In a judgment delivered recently by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Austrian legislation was in the limelight. A particular law provided that Good Friday was a paid public holiday for members of certain religious congregations only. If a member of such a congregation did work on that day, he was entitled to additional pay. Such an entitlement was not based on any condition that the employee in question had to perform a particular religious duty during that day. Therefore, the employee was free to choose how to spend his time during that day. The Court ...

By its judgment of the 25 th of January 2019 in the names Galea vs. L-Università ta' Malta , the Court of Appeal decided that cases of termination of fixed term employment contracts do not fall within the Industrial Tribunal's competence. [1] The Court considered Article 75(1) of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452 of the laws of Malta), which lays down the jurisdiction of the Industrial Tribunal. The Court concluded that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction under sub-article (a) which speaks about 'alleged unfair dismissal' and this due to the ...

In August of last year, four employment related legal notices came into force but were shortly 'suspended' following various objections from interested stakeholders. The legal notices related to annual leave; itemised payslips; transfer of business and temporary agency workers. In December of last year, the legal notices relating to annual leave and itemised payslips were further amended and have now come into force. The legal notice introducing changes to the Transfer of Business (Protection of Employment) Regulations have not been amended and have apparently als...

An employee had been allowed to work from home because of a medical condition, and this following his doctor's recommendation. After a period of time with this arrangement, the company ultimately decided to withdraw its approval and requested that the employee reports to work at its official premises. The employee refused, and his employment was terminated. Consequently, the employee instituted proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination because of his disability. In its decision of the 5th December 2018, the Tribunal s...

In the Joined Cases C-569/16 (Bauer) and C-570/16 (Willmeroth), decided last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union had to decide whether the widows of two workers were entitled, as sole heirs, to demand from their spouses' previous employers an allowance in lieu of annual leave which had not been availed of by their spouses. The Court ruled that the worker's right to paid annual leave, which it emphasised constitutes an essential principle of EU social law, does not terminate upon his death. The reason for termination of the employment relationship is ...