own work processes are affected or where the employee has a management function with control and supervisory authority over other employees, it is not only permissible but also mandatory for the empl...
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In principle, there is no legally stipulated period of time in which the employer must take action after being informed of the conduct. Under the general duty of care, the employer must take action as soon as possible to begin ga...
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Employees are generally obliged to participate in internal investigations, based on either the employer’s right to issue instructions or the employee’s duty of loyalty. Insofar as the investigation concerns work-related info...
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There is no explicit statutory rule that entitles an employee to involve third parties from outside the company in the investigation. If the employee does not wish to answer the questions asked, the employer may consider giving the em...
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We are not aware of any statutory rule requiring the employer to disclose all of its evidence to the employee during the internal investigation. If the employer keeps a personal employee file, the employee generally has a right t...
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Starting in 2013 the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor has had its own website that allows reports of corruption and economic crime to be made with a guarantee of full anonymity. Because of its success, this system�...
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First of all, it should be noted that while the employee is obliged to make honest efforts, he or she owes only his job performance, but no particular success. The employer may admonish/warn the employee in case of low performanc...
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If the employees’ grievance is, for example, a complaint about other employees or supervisors (e.g. mobbing), there are no specific legal regulations on how the employer should deal with it. However, under the general duty of care, th...
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There is no prescribed form of wording required for job advertisements or details that need to be included. However, care should be taken to ensure that the advertisement does not discriminate between applicants on grounds of race, origin,...
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Employers are not prohibited from carrying out background checks and these can be done at any stage in the hiring process. Nevertheless, it is recommended that checks should only be carried out where they are proportionate and necessary, ...
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Bahrain labour law allows employers to apply a probationary period where this is expressly stated in the employment contract. Probation can be applied only once during the period of employment. The probationary period can last up to t...
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The employer or the employee can give notice to terminate the employment contract at any time during the probationary period. At least one day’s written notice must be given. ...
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The Bahrain Labour Law does not expressly extend any protection to job applicants. It is arguable that applicants can bring a claim of discrimination on grounds of race, origin, religion, language or belief where they have been denied a...
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Foreign nationals are required to have a work permit sponsored by an employer in Bahrain. The application for the work permit must be submitted to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (‘LMRA’) using the online Expat Managem...
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Employers should retain copies of the employee’s passport, work permi...
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Employers can keep their records about unsuccessful job candidates provided that the individual has given consent in writing for his or her data to be processed and retained. ...
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Whilst there is nothing in the law that prohibits employers from asking any particular questions during interviews, they should nevertheless refrain from asking questions regarding the individual’s political or religious beliefs, sexu...
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The Bahrain Labour Law applies to all employees, who are defined as ‘natural persons working in return for a wage and under the employer’s management and supervision’. The concept of independent contractor does not expres...
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There are no key distinctions between employees who are blue collar/white collar/sales representatives under the Bahrain Labour Law. However, the Labour Law does not apply to domestic workers and persons regarded as such, including ag...
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There are two types of directors in Bahrain: (i) a company director who is officially appointed via a board or shareholders’ resolution and is listed in the company’s Commercial Register, and (ii) an employee simply having an o...
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Bahraini labour law does not address part-time or flexible working. As such, there is no prohibition or restriction on such arrangements, but employees do not have a legal right to request them. ...
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There are certain rules under the labour laws governing fixed-term employment. Fixed-term employment contracts automatically terminate at the end of the contractual period unless renewed by an express agreement between the partie...
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A fixed-term employment contract will convert into an indefinite-term contract in the following circumstances: if the employer and employee continue executing the employment relationship after the expiry of the fixed contractual�...
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The concept of a temporary worker does not exist in the Bahrain labour laws. Individuals engaged through an agency will not become the employees of the end user client unless there is an express agreement to this effect or the ...
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Bahraini labour law does not address secondments, although in practice they are not uncommon. While there are no restrictions in this regard for Bahraini employees, expatriate workers are restricted from working for third parties ot...
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A written employment contract is required and must be executed in duplicate, with one copy to be retained by the employer and the other to be given to the employee. The contract should be written in Arabic but can be written in another la...
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An offer letter is not required but is sometimes issued to support an application for a work permit for an expatriate employee. However, it is increasingly common now for an empl...
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The employment contract should be written in Arabic but can be written in a different language provided that an Arabic translation is included too. ...
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The employee’s statutory rights to leave such as annual leave and sick leave, the end of service gratuity, protection against unlawful termination, and other basic statutory rights are implied into the employment contract. Likewise, the...
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The employment contract should contain all of the terms and conditions of employment as far as possible, but refere...
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Generally, in order to change contractual terms, an employer must obtain consent from the employee in writing. If the employee does not agree to the employer’s proposed change and the employer nevertheless proceeds to amend a term, th...
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Employees are normally provided with the employer’s handbook and/or the following policies: disciplinary and grievance policy; code of conduct; health and safety policy; data protection and/or IT usage policy. ...
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Bahrain labour law provides for maximum ordinary working hours of 48 hours per week, calculated at the rate of eight hours per day unless the parties agree otherwise. In any case, the ordinary working hours must not exceed ten ho...
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An agreement providing for more than 48 working hours per week or ten hours per day would be in contradiction with the Labour Law, and hence, it may be void. ...
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There are no employees who are exempt from the rules about working time in Bahrain. Certain categories of employees are entitled by law to working time limits that are lower than the generally applicable limits. Muslim workers Musli...
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There are no time-recording obligations imposed on employers under Bahrain laws. ...
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Bahrain labour law does not address such working arrangements, and employers are therefore generally free to implement them if they wish. ...
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Overtime hours must not exceed two hours per day, except where business conditions necessitate...
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It is mandatory for the employer to obtain an employee’s written consent where he or she is required to work overtime for more than two consecutive working d...
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Where an employee is required to work overtime hours, he or she is entitled to 125% of the normal hourly rate for hours worked during the day, and 150% of his or her normal hourly rate for hours worked during the night. Where an emplo...
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Employees are entitled to a daily break of at least 30 minutes for the purposes of prayers, eating and resting. Employees may not work for more than six consecutive hours without such a break. The break should not be calculated a...
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Employers can be subject to penalties imposed by the Ministry of Labour for breaching the working time provisions of the Labour Law. Additionally, employees could refuse to work overtime hours or bring a claim for compensation for overtime ...
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Trade unions are recognised in Bahrain and are empowered by statute to p...
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Whilst trade unions have been recognised for so...
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There is no requirement for employers to establish a union, bu...
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Trade unions perform the role of works councils and are the employee representative bodies in Bahrain. Generally, there is no obligation to inform and/or consult with trade unions or their members unless this is agreed as part of a collecti...
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Strikes and other industrial actions can only be carried out by a recognised trade union. In order for a strike to be lawful, the following conditions must be satisfied: The majority of the G...
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Employers can lawfully terminate employment by serving not less than 30 days’ notice in writing on the employee, provided that there is a legitimate reason to do so. Legitimate reasons for termination include: redundancy, including total...
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Employees have the right to bring a claim of unlawful termination in the Labour Court and to obtain compensation. The compensation...
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Where dismissal is applied as a sanction for improper behaviour or actions, the following process must be followed: An investigation must be commenced within 7 days of the employer’s discovery of the alleged improper behaviour. The emplo...
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The employer must not terminate employment on grounds of illness before the employee has exhausted the statutory entitlement to sick leave, or whilst the employee is on maternity leave. The Employer also must not terminate an employee due t...
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The minimum notice period is 30 days. The minimum notice period may be incre...
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Strictly speaking, there is no provision in the Labour Law that allows for an employer to terminate with immediate effect by making a payment in ...
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An employee can resign by giving not less than 30 days’ notice in writing. The employee can also terminate the contract and claim constructive termination if: the employer o...
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Yes. Employees ...
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The employee is entitled to receive the following upon termination of employment: salary and benefits up to the termination date; payment in lieu of notice if the employee is not required to work du...
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Settlement is possible by way of a written agreement with ...
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There is no general requirement to consult with employees or their representatives unless there is a collective labour a...
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There is no general requirement to provide any information to the employees or their representatives about the dismiss...
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There is no obligation to inform or consult with employees unless...
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Unless there is a collective labour agreement that requires the employer to inform and consult, there wil...
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Where the employer is making redundancie...
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Employees who are dismissed for redundancy (collective or otherwise) must be paid a compen...
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Where there is a change in the identity of the employer as a result of a share takeover the employment contracts of employees are not terminated, and the successor employer is held jointly liable with the previous employer for the fulfilm...
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Where the business is merged or disposed by means of inheritance or a will, through a donation, sale (including at an auction) or any o...
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The predecessor and successor employers are held jointly liable for the fulfilment of all of the obligations arising from the empl...
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Employees do not have a right to object to a transfer where it occurs as a result of a share acquisition, merger, or disposal through inheritance, donation or sale and does not terminate the employment contra...
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Where a transfer occurs as a result of a share acquisition, merger, or disposal through inheritance, donation or sale, the employment contracts are not terminated and remain in effect with the new employer. There is no principle of...
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Where there is a share acquisition, merger, or disposal through inheritance, donation or sale of the business, the predecessor and successor employers will be held jointly liable for the employees’ employment rights. ...
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Collective agreements do not automatically transfer by force of law. Whether a collective agreement transfers will depend on whether the agreement contains a provision binding future employers. ...
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Changes can only be made with the express agreement of employees. ...
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There is no specific protection in the law for dismissal in the context of a transfer. If an employer wishes to terminate employment during or after a transfer, it must have a lawful reason to do so under the same rules that would ...
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There is no obligation to inform or consult with employees or their representatives where there is a business transfer. ...
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There is no obligation to provide any information. ...
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No consultation is required. ...
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The employer is under no obligation to inform or consult. ...
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In Bahrain, trade unions act as the employee representatives and take the place of works councils. The trade union will not be disbanded upon transfer unless this is provided for in the collective agreement. ...
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Bahraini nationals must be registered with the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO), and both the employer and employee are required to make contributions to the pension fund. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals working in Bahrain must ...
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There is no requirement to provide employees with access...
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An employer can fund and operate its own pension scheme and, for Bahraini national...
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There are no requirements to consult with employees...
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Pensions administered by the SIO are not ...
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There is no requirement...
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The law does not prohibit employers from looking for information about job applicants that is in the public domain. However, privacy and data protection rules must be respected at all times during the selection and recruitment process (nota...
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Since 1 January 2014, it is no longer possible to include a probationary perio...
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Probationary periods are no...
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Job applicants can bring claims for unlawful discrimination against a prospective employer. Belgian anti-discrimination law prohibits unlawful discrimination in relation to conditions for access to employment, including selection criteria a...
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A major overhaul of Belgian business immigration laws took effect as of January 2019. This overhaul largely abolished the previous ‘two tier’ system that required both a work permit (authorization to work in Belgium) and a separate resi...
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The employer must declare foreign workers who are posted from abroad (including EEA nationals) at www.limosa.be before the start of the employment in Belgium. A copy of the Limosa declaration must be kept by the employer. The foreign worker...
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In general, records about rejected candidates should be deleted as soon as it is clear that no job offer will be made or that the candidate does not accept such offer. This is based on the general GDPR principle that personal data may not b...
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The interview process aims to determine whether the applicant’s profile corresponds to the hiring criteria. Under the general GDPR principle of ‘data minimisation’, employers can only request information that is relevant to that funct...
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Under Belgian law, an individual will be considered an employee if he or she is managed by an employer, who can exercise ‘authority’ over him or her. This is the characteristic which distinguishes the self-employed worker from the emp...
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Belgian employment law continues to recognise the basic distinction between blue and white collar employees. However, the Constitutional Court has declared the distinction between blue collar and white collar employees discriminatory with r...
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Belgian law has created a presumption of self-employed status for people who exercise a ‘mandate’ in commercial companies. As the definition of a company mandate was not always clear, the issue of whether someone exercised a mandate, an...
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There is specific legislation regarding part-time employment. The legislation mainly focuses on working hours and work schedules. Strict formalities also apply to part-time employment contracts. There are several mechanisms t...
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Specific formalities apply to fixed-term employment contracts. Fixed-term employment requires a written ...
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Successive fixed-term contracts, concluded without any interruption caused by the employee, will convert into an indefinite-term contract unless the employer is a...
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An agency worker signs up with a temporary employment agency to work for one or more of the agency’s clients. Usually agency workers carry out their duties in the client’s workplace alongside the client’s employees. Only temporary wor...
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Generally, the leasing of personnel is prohibited, meaning that an employer must not let its employees work under the authority of another organisation (the ‘user’). In the case of a breach, the employee will be deemed to have an indefi...
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Generally, a written employment contract is not required. However, it is common practice for employers to provide a written employment contract. If there is no written contract, the contract will be considered to be a full-time contract for...
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It is not common practice in Belgi...
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There are mandatory legal provisions on the use of language for employment contracts, depending on the region in which the employer has its ‘operational offices’ (this is not necessarily the registered office of the company or where the...
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Certain terms are implied by law in all employment contracts. These are mandatory minimum obligations that must be respected by all employers and employees. For example, the parties must treat each other with mutual respect, decency and dig...
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It is possible for the contract of employment to incorporate terms from other agreements or documents. The most common documents or parts of documents that exist alongside the employment contract and the mandatory legal provisions are wor...
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Generally, the employer must not change the contractual terms and conditions without the worker’s consent. However, changes to the terms and conditions by mutual agreement are possible and are often confirmed by signing a written addend...
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Each employee must be given a copy of the work regulations. If the employee has not received a copy, he or she is not bound by them. In the case of a dispute, the employer must prove the employee received a copy of the work regulations. The...
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The minimum wage is not set by law in Belgium, but by collective bargaining agreement. The wage varies according to the consumer price index. A national collective bargaining agreement concluded by the Conseil National du Travail provides a...
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Most sectors of industry set a sector-specific job category grid linking each function to a minimum wage. Employers must comply with the job category grid applicable within the relevant sector of industry and must pay the em...
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Tax The employer must withhold tax from the employee’s taxable salary and pay it to the Treasury. The withheld tax will be deducted from the employee’s final tax liability. The employer must also issue pay slips and an annual tax slip. ...
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An annual gross income of EUR 100,000 costs the employer EUR 127,000 (i.e. EUR 100,000 plus approximately 27% for employer social security contributions for a white-collar employee (April 2020), except where there are special social securit...
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There are no general rules governing the payment of bonuses. Bonus schemes can operate on an individual or collective level. Most bonus schemes are based on objectives to be achieved over a reference period. They can be either contractual o...
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Sector or industry-level rules, which are laid down in collective bargaining agreements, provide for various benefits and reimbursements. The most important and common benefit is the ‘13th month premium�...
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Most relevant and common benefits in kind include: luncheon vouchers which are exempt from social security contributions and tax and which can be used to purchase meals or food; group insurance for life, death and incapacity coverage; ...
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There are limits on daily and weekly working hours as follows: The maximum daily working time is generally nine hours in a five-day working week. As a rule, the average weekly working time is 38 hours. This may be increased to an effective...
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Employers may not deviate from the limits set in individual agreements with employees. However, systems may be introduced allowing an organisation to deviate from the daily and weekly working time limits, pursuant to a collective bargaining...
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Yes. The most common exempt categories are: sales representatives; home workers and teleworkers; employees with manageme...
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For now, there is no general time-recording obligation in Belgium. Employers are required to record working time only in certain cases. The following are the most notable: When applying gliding work schedules (i.e. where there is a ‘core...
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Yes. The law allows several forms of agile working, including the following: ‘Gliding’ work schedules (see section 5.2). Occasional teleworking, which simply requires a prior agreement between the...
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Overtime work is only permitted in exceptional cases determined by law, and it somet...
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No, if the legal conditions for overtime work are met, the employee must perform overtime. However, there are a few exceptions to t...
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In principle, overtime entitles employees to overtime pay and paid compensatory rest. Overtime pay consists of: at least 50% in addition to normal pay, for overtime during weekdays (including Saturday); at least 100% in addition to normal ...
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Employees are entitled to a daily rest period of not less than 11 consecutive hours in a 24-hour period. There are various exceptions to this rule depending on the type of activity. Young employees (i.e. 15 to 18 years old) are entitled t...
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The consequences of exceeding the limits on working hours, breaks or rest periods could be: a claim by the employee to obtain arrears of salary and overtime pay if he or she was not sufficiently pa...
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Under Belgian law, the right to paid annual leave is accrued based on the days worked, and equivalent periods, in the calendar year immediately preceding the calendar year in which the employee takes leave. Consequently, a distinction must ...
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In relation to pay for holiday, a distinction must be made between blue-collar employees and white-collar employees. Blue-collar employees are entitled to annual leave pay equal to 15.38% of the annual gross salary that is taken into consid...
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Employees are entitled to ten public holidays per year in addition to annual leave: New Year’s Day (1 January); Easter Monday; Labour Day (1 May); Ascension; Whit Monday; National Holiday (21 July); Assumption (15 August); All Saints’ ...
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For the first days of sickness resulting from a non-occupational accident or illness, the employer must continue paying the employee’s gross salary. This is called ‘guaranteed salary’. Employees are not required to provide medical...
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The main statutory rights to family-related leave and pay are summarised below. It is rare for employers to offer more generous arrangements. Time off directly related to birth or adoption of a child A mother expecting a child is entitl...
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‘Career reduction 55+’ Employees who are at least 55 years old and who have worked for at least 25 years, of which at least two years must be with the relevant employer, are entitled to reduce their working time by half or one fifth. ...
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An employer must take all reasonably necessary steps to ensure the safety of its employees. This obligation implies that the employer must ensure: a safe place of work; safe means of access to the place of work; a safe system of work; sa...
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Health and safety duties are regulated by extensive legislation, which the Health and Safety Inspectorate is responsible for enforcing. Inspectors have the power to enter premises and interview employees, supervisors or any other person, ...
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If an employer breaches health and safety rules, health and safety inspectors can issue an ‘improvement notice’, requiring a breach to be remedied within a specific period of time. They may also issue a ‘prohibition notice’, direc...
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Generally the employer will not be liable for accidents caused by the faulty work of a third-party contractor. However if a contractor is carrying out work on the organisation�...
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In Belgium, there is a legal obligation to notify the Occupational Health and Safety Inspectorate immediately after a fatality or after an accident which has led to permanent injuries. In addition, a report of the circumstances of the work ...
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There are 13 specific characteristics protected by the anti-discrimination law which came into force in 2007: age; sexual orientation; marital status; birth; wealth; religion or philosophical beliefs; political beliefs; language...
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It is possible to treat an individual differently on the basis of a protected characteristic if the difference in treatment is objectively justified by a legitimate objective and the requirement is proportionate to that objective. However, ...
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Indirect discrimination is prohibited. Indirect discrimination occurs where an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice...
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Belgian anti-discrimination law stipulates that employees with a disability are entitled to reasonable adjustments. Refusal of these reasonable adjustments constitutes direct discrimination. The only possible justification for refusing an a...
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Harassment based on a protected discrimination criterion is considered to be a form of prohibited discrimination. As a result, the victims of harassment are protected by the same provisions as the victims of discrimination. Fu...
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If a discrimination complaint is filed by or on behalf of a person, the employer should not take a ‘disadvantageous measure’ (i.e. dismissal, unilateral modification of working conditions or a damag...
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If a claim for discrimination, harassment or victimisation is successful, an employment tribunal could: declare the discriminatory act or document void and possibly grant the victim the difference between any advantages he or she missed an...
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Under Belgian anti-discrimination law, when a person alleging discrimination presents facts sufficient to presume the existence of discrimination on the basis of one of the protected criteria, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to ...
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An employer is civilly liable for any discriminatory acts committed by its employees in the scope of the employment contract to the extent that the employees are u...
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All employers that are required to make a ‘social balance sheet’ (i.e. an annual accounting document) must split salary data in this sheet based on gender. Employers that employ at least 50 people on average must also pr...
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In Belgium, employers have a general legal obligation to guarantee the wellbeing of their employees at work, including their so-called psychosocial wellbeing. This means an employer must take measures to prevent psychosocial risks, includin...
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Discrimination claims based on anti-discrimination law are not very common in Belgium, but analysis shows that the number of cases is increasing. The Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, called ‘Unia’, keeps ...
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In the event of unlawful discrimination, the victim may claim damages. Under the Anti-Discrimination Act, the person who has violated the principle of non-discrimination must pay compensation to the victim. The compensation will be (at...
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There are no rules that are specific to employee information, but the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are applicable for any person processing personal data belonging to someone else (which would include an emplo...
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Breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) can result in serious financial penalties: fines up to EUR 20 million or 4% of a company’s total global turnover in the previous fiscal year (whichever is higher) for the most ...
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An employer may collect and process confidential employee information, but if it is ‘personal data’ (that is, information relating to an identifiable living individual, who can be identified directly or indirectly by reference to the da...
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Employers may have a legitimate interest to protect by implementing technology that monitors the activities of its employees, but these interests must be balanced with an employee’s right to privacy, which extends to the person’s workpl...
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There are no express legal restrictions on an employee’s use of social media either at work or when off duty. It may be fair to discipline or dismiss an employee for a use of social media that brings the employer into disrepute or i...
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At the time of writing there is no specific Belgian legislation on whistleblowing in the private sector. The new European Whistleblower Directive (discussed below) has not yet been transposed into Belgian national law. As a result, the empl...
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The law prohibits employees from revealing confidential information to third parties not only during but also after termination of the employment agreement in various ways. On the one hand, employees are prohibited from unlawfully obtaini...
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The law obliges an employee to act with loyalty in relation to his or her employer. This implies that an employee may not harm the employer’s interests and means that an employee is never allowed to compete with the employer during the em...
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There are certain legal prohibitions that apply during the employment relationship that also apply after termination. These involve a duty of confidentiality that prohibits revealing trade secrets as defined above and secrets concerning per...
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An employee is never allowed to compete with his or her employer in the course of employment, but when the contract is terminated, the employee regains the freedom to do so. Consequently, the ex-employee may engage in a competing business...
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Trade unions are organised associations of workers whose principal purpose is to regulate relations between employers and workers in the workplace. The unions are involved at all levels where employment conditions are discussed, as follows:...
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Workforces tend to be unionised. There is no official data on the number of union members, but the total number, including the retired, unemployed and students, is estimated at around 3.5 million....
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Employers are obliged to work with established trade unions. In Belgium there are four recognised trade unions: Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond – Conféderation des Syndicats Chrétiens (‘ACV-CSC’), which has catholic origins; Al...
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The role of employee representative bodies A works council is a joint body, comprised of workers’ and the employer’s representatives. It is primarily empowered to obtain economic and financial information, to be consulted on various m...
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There is no legal definition of what can be considered as a strike. As a rule, the right to strike means the right to stop working, as a coercive measure to achieve a certain goal. Although there is no legal provision in Belgium that recogn...
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Employers need to be able to provide a reason for the dismissal of any blue-collar or white-collar employee with more than six months’ service upon the employee’s request. There are certain exceptions, for example, the termination of te...
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Generally speaking, if an employer fails to communicate the reasons for a dismissal within two months of a request from the employee and does not respect the required formalities, the employee will be entitled to an additional lump sum inde...
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There are two processes used for termination and the employer has a discretionary right to choose between the two processes. An employment contract for an indefinite term may either be terminated by giving notice or by terminating the emplo...
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Several protections against dismissal on particular grounds apply. An employer that wishes to dismiss certain types of employees will need to adhere to strict dismissal procedures including adhering to the limited grounds for dismissal. The...
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Harmonised notice periods and dismissal rules for blue-collar and white-collar employees came into force in Belgium in 2014. These changes were provoked by the Belgian Constitutional court’s ruling that the different notice periods previo...
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The employment contract can be terminated without any formalities and with immediate effect upon payment of a lump sum corresponding to the remuneration the employee would have received had the employment contract been terminated with notic...
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In a situation where the employee decides to resign, the employee must either serve the statutory notice period or terminate the employment contract with immediate effect and make a payment in lieu of notice. In the event that the employee ...
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It is not possible to retire an employee compulsorily at the age of 65. Clauses in the employment contract providing for termination automatically on reaching retirement age are void. Therefore, the employment contract must be terminated by...
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Severance As a general rule, employees are not entitled to additional payments if they are terminated for reasons such as poor performance or redundancy except under specific conditions and/or up to a limited amount in cases of collective...
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The parties may validly enter into a settlement agreement concerning, amongst other matters, the length of the notice period or the payment of an indemnity in lieu of notice as soon as an employee is terminated with immediate e...
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An employer must inform and consult with employee representatives if considering multiple dismissals for economic or technical reasons. The information and consultation obligations are relatively limited and informal as long as the threshol...
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The following information must be provided to employee representatives in case of a collective dismissal process: The reasons for the proposed dismissals. The proposed method of selecting employees who may be dismissed. The number of emplo...
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Consultation must allow the employee representatives to ask questions, challenge the management’s proposal and suggest alternatives, aimed at: avoiding the dismissals; reducing the number of employees to be dismissed; mitigating th...
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If the employer fails to comply with the information and consultation requirements the consequences are the same for breach of either one or both requirements. If trade unions or individual employees believe that they have not been pr...
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There is no statutory selection order for dismissals under Belgian law. No specific order needs be taken into account in carrying out dismissals, unless this is determined at the level of the Joint Committee (a permanent body composed of em...
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Other payments that might apply in cases of collective redundancy include: Collective dismissal indemnity: if applicable, this corresponds for most employees to about 500 EUR per month, for a maximum period of four months. Closure inde...
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There is no specific protection for employees on share takeovers, as a share deal will not be...
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General Employee transfer law applies upon a change of employer resulting from a transfer of ‘an economic entity which will retain its identity after the transfer’. Various criteria must be considered, including: the type of business b...
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For the old employer: It must inform and consult with its respective employee representative bodies (i.e. the works council or, in its absence, the trade union delegation or, in their absence, the Committee for Protection and Prevention ...
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Generally, if the employee is not confronted with...
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Terms The employment contract is passed on automatically as it exists at the moment of transfer. This implies, for example, that notice periods or periods of leave (e.g. for pregnancy or time credits) continue to run and seniority continues...
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The old employer and new employer are jointly liable for the payment of debts flowing from employment contracts, if the debts existed at the moment of transfer. This means that, for example, ar...
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The new employer must respect the collective bargaining agreements by which the old employer was bound until their expiry. There are three types of collective bargaining agreements: A national agreement binds the entire private sector ...
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Employment contracts may not be changed at the time of the transfer. Unilateral changes are in principle not allowed. However, once the transfer has occurred, the new employer enjoys the ‘ius variandi’, i.e. the right to make reasonabl...
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There is no specific timeframe for a safe dismissal. Any employee involved in a transfer of business is protected against dismissal: the transfer as such cannot be a reason for the old employer or the new employer to terminate the employmen...
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Before making a decision about the transfer, both the old and new employer must inform and consult with their respective employee representative bodies (i.e. the works council or, in...
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The following information must be provided: the intended date of the transfer; ...
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Prior to making the decision concerning the transfer, both the old employer and the new employer must consult with their respective employee representative bodies (i.e. the works council or, in its absence, the trade union delegation or, in...
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The Social Criminal Code provides a sanction level 2 (administrative or criminal fine) for failure to inform and consult with the employee representative bodies. Moreover, the failure to inform or consult is also an infringement of the term...
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A transfer may affect the employee representative bodies (i.e. the works council, the Committee for Protection and Prevention at Work and the trade union delegation). If the old emp...
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The Belgian state pension for employees operates on a pay-as-you-go basis through social security. It provides a defined benefit (in the form of an annuity) determined on the basis of three factors: the duration of the individual’s car...
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There is no statutory requirement for an employer to provide employees with access to a pension scheme. However, once a pension scheme has been established, all employees meeting the eligibility criteria must become members of the scheme. H...
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Pension schemes must be managed by an insurance company or an institution for occupational retirement provision (‘IORP’). An IORP must be established as a legal entity separate from the sponsoring organisation, that is, an Organisation ...
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The employer has a statutory duty to inform and consult employees regarding the following aspects of pension schemes: the introduction or modification of the pension scheme, or its rules; a change of pension vehicle (e.g. group insuran...
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The employer’s contributions to a pension scheme are tax deductible provided they do not result in a total pension benefit, including the state pension expressed in annual annuities, which exceeds 80% of the last annual gross salary o...
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There is no legal requirement to discuss the pension scheme in the employment contract. Once the employee meets the eligibility conditions he or she will be entitled to participate in the pension scheme irrespective of any provisions in the...
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Well-being at work The employer must carry out investigations regarding well-being at work, in particular: Specific risk analysis of psychosocial risks at work when requested by a member of the employee’s hierarchical line or by at least...
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Employees are not generally obliged to report suspected misconduct, with the following caveats: Misconduct must be reported in situations where a failure to report would amount to failure to assist a person in danger under criminal laws. E...
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An employer should start an investigation as quickly as possible after becoming aware of the conduct, as strict legal deadlines apply if the employer wants to take action towards an employee. In particular: If the facts justify a dismissal...
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If an employee is interviewed about suspected misconduct, he or she can remain silent and refuse to comment, especially when the employee is suspected of behaviour that could be...
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The employee is usually not assisted by a lawyer i...
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The employer is in principle not obliged to provide all the evidence to the employee during an investigation. However: The employee should be given sufficient information t...
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At the time of writing there is no specific Belgian legislation on whistleblowing in the private sector. The new European Whistleblower Directive (discussed below) has not yet been transposed into Belgian national law. As a result, em...
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When a worker is accused of low performance, it is strongly advised that the employer document this, especially in cases where there may be subsequent legal action. Too often, low performance cannot be proven simply because evaluations or w...
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An employer must have informal and formal procedures in place for employees who believe that they have been the victims of (sexual) harassment, violence or other psychosocial risks at work. These procedures must be in line with the applicab...
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There are no legal requirements about wording of advertisements or particular details about the job that must be provided. However, there is a legal prohibition against making any reference in a job advertisement to sex, age, race or fami...
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The recruitment process is part of the pre-contractual stage of an employment agreement. For this reason, both the employer and the candidate are under obligations to comply with labour law. However, the Brazilian consolidate...
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During the probationary period, the employment agreement is considered a contract for a fixed t...
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If a dismissal occurs at the end of a probationary period (i.e. a fixed-term agreement) the employer must only pay the balance of the salary, the prorated 13th month salary and holiday pay (i.e. one 12th for each month or period of 15 to 30...
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Yes. An applicant may bring a claim against an employer for discrimination in the hiri...
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Short-term work visas for technical assistance (up to 180 days, with no employment contract in Brazil) may be granted upon direct application to a Brazilian consulate, but only in the case of a legitimate emergency. These applications are a...
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The employer must keep records about foreign workers in the same way as Brazilian workers, t...
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Employers are not legally pre...
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Employers cannot ask questions that are irrelevant to the job or that woul...
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The basic factor used to determine whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor is whether there is subordination (i.e. where the employee is subject to orders from the organisation). The practical difference is that em...
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There are no special distinctions between blue and white–collar employees except that upper management may be exempt from regulations regarding work hours and overtime. Employees with a university degree earning more than twice the ma...
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Company directors and officers appointed pursuant to the corporate charter need not be registered as employees ...
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Part-time employment cannot exceed either (a) 30 hours per week, in which case overtime is forbidden; or (b) 26 hours per week, in which case up to six hours of overti...
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Fixed-term employment is only allowed in special circumstances, as follows: where the nature of the services justifies the fix...
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A fixed-term employment contract converts...
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The engagement of temporary workers through an employment agency is only permitted in special circumstances, namely: where there is a need to substitute the regular and permanent workforce during a transition period; or in the event of a t...
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The employer may put its employees at the disposal of another organisation only in the special circumstances of temporary employment through an employment agency. The maximum ...
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The employer is required to specify the main terms of the employment on the employee’s labour card (the ‘Carteira de Trabalho e Previdência Social’, the ‘CTPS’). These are: the name, address and taxpayer number of the employer; ...
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It is not common practice in Brazil to issue an...
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The employment contract must be in Portugue...
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Terms that are always implied into an employment contract include anything provided by labour law or a collective bargaining agreement applicable to the organisation, for example: the right to weekly paid rest; a 13th month salary; holiday...
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The written employment agreement need not repeat the provisions of the law, collective bargaining agreements or the internal norms of the company, as these are automatically in...
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Changes to employment contracts are only permitted if both parties agree, unless otherwise provided by law (e.g. the employer’s right to change the remote work regime into onsite work, or to designate the employee to work for other compan...
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In Brazil, all policies and rules are deemed to form part of t...
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The minimum wage in Brazil depends on location and professional category. There is a federal minimum wage set by the government which applies by default if there are no specific rules in the relevant collective bargaining agreement or in st...
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The minimum wage is normally adjusted once a year by a little more than the rate of inflation, depending on political factors. For wages generally, adjustments depend on whether there is a collective bargaining agreement or c...
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Tax Income tax rates vary depending on the employee’s remuneration. The employer must make the deductions from the employee’s salary both for social security and income tax and pay those amounts to the government. Currently, the...
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An employee with an income of EUR 100,000 who is married with two children would be treated for tax and social security as follows. The employee would be subject to a 27.5% income tax rate, but for the monthly withholding of income tax ther...
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There are three fundamental categories of bonuses: Bonuses stipulated by contract, company policy or a job offer must be taken into consideration for the purposes of income tax withholding and other payroll costs. Those payroll costs inclu...
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By law, only a transport voucher (‘vale-transporte’) need be provided as a benefit to the employee, but the employee must bear the cost of it up to 6% of his or her salary and the employer must pay the remainder. It is comm...
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The following benefits are usually made available...
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There is a daily limit of eight hours and a weekly limit of 44 hours on the number of hours an employee may work. Collective bargaining agreements may change these limits to six and 36 in rotating shifts, or under justifiable c...
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The limits on working hours may be increased by collective bargaining agreement by up to two hours per day through an ‘hour account’ (‘banco de horas’) whereby employees can take time off work instead of being paid for overtime. Aft...
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There are three categories of exempt employees in Brazil: management, meaning employees who can legally represent the company or have some degree of authority to carry out transactions or administrative actions on behalf of the company...
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Any employer with more than twenty employees must keep a written record of the employees’ working time. The record may be manual, mechanical or electronic. If the record is made electronically, the employer must use one of the systems p...
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All of these types of initiatives are permitted, provided that: employees switching positions will have an equivalent workload and responsibilities, and will not undertake assignments for which they have no training or qualific...
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The law provides that a worker cannot be required to work more than two hours of overtime per day, unless there is an urgent and unpredicted need. In practice, however, employers do sometimes require employees to work more than two hours of...
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No, consent fro...
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The legal rate for overtime is 50% for overtime wo...
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Employees who work between four and six hours per day are entitled to a 15 minute meal break. Employees who work more than six hours per day are entitled to a meal break of a minimum o...
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If an employer exceeds the limit on daily or weekly working hours, it must pay employees at the overtime rate. If an employer breaks the rule...
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Employees are entitled to 30 calendar days’ leave a year. Leave must not be split into more than three periods, one of which must be at least 14 days and none may be shorter than five. The employee may sell up to ten days ...
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During holidays, employees are entitled to normal remuneration, including: salary and any other fixed amounts of this kind, including additional pay for hazardous or dangerous work or for length of service; and the average of any variable ...
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Employees are entitled to paid time off for one day per week (on Sunday at least once a month) and public holidays. There are both national and local public holidays in Brazil. The national holidays are: 1 January; Holy Friday (unfixed d...
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For the first 15 days of sickness, it is the employer’s responsibility to pay the salary of a sick employee. From the 16th day, the employee can claim a social security benefit. It is the government, through the Social Security system (...
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Maternity leave is generally for a period of 120 days. Additional periods of 15 days before and 15 days after are permitted if necessary for health reasons. The total cost of the salary is borne by the government through the Social Security...
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Other types of paid leave include: three consecutive days for marriage; two consecutive days for the death of a spouse, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, sibling or other person who is financially...
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Since the enactment of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, employees are entitled to a reduction in the risks of work by means of health and safety rules. There is an obligation on the em...
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Occupational health and safety rules are set out in rules issued by the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Emp...
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An employer that does not comply with health and safety laws could be held civilly and/or criminally liable for any occupational accidents and diseases. It is a criminal offence to expose someone’s lif...
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An organisation engaging temporary or outsourced workers is responsible for health and safety for any work performed at its premises or at any oth...
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In Brazil there is a legal obligation to issue a ‘W...
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The Brazilian Constitution and law forbids any form of discrimination, including but not limited to: gender; origin; race; colour; marita...
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Brazilian law has certain exceptions which permit and, indeed, require that the employer treat employees differently. These exceptions are for: employees with any type of disability (for jobs requiring particular physical skills); pregnant...
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There is no duty on...
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Employers are required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, including adjustments to the workstation, equipment (e.g. softwa...
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A new ordinance effective as of March 2023 issued by the Ministry of Labour amends the existing regulation on employers’ internal occupational health committee (the ‘CIPA’) to include new obligations to prevent and remedy incidents of...
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There is indirect protection against victimisation and retaliation, but no direc...
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The employer could be held civilly liable for breaches of discrimination law, and the penalty imposed on the employer could be a payment of an indemnity for moral harm caused to the employee. If the court finds that the employer has discrim...
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The plaintiff has the initial burden to prove the facts and causation, i.e. that a discriminatory act occurred and that it was connected to the work/employment. The employer then has the burden to either disprove the facts...
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The employer is vicariously l...
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On 3 July 2023, Brazil implemented a new law aimed at enhancing existing regulations on salary equality. The law builds upon the foundation of the previous legal framework, which already included the principle of equal pay for equal work. T...
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Employers have a general obligation to keep work environments physically and mentally safe and reduce inherent risks. Workers in stressful jobs may have special conditions set by governmental regulation or collective bargaining agreements. ...
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Discrimination claims a...
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Under Brazilian statutory law, the amount of an award in a discrimination case depends on the circumstances. Awards for non-economic (i.e. moral) damages in cases of discrimination range from five to 50 times the employee’s monthly salary...
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The employee’s privacy, private life and honour are inviolable and are protected by the Brazilian Constitution and various laws. These laws include the recently enacted Personal Data Protection Law or ‘LGPD’, which comes into full for...
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A court may impose a penalty on an employer that breaches the privacy, private life and honour of employees. The penalty could be the payment of an indemnity for moral damages caused to the individual. The amount will depend on the facts,...
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Any and all processing of personal data (including employees’ confidential information), regardless of the lawfulness of the processing activity, must abide by the principles provided for by the LGPD, namely: necessity, purpose, transpare...
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Monitoring of employees is permitted if it is reasonable and justifiable, and provided that their personal data is processed in accordance with a legal basis established by the LGPD, as set forth in 9.3 above. Surveillance cameras are permi...
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Employers’ proprietary information is legally protected from unauthorised disclosure or use. Violation may be a criminal offence. Therefore, the primary purpose of any policy concerning social media should be to prevent disclosure of prop...
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There is no specific legal provision on whistle-blowing. However, if the employee can prove that termination occurred because of this, he or she might be entitled to moral damages and maybe reinstatement. It is not necessary for employers t...
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All employees have a statutory duty of confidentiality, which survives the employment agreement. If an employee has access to any knowledge, information or confidential data through a contractual or employment relationship and divulges, exp...
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During an employment contract, a non-compete obligation is automatic and ...
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Brazilian law forbids the use by employees of any confidential information belonging to the former employer. Brazilian law is silent on the issue, but what is reasonable will depend on the industry. For example, in IT, the informati...
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The employer can enter into a non-compete agreement with the former employee. This agreement must observe the requirements for the non-compete clause. A specific definition of the type of business that is prohibited must be provided in the ...
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Trade unions have statutory authority to represent and defend the economic, professional, social and political interest...
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All employees are, by law, represented by a trade union. As of 13 November 2017, they are no longer required to make an annual contribution of one day’s pay. The relevant collective bargaining agreement may provide for voluntary contribut...
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If an established trade union exists, the employer must work with it. In Brazil, there are separate trade unions responsible for representing employees’ and employers’ interests. Trade unions and trade associations are organ...
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There are two representative bodies in Brazil: the union and the employees’ committee. The union has exclusive authori...
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Strikes are permitted only if the company or companies refuse to negotiate with the union. Other stoppages are illegal, but in practice are not ...
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Termination without cause is legally permissible at the employer’s will, unless the employee has special protection against dismissal of some description ...
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In cases of termination without cause, the employer must pay an...
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There is no legal process that must be followed before terminating an employee. However, there is an exception to this in cases of termination for cause of union representatives. In such cases, the employer must bring an action (‘judicial...
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The types of legal ‘stability’, or special protection against dismissal, are: pregnancy or maternity (from the beginning of pregnancy until five months after the child’s birth); union representation (from the moment the employee ente...
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For indefinite term employment contracts, the minimum notice period is 30 days. If the employee has more than one year of service, the employee has a right to an additional three days for each new one-year period, up to a limit of 90 days, ...
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The employer can make a payment in lieu of notice. In cases of termination for cause, termin...
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If the employee resigns, he or she will normally be paid accrued wages and benefits only, and will forfeit severance. However, if ...
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Although compulsory retirement exists in the publ...
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In the event of termination without cause at the end of an open-ended employment agreement (i.e. expiry of the term), the employer must pay: the balance of salary and other compensation or incentive, pro-rated as appropriate; an indemn...
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Settlement agreements are not binding, unless entered into before a judge in a labour court. Law reform in effect from ...
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In Brazil termination is ‘at-will’, meaning that both the employee and employer can terminate the employment relationship at any time. The law does not distinguish between multiple and individual dismissals. Nevertheless, employers are ...
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Organisations should give notice to the relevant trade union of the number of employees being dismissed and the...
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Although there is no legal requirement to consult the trade union, best practice would be to communicate the dism...
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According to case law, where an employer has failed to provide information about terminations to the trade union, the t...
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There is no statutory selec...
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There are no further specific payments mandated by law. However, under the case la...
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Employment agreements are protected by labour law from changes in the corporate structure. Employees are not protected from termination, but from detrimental changes to the terms and conditions of the employment agreement if the pe...
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Sale of a business There is an automatic transfer if the deal is an equity deal. If it is sale of assets, the employees’ prior consent in writing is needed, unless the deal involves a major sale of the assets (e.g. the entire operation)...
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If a business is sold, the new employer replaces the old employer, except in cases of fraud. The employment agreement, along with all its terms and conditions and any labour liabilities transfer to the new employer. The same rul...
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If the transfer is the result of an equity deal, it will take effect automatically by operation of law. If it is an asset sale, the employees’ express consent is required unless the deal involves a major sale of the corporate assets ...
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Terms New employment contracts and policies can be agreed but the transferee must preserve the most favourable provisions of the old contracts and not make new arrangements that are to the detriment of the employees. Benefits If the...
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All labour, tax, civil and administrative liabilities transfer with the employee. This includes all liabilities that are still within the statute of limitations of five years. The only exception is individual liability for criminal prose...
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There are two types of collective agreements: those that apply to the entire industry (between the trade union and the employers’ association) and those specific to one company (or group of companies). The ones that apply to the whole ind...
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Changes can be made to the employees’ terms provided they are not detrimental to the employees. If the new employment terms are less favourable than the terms offered by the transferor, the transferee can still implement them, provided ...
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Whether or not the business has transferred, the rules are the same. Generally, an employer may terminate any employee who does not have special protection (‘stability’) at any time. It is not necessary for the role to be redundant. How...
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There is no requirement to consult with employees or their representatives if there is a business transfer. However, if the transfer of the business requires a change to the employees’ place of residence, the employees must be con...
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No information need be provided. ...
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No consultation is required by law. ...
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No consultation is required by law. ...
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Brazil does not have work councils. Trade unions are not affected because they are organized by trade and region, not by company. ...
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Brazil has a public social security system and a private pension system. Public Social Security System The social security system is funded by employers and employees. As a matter of law, under every ordinary employment agreement both the e...
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Under every ordinary employment agreement, both the employer and the employee are required to fund, directly or indirectly, the public social security system. This gives the employee automatic entitlement to the public pension scheme.�...
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The employer may operate its own pension plan within the closed system of private pension schemes. This is a specific pension arrangement which applies to employees in a particular organisation or group of organisations. ...
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According to Brazilian law, in all cases, details of any change to a closed pension scheme (i.e. a specific pension arrangement which applies to all employees in a particular organisation or group) must be submitted to the ...
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Employer contributions to the employees’ pension scheme can be deducted from corporate income tax (‘Imposto de Renda das Pessoas Jurídicas’, or ‘IRPJ’) and social contribution over profit (‘Contribuição Social�...
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Given that the social security system is mandatory and applies to all labour relationships, nothing in this regard need be mentioned in the employment agreement. In the case of closed pension schemes (i.e. specific pension arrangement...
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Employers are not legally obliged to conduct an investigation except to substantiate the dismissal of a union legal representative. These representatives have protection against involuntary dismissal, and termination for cause...
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Employees are not generally obliged to report misconduct, but there are sanctions applicable to employees holding specific duties subject to regulation, such as occupational health, corpor...
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Investigations should be undertaken as soon as possible, because disciplinary actions cannot be delayed after the facts and responsibilities are known; otherwise, a tacit pardon will apply. There are no statutory deadlines, and common s...
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No. Employees (including employees suspected of misconduct) may participate in an investigation based on the principle of good faith and cooperation with company policies and abiding by its authority, but they are not obliged to do...
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No. The investigation is an inquisitorial procedure, so the employee does not have the right to defence, legal representation or cross-examination of witnesses. Interviewing the subject of an investigation is generally advisable, and...
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No. The investigation is solely for the employer’s internal use to substantiate an...
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There is no specific legal provision on whistleblowing. However, if the employee can prove that termination occurred because of whistleblowing activity, he or she might be entitled to moral damages and possibly reinstatement. E...
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The law does not require any specific standards or processes for dealing with low performance. However, in Brazil, termination without cause (i.e. for convenience) is always a possibility, except for temporary circumstances of protection ag...
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There is no specific requirement for how grievances should be handled, and consequently the company is free to set up its own internal rules and process. The process usually varies according to the complexity of the case. Situations of c...
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There is no express legal requirement regarding the wording or details of the job advertisement. However, under data protection law the employer should o...
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Certain pre-hire background checks are mandatory in Bulgaria. In particular, the employer is required to obtain the following documents in order to enter into an employment contract with an approved candidate: identity card or passp...
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The parties may agree to a probationary period of up to six months where the nature of the work requires confirmation of the employee’s ability to perform it, or where the employee wishes to verify that the work is suitable. In practice, ...
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During the probationary period the parties have the same rights an...
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An applicant can bring an action in the courts against the prospective employer for discrimination in the hiring proces...
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EU Nationals Citizens of countries within the European Economic Area and Switzerland (EU nationals) do not need work authorisations in order to work in Bulgaria. However, when an EU national is posted to Bulgaria by a foreign employer, th...
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Upon employing a worker who is a foreign national, the...
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Employers may keep personal data of candidates they did not hire for up to six ...
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Employers cannot ask questions relating to discriminatory criteria such as gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, human genome, citizenship, origin, religion or belief, education, political affiliation, personal or social status, disa...
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An employment contract is a contract under which an individual provides his own labour to perform work (as defined in a job description) in return for remuneration. Employment contracts are governed by the mandatory provisions of the Bulgar...
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Bulgarian law does not expressly regulate the status of th...
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Statutory managers of companies (managers, Executive Directors, and members of the Management Board or Board of Directors) enter into management contracts rather than employment contracts. Statutory managers working under management contrac...
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An employment contract for part-time work must specify the duration and allocation of the working time. A contract for part-time employment will be treated as a contract for normal working time if the labour authorities find that the employ...
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Fixed-term employment contracts may be concluded only in the following cases: for a period not longer than three years for temporary, seasonal or short-term work, or for new employees entering companies that have been declared bankrupt or ...
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An employment contract for a fixed term is converted into an indefin...
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Bulgarian law includes statutory rules regarding the activities of enterprises providing temporary or leased workers (outsourcing companies) and the employers that use these temporary workers (user undertakings). The primary rules are as fo...
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An employer may put its employees at the disposal of another employer in two main cases: In the context of secondment, where explicit rules apply. Employers may second their emplo...
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Employment contracts must be in writing, and may be either for an indefinite period of time or for a fixed term. They must specify as a statutory minimum: The identities of the parties. This includes a detailed description of the employer ...
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Under Bulgarian law an offer letter is not...
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There is no statutory requirement for an employment contract to be executed in the...
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The Bulgarian Labour Code sets minimum standards for the relationship between the employer and the employee. The majority of its provisions...
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No. In most cases the employment contract contains only the statutory minimum contents required unde...
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In general, changes to an employment contract can be made only with the express written consent of the employee in the form of an annex or addendum to the contract. There are only few instances (exhaustively listed in the Labour Code) in wh...
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Apart from contractual documents, the employer must provide to employees: information on workplace and working conditions; information on maintaining a healthy and safe working environment; a job description; instruction on the per...
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The basic statutory minimum monthly wage, effective as of 1 January 2023, is BGN 780. The Council of Ministers sets the minimum basic monthly wage, taking into consideration factors such as economic development and inflation. The amount is ...
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Apart from updating the amount of the statutory minimu...
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Tax Employers are required to make deductions from the employees’ salary for income tax in the amount of 10% of the employees’ gross pay on an annual basis. Social Security Both employers and employees have to make manda...
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The amount of social security contributions is subject to a cap on the maximum monthly insurance income, which for 2021 is BGN 3,000 (approximately EUR 1,500). An increase of the maximum monthly insurance income in mid-year 2022 is expected...
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An employee is entitled by law to additional monthly pay for relevant length of service and professional experience in the minimum amount of 0.6% over the base monthly salary for each year of relevant professional experience. This minimum...
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Employers are required to provide employees with hot food, beverages and other facilities for the effective performance of night work. Otherwise, there are no required employee benefits. ...
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Employers may (but are not required to) provide employees the following benefits: organized food service (i.e. canteen); shopping and welfare services; commuter transport services between the place of residence and the w...
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The normal working time is limited to eight hours a day within a five-day working week. The maximum working week is 40 hours. The normal working hours are reduced for two categories of employees: The normal work day is limited...
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The normal working time cannot be exceeded by agreement except as provided by law in the following cases: Extension of daily working time: for production reasons, the employer may, by a written order, extend the working time on so...
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There are certain exceptions from the rules as discussed in sections 5.1 and 5.2 above. However, there are no blanket categories of employees who are exempt from the rules on working time. ...
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Employers must have a mechanism for measuring and reporting the duration of their employees’ working hours (this implicitly includes breaks during the working day). However, there are no further statutory criteria that the system m...
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Self-managing interdisciplinary teams There are no specific rules on interdisciplinary teamwork. Flexible working time Part-time work is generally allowed, so long as the parties specify the duration and the allocation of the working ...
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Overtime work generally cannot exceed 150 hours in a calendar year. It also cannot exceed: 30 hours of day work or 20 hours of night work during one calendar month; six hours of day work or four hours of night work duri...
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In general, consent from employees is not required. However, an order for overtime work must be communicated to the affected employees at least 24 hours in advance. When necessary, the overtime order for each employee must specify which ...
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Overtime work is compensated by an increased rate of pay agreed between the employee and the employer but no less than: 50% for work on working days; 75% for work on weekends; 100% for work on public holidays. ...
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Employees are entitled during each normal working day to a rest break for a meal, which may not be shorter than 30 minutes. These meal breaks are not included in the working time. In continuous production processes and at enterprises...
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There are no sanctions that relate specifically to a breach of the limits on working hours and breaks. However, any employer that violates the provisions of labour legislation (other than the health and safety rules) is ...
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All employees are entitled to basic paid annual leave if they have at least four months of service (with any employer). The amount of the basic paid annual leave is twenty working days in each leave year, not counting public and bank holida...
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During annual leave, the employee is entitled to remuneration calculated on the basis of the average daily gross remuneration paid by the employer for the last calendar month during which the employee...
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Employees are entitled to paid time off for official public holidays. The official public holidays in Bulgaria are as follows: January 1 – New Year; March 3 – Day...
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Employees are entitled to leave for temporary incapacity to work due to: general sickness; occupational disease or employment injury; rehabilitation treatment; urgent medical examinations or tests; quarantine or suspensio...
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Maternity leave Female employees are entitled to 410 days of paid pregnancy and childbirth leave for each child, 45 days of which must be used before birth. They have the right to cash benefits during this leave, provided that they have a...
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Employees are also entitled to leave for the performance of civic, public and other duties and educational leave. Some of these are paid and others are unpaid. ...
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Employers are required to ensure healthy and safe working conditions. Employers’ primary obligations in this regard are set out in the Labour Code and workplace health and safety legislation. There ...
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The first main action that the employer must undertake is to conclude an agreement with a labour medicine service. The appointed labour medicine service will be the most important partner of the emplo...
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Any person who violates the rules for provision of health and safety at work will be subject to a fine between BGN 100 and BGN 500, unless the law provides for a more sev...
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Whenever an employer’s employees are working in a workplace administered by another employer, both employers have a joint obligation to ensure that the conditions of health and safety at work are ensured. ...
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Where there is an accident at work the injured employee, his or her manager or the witnesses to the accident must notify the Manager of the employer or another official appointed by&nbs...
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Bulgarian anti-discrimination legislation provides that any direct or indirect discrimination on the following grounds is forbidden: gender; race or ethnicity; nationality&nbs...
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Despite the general rules set out in section 8.1 above, some actions do not constitute discrimination, and these include (among others): treating persons differently on the basis of their citizenship where th...
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Bulgarian law prohibits discrimination on any protected ground in recruitment, working conditions, pay, performance-evaluation criteria, vocational training, qualification, career, disciplinary measures, and the most common types of un...
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Employers have a duty to ensure equal working conditions for their employees. This can include making reasonable adjustments in several areas: Employers are obliged to adapt the work...
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Yes. The employer, in cooperation with the trade unions, is required to take effective measures to prevent any form of discrimination in the workplace. An employer who has received a complaint from an employee who believ...
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Persecution (i.e. retaliation or victimisation) is also considered discrimination. Persecution is: less favourable treatment of a person who has taken, or is assumed to have taken or will take, action ...
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An employee who believes that he or she has been discriminated against is entitled to bring a complaint against the employer before the Commission on Protection Against Discrimination, which may impose administrative measures or f...
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The statutory rule is that in proceedings for protection against discrimination, after the party claiming to have been discriminated against provides facts suggesting that discrimination has occurred, the respondent must prove that the...
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The employer, in cooperation with the trade unions, must take effective measures to prevent any form of unlawful discrimination in the workplace. If the employer fails to fulfil this obligation, it is...
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There is no specific reporting obligation in relation to gender pay differences. ...
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Under Bulgarian legislation when a termination is based on (i) a partial closure of the enterprise or staff cuts, (ii) a reduction of the volume of work, (iii) the employee’s inability to efficiently perform the work, (iv) changed jo...
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As per the official statistics maintained by the Commission for protection against discrimination, in 2020 there have been: 910 filed complaints; 591 proceedings initiated upon these complaints; 412 proceedings self-initiated b...
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In the event of discrimination or a breach of rights and duties in an employment relationship, the employee or the job applicant has the right to bring a claim before the Commission on the Protection against Discriminati...
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Personal data protection, including the protection of employee information, is regulated in detail at the EU level by the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). The GDPR establishes various rights and obligations pertaining to the...
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The maximum sanctions for violation of the personal data protection rules established in the GDPR could reach up to...
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The employer must carry out and document an assessment of whether the intended personal data processing operations are in compliance with the requ...
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There are no specific local restrictions related to the described surveillance practices. However, the European Data Protection Board has issued multiple guidelines on...
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The employer has the right to limit the usage of social media in the workplace and on company owned devices. However, monitoring employees’ access and use of social media websites would likely be a disproportionate (and therefore illegal)...
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Bulgaria has transposed the 2019 EU Whistleblower Directive by means of the local Protection of Persons Who Report or Publicly Disclose Information on Breaches Act (the ‘Whistleblower Act’). The Whistleblower Act provides protecti...
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Employees have a legal obligation to keep confidential information that has become known to them through or in connection with their employment. This duty stems directly from the Bulgarian Labour Code and the general principle that one must...
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The employer may negotiate and include a non-compete clause in the employment contract that is enforceable throughout the duration of the employment. Under Bulgarian employment legislation, the employee may enter into employment contracts w...
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In practice, any contractual restriction of the use of confidential information is not agreed at the end of the employment relationship, but rather at the start of it or during its course. The confidentiality clause usually includes a post-...
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In 2010 the Bulgarian Supreme Court issued a milestone decision on the validity of post-termination non-compete clauses, expressly ruling that such clauses are invalid as violating the law. The court held that under the Constitution of the ...
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The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Labour Code guarantee the freedom of trade union association. Employees are entitled, by their own choice and with no prior permission, to freely form trade union organisations ...
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There are two major trade unions with nationwide coverage: The Confederation of Independent...
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The initiative to form a trade union or join a broader union organisation belongs solely to the employees in the enterprise. The Bulgarian Labour Code only requires an employer to conduct negotiations with a trade union for a collective bar...
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All employees within an organisation form the Employees’ General Meeting, regardless of the headcount at the employer. Where a limited liability company or a joint stock company has more than 50 employees, their representatives are al...
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Bulgarian law regulates the procedure for settling collective labour disputes between employees and employers on issues pertaining to employment, social security relations, and living standards. Under the law, employees are represented in c...
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An employer may terminate an employment contract only on certain grounds listed in the Bulgarian Labour Code and following a specific procedure. The procedure and grounds for termination are not freely negotiable between the parties. The pr...
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The employee can challenge a dismissal in court within two months. If the court finds the dismissal unlawful, the consequences for the employer could include: Annulment of the dismissal and a declaration that it wa...
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Yes, each termination ground is associated with a specific procedure to be followed and documents to be issued. As a minimum requirement, the employer must serve a written notice to the employee, indicating the grounds for the termination a...
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When termination is based on (i) a partial closure of the enterprise or staff cuts, (ii) a reduction of the volume of work, (iii) the employee’s inability to efficiently perform the work, (iv) changed job requirements that the employee do...
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The statutory notice period is at least 30 days but not mor...
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Yes, in cases where the employer terminates the empl...
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The employee may terminate the employment contract with notice without stating any reasons. The employee may terminate the employment contract without notice in the following circumstances (this list is not exhaustive): the employee is un...
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It is not generally lawful to force an employee to retire. However, when the emp...
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In each case of termination (irrespective of the termination grounds) the employee is entitled to compensation for any accumulated unused paid annual leave. Where the termination is due to (i) closure of the enterprise or of a part thereof,...
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If the termination is done by mutual consent, the employer and the employee usually...
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There are detailed rules regarding information and consultation for mass dismissals. Mass dismissals are dismissals on the employer’s initiative for one or more reasons not related to the individual employee concerned, where the numbe...
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Where an employer is contemplating mass dismissals, the employer must begin consultations with representatives of the employees and the trade unions in good time but not later than 45 days before the dismissals are to take effect. The emplo...
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The procedure and manner for conducting the mass dismissal consultations i...
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In the event an employer fails to perform its information and consultation obligations, the trade union or the employee representatives ...
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A selection process is compulsory when the employer keeps identical or similar positions to those that are eliminate...
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No additional payments are associated with c...
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The Bulgarian Labour Code provides that the employment relationship is not terminated in the event of a change of the employer due to: merger by incorporation; merger by acquisition; distribution of the operations of one enterprise between...
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Yes, the sale of the employer’s business (or part thereof) to a new employer triggers the rules regarding automatic transfer of employees as a result of a transfer of undertaking. These rules set out the framework for the transfer of the...
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In a transfer of undertaking, the following general legal principles apply: The rights and obligations of the old employer arising from employment relationships existing as at the date of the transfer are transferred to the new employ...
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In Bulgaria affected employees transfer ...
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Terms The terms and conditions of the individual employment contracts transfer automatically (i.e. by operation of law). Benefits Benefits which are not part of the employment contract must be carefully reviewed. There is no express legal r...
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In a transfer of undertaking, the rights and obligations of the old employer ari...
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The Labour Code provides that in a transfer of undertaking,...
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Changes to the employment contracts can generally only be made with the explicit written consent of the employee (in the form of an amendment or addendum to the employment contract). There are only few instances (exhaustively listed in the ...
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In Bulgaria any dismissals made around the time of the transfer (either by the old employer or by the new one) must be conducted as any other dismissal accordin...
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Prior to effecting a transfer, the old employer and the new employer must provide information to the trade union representative and employee representatives of e...
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Both the old employer and the new employer must provide written information to their employees regarding the following: the change and the scheduled date of the transfer; the reasons for the change; the possible...
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Usually the consultations are focused on potential changes to the organization of the working process (e.g. working shifts and reporting line...
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If any of the employers fail to follow the information and consultation procedures, the trade union or the employee repr...
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If the enterprise, activity or a part of an enterprise or activity preserves its self-contained nature after the transfer, the elected employee repres...
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The pension security system in Bulgaria is based on the so called ‘three pillars’: The first pillar is mandatory state pension insurance through the State Social Security Institute, paid for by obligatory contributions to the state P...
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Employers do not have an obligation to provide employees to access to private pension schemes. The only requirement for employers is to withhold and pay the mandatory social security contributions to the state budget. Part of these contribu...
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Additional voluntary pension insurance is implemented through participation in funds which are incorporated and managed by licensed pension insurance companies. Any natural person who has reached the age of 16 and who works for an employe...
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The terms and conditions of a professional pension insurance scheme established by a collective bargaining agreement or another type of collective agreement may only be changed through the procedure provided in such agreement. This will in ...
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The income from compulsory social insurance in Bulgaria or abroad (including pensions) is not subject to taxation. ...
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Employment contracts do not generally contain special provisions regarding pensions entitlement. This is neither required under the law nor customary. ...
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Under Bulgarian anti-discrimination legislation, employers are obliged to carry out an investigation if they have received a...
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Employees have no general legal obligation to repo...
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In the event of a complaint of harassment at the workplace, the employer must immediately investigate, take measur...
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Whether employees are obliged to participate in an investigation is not expressly regula...
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Representation in an investigation is not expressly regulated by ...
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In general, there is no legal requirement on the employer to provide the employee with all of the evidence. However, where an investiga...
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No. The EU Directive on the prote...
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The law entitles the employer to terminate a low-performing or non-performing employee unilaterally with notice. The specific legal grounds for such termination are referred to as ‘lack of qualities by the employee for efficient work perf...
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The specifics of handling grievances (other than what is discussed in ...
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There are no legal requirements for wording of job advertisements or particular details about the job that must be provided. Employers should avoid wording that is discriminat...
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Chilean law does not prohibit or restrict background checks. A future employer may obtain information regarding new applicants without any statutory limitations. However, organisations should avoid questions, tests, or enquiries that could ...
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The law does not provide for a probationary period. The only exception to this is a two-week term that i...
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There are no rules governing dismissal during a probationary period, as probatio...
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Job applicants can bring claims for discrimination against a prospective employer before the Labour Authority, which is the Labour Inspection Body. A claim may be based on any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, ...
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Employers are only allowed to hire foreign nationals who have a temporary residence or permanent residence permit which enables them to work, or those who are otherwise duly authorised to do so. The hiring of foreigners without such permits...
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There are no specific rules in relation to employing foreign workers. However, in order to prepare for inspections of the immigration authority employers should retain a copy of the relevant permission to work. In addition, for national a...
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Yes, employers can keep recor...
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Employers should avoid any potentially discriminatory questions. This would inclu...
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The distinction between employees and independent contractors is based on the characteristics of the services provided. The employer/employee relationship exists when it is subordinate or dependent. When the services are performed without t...
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Employment law does not draw distinctions between types of employees and applies equally to all, so as to offer protection r...
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Special rules apply to the employment of company directors in terms of dismissal and severance payments. Employees who have the power to represent the employer, such as managers, executives, directors, assistant managers, agents or lawyers ...
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Part-time employees are classed as any employee who works fewer than 30 hours per week. Part-time employees are entitled to the same rights and benefits as full-time employees, proportionate to the number of hours actually worked. Although ...
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Fixed-term contracts may be executed for a maximum period of one year. However, the maximum period is two years for managers or...
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The continued performance of duties after a fixed term of one or two years (depending on the employee’s position or level of education as mentioned above in section 2.5) converts the contract into one of indefinite duration. A second exte...
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Employees providing services for a temporary period are subject to a fixed-term employment contract, which may be agreed to for up to one year, and exceptionally for two years. A temporary...
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The general rule in Chile is that an employee works for the organisation which hired him or her and provides services to the employer which gives orders and instructions...
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According to labour law, every employment agreement is consensual, but must be established in a written contract. Two copies must be signed, one for the employer and one for the employee. The employer must prepare the employment contract ...
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In Chile is not standard practice to issue an offer letter to ...
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According to labour authority criteria, the employment contract, employment contract addenda, internal rules and the employer’s policies must be written in Spanish. However, the contract may be executed in English and Spanish, both of whi...
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Certain obligations derived from the legal and ethical nature of the contract are implied into all employment contracts. The most significant implied obligations are: the mutual duty of trust and confidence between employer and employee; a...
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It is possible to incorporate terms from other agreements or documents into the contract of employment. The most common do...
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Employers may change the contractual terms and conditions of an employment contract if the employee agrees to the change. Generally, any modification to the employment contract needs the mutual agreement of the parties and the employer is n...
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Some companies provide employees with a handbook which contains internal policies and rules. An employer might also have other policies, depending on the type of organisation and its business. If a document is intended to be contractual, it...
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The minimum wage in Chile is CLP 410,000 gross monthly salary for people between 18 and 65 years old. For employees under 18 years old the gross monthly minimum wage is CLP 305,851, and for people over 65 years old it is CLP 264,282. By Apr...
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There is no legal requirement or mandatory system for wages to be adjusted for inflation. However, it is common for the parties to mutually agree in the contract of employment a readjustment of remuneration in line with inflation every six ...
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Social security obligations The employer is required on a monthly basis to withhold and pay social security contributions from the remuneration of its employees. ‘Social security contributions’ include the following categories: Pensi...
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As of March 2023, EUR 100,000 equates to approximately CLP 84,755,618. Tax For an employee with an annual income of CLP 84,755,618, ‘Second Category Tax’ of CLP 10,380,852.- will be payable. Social security obligations For an ...
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There are no rules regarding the payment of bonuses or common practices in the market in connection with the type or size o...
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The only mandatory bonus or benefit is the ‘profit sharing bonus’ or ‘gratificación. This legal bonus is mandatory for the employer if it has a net profit during its fiscal year. The profit calculation is the same as for the empl...
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Employers are free to decide on the benefits it wishes to make available to emp...
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The maximum permissible work schedule is 45 hours per week, distributed over no more than six and no fewer than five days. An ordinary working day must not exceed ten hours. Further, only two hours of overtime are permitted per day. ...
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It is not possible to exceed the working hour limitations through agreement of the parties. However, if the services are performed away from urban centres, the employer and employee may agree a working schedule of two weeks of continuous wo...
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Managers, employees with powers to manage the organisation and those who work without direct supervision, at home or outside the workplace are excluded from the application of the working hour limits....
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The employer must keep a record of the attendance and working time of its employees in an attendance book or an attendance record system, for example, a computer system used to record attendance and working hours. According to the Labour Au...
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Yes. A law regarding remote working and flexible working conditions went into effect starting 1 April 2020. Under this law, an amendment to the employment contract must be executed between the parties to reflect this type of work. The c...
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An employee may w...
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Yes. However, if there is no written agreeme...
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Overtime must be paid with a surcharge of 50% over the regular wage. ...
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Employees are entitled to a daily break for lunch of at least 30 minutes, which is not considered part of working time. There are no special rules about the length of breaks between shifts or working days. However, in the case of Sunday...
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If the employer exceeds the limits of daily or weekly working hours or the rules on breaks and rest periods, the employ...
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Employees with one or more years of service in an organisation are entitled to 15 days of paid annual leave a year. After the first ten years of work for o...
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During annual leave, employees are entitled to full remuneration in accordance with the empl...
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Public, statutory, or national holidays are restricted to those stipulated by law. Employees have the right to paid time off for these days. The following days, are holidays in Chile: Holiday Date New Year’s D...
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Chilean law recognises an employee’s right to sick leave based on a doctor’s certification. Employees are required to provide the employer with medical certification in order to take time off and claim sick pay. During the absence...
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The law provides four different types of mandatory, family-related leave. Maternity leave Female employees are entitled to paid maternity leave starting six weeks before childbirth (i.e. ‘prenatal maternity leave’) and for 12 weeks ...
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By law, the employer must provide the following paid mandatory leave: An employee whose spouse dies is entitled to seven days’ paid leave. An employee whose child dies is entitled to ten days’ paid leave. An employee whose sibl...
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The employer must take all necessary measures to protect the life and health of its employees, report any possible risks and maintain adequate health and safety conditions in its place of business. Further, the employer must provide the too...
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Employer’s health and safety duties are regulated by law. The Labour ...
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If an employer breaches health and safety obligations, the labour inspection bodies and authorities can impose administrative fines. The fines range depending on the number of workers employed by the organisation. If the organisation has le...
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An organisation must verify that the labour and social security obligations, incl...
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In the event of a fatal or serious accident the employer must inform the Labour Authority (‘Inspección del Trabajo’) an...
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As a general provision against discrimination, the Constitution establishes that all people are equal before the law and expressly protects equality between men and women. Likewise, the Chilean Constitution establishes that every person has...
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Any distinction, exclusion, or prefere...
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There are no special rules in law about avoiding ‘indirect’ discrimination. However, the Labour Authority (‘Dirección del Trabajo’) has stated that employers must avoid any indirect discrimination based on sex. In this regard, the ...
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Chilean legislation establishes rules on equal opportunities and social inclusion of people with disabilities. Equal opportunities for people with disabilities includes not only the absence of discrimination based on disability, but also th...
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Labour law contains special provisions regarding sexual harassment. If sexual harassment occurs, the employer is entitled to apply disciplinary sanctions to the perpetrator, which could include dismissal. The Chilean Labour Code also in...
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In the case of victimisation, retaliation or reprisal for making a discri...
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Labour law establishes an action called a ‘denuncia de tutela’, which seeks to safeguard the employee’s fundamental or human rights against potential breaches by the employer. This action protects the following rights: the right to l...
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Chilean labour law establishes an action (‘denuncia de tutela’) to safeguard employees’ fundamental rights, among them non-discrimination. See section 8.7 above for details of this action. In ‘denuncia de tutela’ trials the emp...
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The employer could be liable for the discriminatory actions of its employees whether or not it knew or approved of them, unless it...
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There is no specific reporting obligation in relation to gender pay differences. However, note that there are certain rules that allow for claims of infringement...
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Employers are required to take all necessary measures to effectively protect the lives and health of their employees, including their mental health. Employers must report any possible risks, maintain adequate hygiene and safety conditions i...
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According to the statistical compendium of the Labour Directorate, in 2021 there were 1,353 complaints made to the Directorate for violation of fundamental rights. In the previous year, 2020, the Labour Inspectorate issued 140 fines for mat...
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There are no statistics about the amounts of awards made in cases of unlawful discrimination. Compensation depends on the judges’ discretion. If the claim is for discriminatory dismissal, the award may include: compensation in li...
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Privacy law and employment law contain the most important provisions on the issue of protecting employee information. Personal data are those related to any information concerning identified or identifiable individuals which cannot be cla...
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If an employer breaches the law, the employee could file a claim before the Labour Directorate or the labour courts. Labour law provides for an action called ‘denuncia de tutela’, which safeguards the employee’s fundamental or human r...
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According to privacy law, personal information may only be processed as permitted by law or where the owner of the data gives written consent. However, there are exceptions to this provision. Consent is not required for private entities to ...
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The Labour Directorate has held that an employer can be authorised to regulate the use of computers, telephones, email and Internet and establish limits, conditions and opportunities for use. However, the rules imposed by the employer on th...
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There are no legal provisions on the employee’s use of social media either in the workplace or when off duty. Employers must include any rules on the use of social media at work in the ‘Internal Rules of Order, Hygiene and Safety’ of ...
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The employer is not legally required to put in place systems for anonymous reporting, but it should have a whistle-blowing policy which tells employees who they should make disclosur...
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It is common for employers to include clauses in employment contracts to ensure that the employee keeps work-related information, such as the organisation’s p...
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Employers can include non-compete clauses in the employment contract. In addition to confidentiality clauses, non-compete clauses generally are included in employment contracts of employees holding managerial or strategic positions. These n...
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The Labour Authority has accepted the validity of confidential information clauses that remain in effect after the termination of the employment contract, with some limitations: the information protected by the employer must be about matte...
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In Chile there are no labour or civil rules expressly regulating whether the employer can prevent the employee from competing post-employment. Non-compete clauses made after the termination of the employment contract are only accepted to a ...
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Employees have the constitutional and legal right to unionise and form labour unions. There are different types of unions recognised by law, including: organisation unions; inter-organisation unions; temporary workers’ unions; and indepe...
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Chilean union trends have been historically low. In recent years, unionisation has been at ...
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If there is a legitimate trade union within an organisation, the employer must work with it for collective bargainin...
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There are no special rules requiring that workers be represented. There are no employees who, by law, must be represented by trade unions. There is no legal obligation to inform and/or consult unions or other representative bodies, and they...
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According to Chilean law, the following individuals are prohibited from striking: state and municipal employees; and employees who work in organisations or businesses that serve a public fu...
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An employment contract can be terminated on grounds of redundancy. This means that the termination is carried out because of the needs of the organisation. This can include the need to rationalise or modernise to respond to changes in the m...
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If the employee believes that his or her dismissal is not justified, the employee is entitled to bring a claim before the Labour Courts. If the employer failed to give notice, the employee may be entitled to legal increases to the severance...
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The employer must deliver the termination letter personally or by certified post sent to the employee´s home address. The employer must enclose the relevant social security ...
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An employer cannot terminate an employment contract based on redundancy or organisational need when an employee is on sick leave. In addition, certain employees enjoy immunity from dismissal, or immunity privilege (‘fuero’). Employees p...
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In cases of redundancy or the dismissal of managers and those in a position of trust, the employer must send a written communication to the emplo...
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The employer is entitled to pay ‘compensation in lieu of prior notice’, equivalent to 30 days...
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Voluntary resignation will not be regarded as constructive dismissal, ...
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It is not possible to retire an employee ...
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In cases of redundancy or the dismissal of managers and those in a position of trust, the employer must pay the employee compensation based on the number of years worked, at a minimum. The law requires payment of one month’s salary for ea...
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In order to terminate the employment contract the parties must sign a labour agreement release or ‘finiquito’ and the employee must r...
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There is no legal concept of collective or multiple dismissals in Chile and there is no law in Chile regulatin...
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Under general rules about dismissals, the employer must send a communication to the employee informing him or her about the termination of the employment contract one month in advance, unless the employer agrees to pay the employee compensa...
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There is no legal concept of collective or multiple dismissals in Chile and there is no law in Chile regulating collective or multiple dismissals. In cases where dismissals are proposed, the employer must apply the rules relating ...
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There is no legal concept of collective or multiple dismissals in Chile and there is no law in Chile regulating collective or multiple dismissals. In cases where dismissals are proposed, the employer must apply the rules relating ...
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There is no statutory selection order for dismissals under Chilean law. ...
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No, the ordinary rules for individual redundancy or dismissal would apply. Under those rules, managers and those in a position of trust must be paid compensation based on the number of years worked. The law requires a minimum payment of one...
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Total or partial changes to the ownership of a company will not modify the rights and obligations of the employees arising out of their individual employment contracts or the collective bargain contracts that apply to them. Those will remai...
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Sale of a business If a business is sold, all the employees automatically transfer to the new employer on their existing contractual terms and conditions. This applies whether all or part of a business is sold to a new employer. Outsourci...
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In relation to the protection of employees, the old employer is unaffected by the transfer. The old employer does not retain any liabilities (e.g. outstanding wage payments, pension payments...
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No, employees cannot object to transfer...
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Terms All of the terms and conditions of the employment contracts are automatically transfer...
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All liabilities are transferred from ...
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Yes, all collective agre...
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Employers cannot make changes to employment contracts, bec...
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There are no restricti...
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There is no requirement to co...
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Not applicable,...
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Not applicable,...
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Not applicable,...
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The works council and other employee representatives ar...
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Currently, the Chilean state pension is divided into three main tiers of benefit: financial assistance; contributory; and voluntary. One of the main purposes of the first tier is to prevent poverty in old age or disabilit...
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Employers must withhold gross remuneration from employees’ in various amounts for social security contributions. This is mandatory and as such there are consequences for non-compliance. For example, if the employment contract i...
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In addition to the requirement to meet social security obligations from employees‘ wages, on 1 October 2008, the concept of collective voluntary pension savings was created. The aim of this scheme is to increase the soc...
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If any proposed changes to a pension scheme relate to mandatory social security contributions and these modifications are required by law there is no requirement to consult with employees. If the proposed changes relate to ...
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In order to encourage employers to offer employees collective voluntary savings plans, employer contributions are treated as business expenses. If the funds contributed by the employer do not become the property of the employee b...
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Given that social security contributions are mandatory, there is no obligation to state them in the employment contract. The employer will deduct the corresponding amounts for these contributions, without the need to include a pro...
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An employer must conduct an investigation if an employee files a sexual or workplace harassment claim. ...
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Employees are not obliged to report suspected misconduct. ...
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An employer must start an investigation immediately after a harassment claim is filed. Chilean legal regulations set forth the rules for conducting the investigation. The content of the investigation is reserved, must be conducted in writin...
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Employees are required to participate in an investigation into allegations of harassment, including employees who are suspected of misconduct. ...
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The employee can be represented by a lawyer during the investigation. ...
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The employer must provide the accused employee with all the evidence it gathers in the course of an investigation. The identity of the witnesses must be protected. ...
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The employer is not legally required to put in place systems for anonymous reporting, but it must have a whistle-blowing policy which tells employees who they should make disclosures to and the procedures to follow. This pol...
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In Chile there is no legally mandated process to deal with low performance. In addition, an employer cannot sanction or dismiss an employee on the grounds of low performance. ...
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There are no statutory rules about how grievances should be handled in Chile. Most employers set internal policies and procedures to manage employee complaints. ...
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There are no laws or regulations at national level requiring any particular wording or details about jobs to be provided in job advertisements. Some local level regulations may, however, provide general guidance in this reg...
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There is no legal guidance on checks an employer may carry out about the background and health of job applicants. However, tests for hepatitis B surface antigen must not be carried out as part of pre-hiring health checks un...
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Employment may be made subject to a probationary period. The length of the probationary period must be determined based on the length of the term of the employment contract, as follows: for contracts between three months and ...
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The dismissal of an employee must be based on one or more of the statutory termination grounds prescribed by Chinese law, regardless o...
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Job applicants can bring claims for discrimination against a prospective employer based on employment equality law, inclu...
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A nation-wide system for work permits for foreigners working in China was implemented on 1 April 2017. Employers must now use this system to apply for work permits. There are generally three steps to be followed in em...
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Chinese law does not differentiate between foreign and local workers in terms of recordkeeping. An employer must keep a record of basic, employment-related documents relating to all of its employees, including: employm...
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Chinese law does not prohibit employers from keeping records about unsucce...
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Employers are not allowed to ask whether the candidate is a hepatitis B surface antigen carrier during the interviews, except for c...
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There is no specific legal guidance on how to distinguish an employee (i.e. where the relationship is subject to employment law) from an independent contractor (i.e. the relationship is subject to civil and commercial law). In practice, a...
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Chinese law does not draw distinctions between types of e...
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Company directors in China are not necessarily employees of the company. Normally, an employee serving as company director has another senior management position in the company or with ...
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Chinese law imposes certain restrictions on part-time workers’ working time, which is the key factor that differentiates between these workers and full-time employees. A part-time worker’s average daily working time (i.e. with one emp...
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There is no substantial difference between the rights of a ...
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A fixed-term contract can be converted into an indefinite-term contract under the following circumstances: after an employee has worked for more than ten consecutive years for the same employer, the employer must grant the employee an inde...
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An agency worker, more commonly known as a ‘labour dispatch worker’ in China, is an individual who is employed by an employment agency and dispatched to work in other organisations. While Chinese law requires that agency workers onl...
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Chinese law is silent on whether an employer can put its employees at the disposal of another organisation to work in accordance with that organisation’s instructions, other than under a temporary employment arrangement through an employm...
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With the exception of part-time employees, all employees are entitled to a written employment contract, signed within one month of the commencement of employment. If this is not done, the employer must pay double the salary to the employee....
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It is common practice in China for an employer to issue an offer letter to employees in addition to and before signing an employme...
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Chinese law is silent on what language employment contracts should be in, but the general rule is that an employee must u...
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Certain terms are implied by Chinese law into all employment contracts. These include the conditions on which an employer may unilaterally terminate an employment contract. They cannot be altered or excluded by the contract. An employer m...
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It is possible for an employment contract to incorporate terms from other agreements or documents. ...
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As a general rule, under Chinese law, employers cannot unilaterally change contractual terms and conditions (i.e. position, salary and duration) unless they obtain consent from employees. If an employer unilaterally imple...
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Non-contractual documents made available to employees normally include various internal policies and rules that are usually collected and compiled in a comprehensive employee handbook. For example: health and safety at work policies; dis...
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There is a minimum wage in China, the amount of which varies according to the requirements of different local regulations. The minimum wage does not have to be paid through basic salary only, but the following are explicitly excluded from t...
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Wages are not au...
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Tax An employee must pay individual income tax on the remuneration received from his or her employer. The employer must withhold individual income tax for all of its employees from the remuneration and pay the withheld amount to the tax a...
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Both individual income tax and social insurance must be withheld and paid on a monthly basis and do not depend on an employee’s marital status or family background. However, certain livelihood expenditures such as education, medical treat...
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There are no statutory rules governing payment of bonuses. In practice, common types of bonuses include performance bonuses, year-end bonuses, retention bonuses and sales com...
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An employer is required to pay statutory social insuranc...
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Other than benefits required by law, in practice, an employer may also offer one or more of the following b...
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An employee’s working hours are subject to the working-hour system which applies to him or her. There are three types of working-hour system in China: the standard working-hour system (the ‘Standard System’); the system of calculat...
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Under either the Standard System (i.e. the standard working-hour system) or...
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Employees working under the Flexible System are exempt from daily and/or weekly working time rules. This system applies to senior managers, sales representatives, and probably telework...
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There are no rules about the monitoring of employees’ working time. Howev...
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There is no law prohibiting or encouraging agile ...
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Under the Standard System (i.e. the standard working-hour system) an employee’s overtime must generally not exceed one hour per day. If there ...
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No, an employer has the right to unilaterally arrange overtime due to business needs. If an ...
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The rate for calculating overtime compensation varies under different working-hour systems. The Standard System Overtime compensation must be calculated and paid as follows, on an hourly basis: on regular working days (i.e. Monday to Frida...
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In general, breaks and rest periods can be agreed upon by employers and employees. However, sp...
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If an employer exceeds the limits on daily or weekly working hours, affected employees may file a labour dispute claim against the employer for overtime compensation according to the rate established b...
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An employee is entitled to statutory annual leave if he or she has worked for more than 12 consecutive months for one or more employers. An employee’s entitlement to statutory annual leave is based on his or her accumulative working years...
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An employee is entitled to be paid during annual leave as if he or she were working and therefore there is no reduction in salary. For an empl...
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Employees have the right to paid time off work for public holidays, which are treated as paid days. Further, if an employee works on public holidays, he or she will be additionally entitled to overtime comp...
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An employee is entitled to a statutory medical care period. The length of this is determined based upon an employee’s service years with the employer. During the medical care period, th...
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The main statutory rights to family leave and pay are summarised below. In practice, most employers follow the minimum legal requirement, whilst a few employers provide more generous arrangements. Marriage Leave Employees are entitled to ma...
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Employees are entitled to paid time off work during working hours to perform social duties, as required by law. These duties include: exercising the right to elect or be elected; attending court...
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An employer must take reasonably necessary steps to ensure the safety of its employees. As a minimum the employer must: provide its employees with a safe working environment with adequate protection appliances or equipment; where necessary...
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Health and safety duties are regulated by s...
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If an employer breaches health and safety rules, administrative penalties may be imposed by the competent labour, health and safe production authority. The penalties incl...
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Generally, an employer will not be liable for the acts of third-party contractors, provided the employer ...
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China does not have a consolidated anti-discrimination law. Protection against discrimination is spread...
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It is possible to treat an individual differently on the basis of a protected characteristic...
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There are no specific legal requirements relating to ‘indirect’ discrimination. Nevertheless, if employer disadvantages a protected group of employees by applying...
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There is no specific protection against harassment based on a protecte...
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There is no specific le...
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If a claim for discrimination is successful, a court could order the employer ...
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An employer can be liable for the discriminatory acts of its employees on the grounds that: it fails to ...
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Discrimination cl...
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The protection of personal information has been a hot topic in China recently and several laws have been issued or are in draft form. Under new law, the definition of “network operators” may include employers, as they administer network...
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In the case of breach of the rules, the competent authority will order rectification and may issue a warning, confiscate any income derived from the breach and impose a fine of between one and ten times the amount of the illegal income (or,...
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If the employer wishes to collect and process confidential employee information, it should: collect informati...
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The monitoring of employees using workplace surveillance cameras email systems or computers owned by the employer is generally permitted because the employer is the owner of its premises, systems and compu...
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There are no specific legal restrictions on an employee’s use of social media either at work or when off duty. The employer may adopt a policy providing that an employee will be disciplined or dismissed if his or her use of soc...
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There are no legal provisions about whistle-blowing. Employers have the option t...
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Though employees have an obligation in law to protect the confidential information of employers, which usually includes trade secrets and other proprietary or confidential information, in practice, employers usually adopt either or both of ...
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Under Chinese labour law, if an employee starts to work for another employer (but not necessarily a competitor of the original employer) and the new employment relationship mate...
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The employer can restrict the use of confidential information once employment has e...
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Employers that wish to prevent an employee from acting in competition once employment has ended must include an express contractual term that restricts the employee’s activities after termination of employment. Such clauses are know...
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The responsibility of a trade union in an organisation is to protect the rights and interests of the employees. These rights and interests are protected through, for example, collective representation and consultation. The following are exa...
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China’s trade unions are government-supported and so in most cases,...
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Once a trade union has been established, the employer must work wit...
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In China, state-owned enterprises (‘SOEs’) have been legally required to set up employee representative bodies, while companies other than SOEs (i.e. private companies) have had the discretion as to whether or not to do so. However, s...
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Currently, there are no specific legal restrictions on trade u...
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In China, an employer may only terminate an employee’s employment on statutory grounds. In addition, an employer must not dismiss any employee at will without cause. An employer may terminate an employee with 30 days’ prior written not...
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If there is an unlawful termination by an employer, the employer may be required to continue to per...
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The law requires an employer to shoulder the burden to prove that its termination of an employment contract is based on sufficient legal grounds. Therefore, the employer should obtain solid evidence before initiating the termination process...
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The following employees can only be terminated in restricted circumstances: employees who are engaged in operations exposing them to occupational disease hazards and who have not undergone pre-departure occupational health check-ups, or wh...
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In cases where notice is required (i.e. termination is not immediate), the employer must ...
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The employer is entitled to make a payment in lieu of notice on te...
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An employee is required to provide the employer three days’ prior notice of resignation duri...
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China operates a compulsory retirement system. Upon reaching the statutory retirement age, an employee must terminate his or her employment with the employ...
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In China, an employee is entitled to statutory severance pay for termination of employment, except where the employment is terminated as a result of voluntary resignation or gross misconduct. The formula for calculating an employee’s stat...
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An employer can settle claims by agreement with the employ...
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Chinese law defines collective dismissal as the dismissal of at least 20 employees, or 10% or more of the total workforce, under the following circumstances: where the employer is under ...
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To implement a collective dismissal, an employer is legally required to explain the circumstances to the...
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The following consultation process must be followed by the employer: The employer must give an explanation of the circumstances to the trade union or all of the employees 30 days in advance. The employer must make an employee dismissal pla...
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The law is not clear on what information must be provided and therefore, it is di...
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There is no statutory selection order for dismissals under Chinese law. However, for termination as a result of an employee’s incompetence, sickness, major changes in the employment contract or collective dismissals, the following employe...
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Except for statutory severance pay for termina...
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There is no specific protection for employees on share takeovers. Howev...
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Sale of a business There is no specific legal protection for employees on business sales. However, in those circumstances, the seller must continue performing the employees’ e...
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There are no rule...
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Yes. If the employee objects to transferring, the seller must contin...
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Terms The employment contract concluded with the purchaser is treated as a completely new contract. The purchaser is under no obligation to take over the same contract terms that the employee had with the seller. Unless otherwise agreed (e....
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Unless the purchaser agrees to recognize and credit the employee’s previous service years with the selle...
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Collective ...
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Yes. The employment contract concluded with the purchaser i...
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If the employee objects to transferring, the seller must continue to perform the emp...
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There is no requirement t...
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There is no requirement t...
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There is no requirement t...
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There is no requirement t...
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The seller’s works council does not...
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In China, pension insurance, together with medical, unemployment, occupational injury and maternity insurance, form the statutory social insurance system for employees. Both employees and employers are required to make payments to the pensi...
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An employer must provide its employees with basic statutory pension insurance. In addition, an employer may, at its discretion, provide its employees with a supplementary pension insurance scheme, such as commercial pension insurance and ...
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In addition to the statutory basic pension insurance, an employer may enter into commercial pension insurance arrangements with insurance companies and/or implement company annuity plans to supplement the basic requirements. Commercial pens...
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An employer is not entitled to make any changes to statutory pension insurance, which must strictly ...
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For employees, statutory pension insurance can be exempt from Chinese individual income tax. However, discretionary co...
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Generally, under an employment contract, there will be a clause...
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There are no mandatory labour requirements for job advertisements. We recommend that employers provide information about skills that will be considered. The advertisement should include the address or email where the application should be...
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In Colombia, it is common practice for organisations to review background records of new applicants for employment purposes. Permitted background checks include work experience, disciplinary records, personal references, credit info...
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Employment may be subject to a probationary period. During this period, the employer has the opportunity to evaluate the employee’s pe...
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There are no special rules about dismissal during the probationary period. During this period, either party may terminate the employment co...
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Since the employment relationship has not yet started at the hiring stage, job applicants cannot bring claims against a prospective employer, other than constitutional actions related to discriminatory practices and violation of ...
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