Lawyers International Network for Employees and Executives (LINEE)

Workplace Issues

Using Mediation to Resolve French Workplace Harassment Disputes

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Dismissal, vexatious measures, aggressiveness, denigration, unjustified criticism, and bullying are all situations that can be considered moral harassment in a French workplace.

But how can you be sure? What may start as a simple disagreement between colleagues or an employee and their superior can escalate into real acts of psychological harassment. The absence of dialogue or poor communication is often one of the causes of these abuses.

If that happens, how can you find the strength to speak out without fear of retaliation or losing your job? What evidence should you show to prove it? Who can you turn to? These are all questions that an employee subjected to workplace harassment frequently asks themselves. Read more.

Paternity Leave in France: Extended Time for Fathers of Newborns

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In France, fathers of newborn infants were granted paid leave for the birth of a child 20 years ago; previously, the law entitled them only to three days’ leave financed by their employer.

Since 2002, fathers have been entitled to employer-funded paid time-off. Paternity and childcare leave applies to biological fathers, regardless of their family situation, or employees (“second parents”) who live with the mother of a newborn child whose biological father does not request such leave. During this period, the French social security system compensates the employee and his employment contract is suspended.

Paid Time Off

For the past 20 years, paternity leave was limited to 11 calendar days or 18 days for multiple births, while the three days of employer-funded leave remained unchanged. Effective July 1, 2021, paid time-off increased from 11 to 25 calendar days for a single birth on or after that date and from 18 to 32 days for multiple births. Read more.

Telework, Smart Work, and the Right to Disconnect in Italy

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In our previous post, we explained the European Union’s pre- and post-pandemic protections of the changing workplace, including remoting arrangements. In this post, we explore the measures our home country—Italy—has taken.

Regulating Telework in Italy: Pre-COVID-19

According to Eurofound (2020), while only 10% worked from home at least several times a week before the pandemic (compared to 15.8% on average in the EU-27), the first wave of the pandemic brought this number to 39.9% (compared to 36.5% on average in the EU-27). This makes Italy among the Member States with the highest increases in the share of workers (18+) working from home during the pandemic.

Smart Working and the Right to Disconnect in Italy Read more.

Telework: A European Approach to Protecting Workers

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Teleworking is likely to become much more common following the increase in telework since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, more extensive telework poses complicated threats to workers due to blurred work-life boundaries, extensive screen time, and a lack of social support found in office environments.

This emphasizes the importance of introducing “right to disconnect” initiatives to avoid large segments of workers being at risk of physical and emotional exhaustion.

Overview of the Uptick in Remote Work

According to estimates by the Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions), nearly 40% of workers in the EU began to work remotely due to the pandemic in 2020, with the percentage of remote workers growing nearly 34% compared to 2019. Read more.

Why Doesn’t the U.S. Expand Parental Leave – Like the Rest of the World?

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According to data from the United States Department of Labor, there are 72 million women ages 16 and over in our country who are currently working or looking for work, accounting for 47 percent of the nation’s total labor force. In many other countries where women are an equally significant and important portion of the workforce, paid family leave is an integral part of encouraging workers to have families and successfully return to the workplace, but when women in the U.S. decide to have children, there is no such federal protection. In today’s modern economy, the discussion of whether the government should expand federally-mandated parental leave is the subject of intense debate.

What Evidence Will French Labor Courts Accept as Proof in Employment Disputes?

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When lawsuits over employment disputes go to trial in France’s Labor Court trials, the parties usually submit proof to prosecute or defend the allegations. But by what standard do the Labor Courts determine the admissibility of the evidence presented?

Under French law, the principle is that all evidence in civil trials is acceptable. However, that assumes that the evidence is lawful, meaning it must have been obtained and used fairly at all stages. If a party cannot demonstrate to the Court that it collected and used the evidence lawfully, the evidence will be ruled inadmissible from the proceedings.

Evidence obtained clandestinely or by invading an employee’s privacy often come under scrutiny. Read more.

Reopening the Workplace: A Gender Perspective on the Economic Fallout of COVID-19

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The COVID-19 coronavirus doesn’t discriminate between men and women, but the same can’t be said of the pandemic’s impact on the U.S. workforce.

Traditional support for women at work has been drastically reduced, if not eliminated, during the crisis. Women have had to reorient to working from home while balancing family responsibilities, including childcare and home schooling. Admittedly, both male and female parents have had to face these challenges, but women have shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden.

Over the past 25 years, legislators and employers have implemented measures to assist the growing percentage of working women. By exploring early childhood programs, daycare, flexible hours, and job sharing these efforts have encouraged co-parenting, offered assistance to single parents, and created greater work-life balance. The COVID-19 outbreak eliminated these supports, and it’s anyone’s guess when these efforts will resume. Read more.

Working From Home in France After COVID-19

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The current COVID-19 crisis has had consequences on employment conditions in France. Before the pandemic, working from the company’s premises was the rule, while working from a home office was the exception.

Over the last few years, there has been an emerging trend in favor of home offices, facilitated in particular by transportation strikes, the need to save on office rents, and other factors. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this process. Overnight, most employees have had to work from home, and companies had no choice but to adapt quickly to this situation.

Once operations return to normal, companies willing to implement or permanently facilitate remote working will have to comply with the following rules: Read more.

The “Cura Italia” Decree and the Injection of Liquidity to Support Italy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Italian government enacted a new and powerful economic plan – the “Cura Italia” – on March 17, 2020, sending Italian citizens a strong message of solidarity and support to Italian citizens. The Decree allocates a liquidity injection of some €25 billion in aid for workers, businesses, and families through a liquidity injection to support the economy.

How the Cura Italia Addresses Employment and the Workplace

The most significant portion of the aid will be allocated to reinforce social safety nets, including people who, under ordinary conditions, could not access those benefits. Among the measures are:

  • Extending the Ordinary Earnings Supplement Fund and implementing a simplified procedure for all companies that intend to adopt the ordinary layoff. This includes a mechanism for derogating from the maximum limit (currently 24 months);
  • Extending and upgrading the Redundancy Fund in Exception for employers with fewer than six employees (even just one employee). This includes sectors covered by the Ordinary Earnings Supplement Fund and not protected by Solidarity Funds, such as services and logistics;
  • An appropriation of €500 million for the Wage Integration Fund for micro-enterprises employing between one and five employees who cannot count on social safety nets.

Special Rules Regarding Ordinary Salary Integration and Ordinary Allowance

In 2020, employers who suspend or reduce their work due to events attributable to the COVID-19 emergency can apply for ordinary salary integration or access to the ordinary allowance for a maximum duration of nine weeks (ending August 2020). Applications can be submitted by the end of the fourth month following the one in which the period of suspension or reduction of work began. Read more.

What to Do If You Are Worried about Getting a Bad Reference from Your Last Job

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When you leave a job in difficult circumstances, it can come as a huge relief to be out of a stressful situation. But that relief can be short-lived when you come to applying for a new job and are worried about what will happen when your prospective employer asks for a reference. We set out some guidance that may help you handle the situation.

These days it is very common for an employer to give a basic reference covering job title and dates of employment, whether things end amicably or otherwise. These are so common that a reference like this is unlikely to harm your chances of finding a new job. The bigger the organisation, the more likely that they will have a policy of just giving this sort of reference. So however badly things ended, you might not get the negative reference you are worried about after all.

There’s no obligation on an employer to give a reference, but if they do then the reference should be true, accurate and not misleading. In practice, that’s not tremendously helpful; employers rarely lie, they just say “we think they were useless” or similar. That’s their opinion and it’s difficult to say it’s false. Commonly, the problem is not with the written reference, which may be bland, but if someone telephones your previous employer they may get more information in the call and it is very difficult to get evidence about this. Again, the bigger your former employer, the less likely this is to be a problem; the call is more likely to get directed to HR, who won’t know you personally and who will be less likely to expand on the written reference. Read more.