Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht; BAG) dated January 23, 2019 – 7 AZR 733/16 The unfounded limitation of the term of an employment contract, when an employee is employed again by the same employer, is only permissible when and if the application of the prohibition of unfounded fixed-term employment under Sec. 14(2) s. 2 Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Law (Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz; TzBfG) would be unreasonable for the parties ...
BAG, ruling dated February 7, 2019 - 6 AZR 75/18 A termination agreement under labor law cannot be withdrawn pursuant to consumer protection regulations (Sec. 312(1) in combination with Sec. 312g, Sec. 355 German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; BGB)) only because it was concluded in the employee’s private home. In its ruling dated February 6, 2019 (Ref. No ...
(2017/0355 (COD)) On 16 April 2019, the European Parliament adopted a new Directive aimed at ensuring transparent and reliable working conditions for employees in the area of crowdworking. On 13 June 2019, the Council of Ministers also adopted the Directive. In the following the main content of the new Directive ...
Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht; BAG) dated February 19, 2019 – 3 AZR 150/18 A clause in a preworded pension commitment stipulating a minimum of ten years of marriage as per the date of death as a prerequisite for the disbursement of survivors’ benefits violates German general terms and conditions law and is thus void and invalid ...
In order to make Germany more appealing to skilled international workers and meet the increasing demand for skilled workers by way of labor-based migration, the German Parliament (Bundestag) adopted the Skilled Worker Immigration Act (FEG) on June 7, 2019. The Act is expected to become effective in early 2020. The administrative obstacles for non-EU citizens have been rather immense when it comes to being employed in Germany ...
State Labor Court (Landesarbeitsgericht; LAG) Baden-Württemberg dated December 20, 2018 - 17 Sa 11/18 Pursuant to Art. 15(1) GDPR, the employee may request information and a copy of the personal information which the employer has recorded of him/her. A general refusal by the employer to provide information or hand over the information due to justified third-party interests is not sufficient, but must be adequately explained by the employer ...
German State Labor Court (Landesarbeitsgericht; LAG) of Cologne, decision dated April 9, 2019 – 4 Sa 242/18 In their decision dated April 9, 2019 (4 Sa 242/18), the Cologne LAG implemented the requirements of a high-profile decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) made in November 2018 according to which a directive-compliant interpretation of Sec ...
FACTS OF THE CASE The plaintiff and the defendant, who operates a horse-riding facility, agreed on a three-month internship for career orientation (professional horse farmer; Pferdewirt). The internship started on October 6, 2015. The plaintiff was involved in saddling and cleaning horses, putting them on a belt, feeding them, taking them to the pasture and back, and helping with stable cleaning. During the period from November 3 to 6, 2015, the plaintiff was ill and not fit to work ...
The international transfer of personal data is part of daily business for many companies. They work with international service providers, have affiliates abroad or cooperate with foreign customers and suppliers. The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) provides a narrow scope for transferring personal data to non-EU countries. According to art ...
There has been intense work on the IT security law 2.0 since the “German doxing case" of late 2018/early 2019 when large volumes of data of German celebrities and politicians were published. This bill will significantly extend the importance and the competences of the Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (“BSI”) in information technology ...
In our newsletter article of March 2019, which was only based on press release No. 9/19 of the BAG [German Federal Labor Court] regarding the judgment of Feb. 19, 2019 - 9 AZR 541/15, we addressed the new case law of the BAG for informing the employer about existing vacation entitlements. In a similar case (also judgment of Feb ...
BAG of Feb. 19, 2019 – 3 AZR 219/18 So-called "late marriage clauses" in surviving dependants' pension commitments may constitute an unjustified age discrimination and can therefore be ineffective, unless a specific cut-off date can be justified on the basis of a specific connecting factor particularly linked to the legal structure principles of company pension schemes. FACTS OF THE CASE A widow filed a complaint with regard to a widow's pension before the labor courts ...
BAG, judgment of Apr. 9, 2019 – 1 ABR 30/17 The transfer of an employee after the loss of job to the care of an in-house "Job Service and Placement" unit constitutes a transfer requiring consent within the meaning of Sec. 99 para. 1 BetrVG [German works constitution act]. If the selection procedure is carried out by the parties pursuant to a framework agreement, the instruction in the approval procedure also covers the selection procedure ...
Federal Labor Court (BAG), judgment of Dec. 11, 2018 – 9 AZR 161/18 An enhanced vacation entitlement on grounds of age where employees who have not yet reached the age of 50 are granted at least three days less vacation than older employees violates the prohibition of discrimination of Sec. 7(1) in conjunction with Sec. 1 AGG ...
BAG, judgment of Mar. 14, 2019 – 6 AZR 4/18 A severance payment awarded by dissolution proceedings may either be an insolvency claim or insolvency asset liability. The time the dissolution petition was made is decisive. FACTS OF THE CASE The employer (later insolvency debtor) terminated the employment of the plaintiff before the opening of insolvency proceedings ...
Anyone in Germany who wants to make calls outside the city is sometimes not able to do so due to the numerous "white spots" in the mobile network infrastructure. In most areas of Germany, a comprehensive infrastructure is not guaranteed. An expansion by the telecommunications companies (TC) is also not foreseeable in the next three years. Therefore, many municipalities and administrative districts want to eliminate these "white spots" on their own ...
If, in the course of an in-depth assessment, the EU Commission finds that an unlawfully granted aid is incompatible with the internal market, it is obliged under Article 16 of the Procedural Regulation 2015/1589 to order the recovery of the aid by the Member State. On 23 July 2019, the Commission published an updated notice on recovery (2019/C 247/01) ...
Although under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission has limited power regarding infrastructure policy, which remains a Member state competence, recent rulings of the ECJ regarding ports and airports have allowed it to extend its role in this area by applying the State aid rules to infrastructure financing ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") published its long-awaited decision on the use of the Facebook Like-Button on July 29, 2019 (Case C-40/17). One major aspect of the judgment is the question to what extent Facebook and website operators who incorporate the Like-Button into their website are joint controllers under European data protection law. As a result, the CJEU affirms this question and takes a firm stand on the conditions for joint controllership ...
Strict data protection requirements apply to the use of location tracking systems both in the employment context and in cooperation with other companies. In its partial judgement from March 19, 2019, the Lüneburg Administrative Court ruled in compliance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the new Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) that unrestricted tracking of employee vehicles is impermissible ...
The German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) has submitted its long-awaited proposal for a Corporate Sanctions Act (VerSanG). When corporate crimes are committed, it is making provisions for independently prosecuting the entire organization in addition to prosecuting single perpetrators ...
In its decision of June 26, 2019 (ref. 5 AZR 452/18), the 5th Senate of the Federal Labor Court (BAG) dealt with the requirements and limitations of overtime lump sum remuneration clauses in works agreements. So far, the decision is only available as a press release. FACTS OF THE CASE The plaintiff is a union secretary at the ver.di trade union. The parties have agreed a weekly working time of 35 hours and "trust-based working hours" ...
BAG of March 19 2019 - 9 AZR 495/17 The employer may reduce the vacation entitlement of a worker on parental leave by one twelfth for each full calendar month. If he does not exercise his right to reduce or if he can not prove the declaration of reduction, vacation entitlement does not expire during parental leave in accordance with Sec. 7 para. 3 BUrlG [German federal vacation law] at the end of the vacation year or the transfer period (31 March of each year) ...
LAG Schleswig-Holstein of February 26 2019 - 2 TaBV 14/18 The works council has no entitlement to the Provision or Inspection of Personnel Turnover Statistics or Appendices thereto, if the Employer only uses these for Statistical Purposes and for Internal Controlling. The personnel turnover statistics in this case are not an instrument for personnel planning ...
