On your radar | Issue 17

Key employment issues to be aware of internationally

This edition of On your radar highlights important employment law developments expected in 2022.

At the time of writing Omicron continues to cause chaos, but away from Covid-19, Chile discuss changes to their novel system of compulsory profit sharing by companies to consider alternative approaches. Many European countries discuss the introduction of national laws to implement the EU Whistleblowing Directive. While aimed at providing a common framework of protection, companies will need to understand the detail across locations relevant to them. For example, as a result of Brexit the UK has not – so far – made changes to their existing system for protecting whistleblowers, and in Germany it has been announced that the new national law implementing the Directive will extend to areas of law outside the scope of the Directive.

Workplace vaccination remains a theme, with Peru refusing to allow employees to enter a workplace of more than ten employees unless they are fully vaccinated. Many other countries are adopting a “3G” approach allowing entry to a workplace depending on proof of vaccination, recovery or testing negative for Covid-19. A sectoral approach has been chosen by the UK, Belgium and Germany who areamong the many countries mandating vaccination for health care workers. The pandemic response continues to evolve, and other countries report that their governments are still weighing up how to deal with the unvaccinated in the workplace.

And finally, the Netherlands explain that from 1 January 2022 employers can provide a tax free allowance of EUR 2 a day for home workers to cover energy and coffee costs. This may seem like a small issue of itself, but is a timely reminder for employers who are moving to longer term hybrid or otherwise ‘dispersed’ working models to be sure and take into account local tax, employment and health and safety laws. It can be surprising how many variations there are, and we are seeing interesting points come up from the projects we are working on.

The CMS Employment Team