Employment law in 5: 5 developments for April to read in less than 5 minutes

On March 4, 2022, the EU introduced temporary protection for people displaced from Ukraine, providing eligible individuals the right to enter into and work in EU member states. Each EU country is implementing the rules locally (unless existing laws already provide equivalent or better protection), so there are country-specific nuances.

DLA Piper has produced country guidance with immigration, employment and other administrative information to help individuals fleeing Ukraine, which is available on the website of the NGO PILnet. While this information is aimed at individuals, it is also relevant to employers who have questions on the rights of Ukrainian workers to enter into and work in EU countries.

EU-wide pay transparency rules came a step closer this month, with members of the European Parliament on the EU Women’s Rights and Employment committees voting to progress negotiations on the proposed EU Pay Transparency Directive.

In the meantime, some EU countries are developing their own rules. The Irish government announced further details of Ireland’s mandatory gender pay gap reporting obligations, including that employers will choose a “snapshot” date of their employees in June 2022 and report on the pay gap on the same date in December 2022. Read more here. France strengthened its gender pay law. As of 2022, companies in France with at least 50 employees must publish their pay gap calculations on the Labor Ministry website and company website. In the UK, where gender pay gap reporting is well established, the government announced it will not be bringing in mandatory ethnicity pay reporting at this stage, but will publish guidance on voluntary pay reporting in summer 2022. 

In Israel, from June 1, 2022, Israeli employers with more than 518 employees must publish a report on the gender pay gap.

In the US, President Biden announced measures to advance pay equity; the Department of Labor’s OFCCP issued a new directive on pay equity audits; and states and localities continued to advance pay transparency measures. For example, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released a fact sheet providing additional guidance on its salary disclosure law (set to take effect May 15 unless a proposed bill to amend the new law passes); a Washington state bill will expand pay disclosure requirements for employers with 15 or more employees that do business in the state; and a bill introduced in California would further expand pay reporting requirements.

In late January 2022, the European Commission sent notices of lack of transposition to 24 member states for failing to meet the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive implementation deadline. Since then, we have seen progress in a number of countries.

In early March, the Romanian government approved a draft transposition law which will be submitted to Parliament for debate and approval. In Ireland, the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill is going through the legislative process, likely coming into force in the first half of 2022. In Spain, a draft law was approved in early March and will go to Congress for discussion and approval. Elsewhere, although no formal announcements have been made, draft legislation is reportedly progressing in such jurisdictions as Belgium and the Czech Republic. To monitor the progress of implementing laws across 18 EU member states, see our Whistleblower Directive tracker.

Our recent webinar with Lexology explores the key features of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. Click here to access the recording. 

While many countries are now emerging from COVID-19 restrictions, the picture is not the same everywhere. China has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases since early 2022; Shenzen recently came out of a lockdown and Shanghai citizens are being subject to on-and-off restrictions and multiple rounds of testing. Read more here.

In Hong Kong, on March 18, 2022 the government announced that a new round of the Employment Support Scheme will be launched in response to the pandemic. Read a summary here.