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The under-representation of women in the highest decision-making bodies of companies in the EU was the trigger for the Women on Boards Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2381 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on improving gender balance among directors of listed companies and related measures).
The Directive intends to ensure that women and men enjoy equal opportunities as well as a more balanced representation in top management. In view of their economic and social responsibilities and their significant impact on the market, the largest listed companies are now required to introduce measures that ensure a balance between genders.
A bill is currently being drafted in Poland to implement the Women on Boards Directive, which will affect recruitment and hiring policies and HR processes.
On October 15, main ideas appeared on the list of legislative and programmatic work of the Council of Ministers in a document entitled “Take back control. Ensure Security. Poland's Comprehensive and Responsible Migration Strategy for 2025-2030.” Just two days later. on October 17, the full text of the strategy was published. The strategy is intended to set directions for changes in immigration law in terms of, among other things:
The law protects employees who are absent due to illness from dismissal, if they return to work before the end of the period set down in law. Only a sufficiently long and, in principle, uninterrupted absence due to sickness allows the employer to terminate the contract immediately with an employee who is unfit to work. As a result, situations arise, in practice, in which employees take sick leave “on and off”, interrupting long periods of absence by returning for a few days to work. On the one hand, this is supposed to guarantee further protection against dismissal while, on the other, to ensure that the benefit for being unable to work is received for as long as possible. Nevertheless, it turns out that this strategy will not always prevent the employer from letting the employee go.
When an employee has been absent for a long period of time, or in other circumstances where an employer is having difficulties contacting an employee via official means of communication, HR departments often wonder whether they can use an employee's private contact data. Some more cautious employers introduce employee questionnaires requesting a private e-mail address or telephone number, or collect this data from employees in a different way. How does the issue of obtaining private contact data look from a data protection law perspective?
Helping employees to raise their professional qualifications is a basic duty of employers and is also one of the cornerstones of labour law. Employee training is an integral part of today’s labour market, in which technological developments and the associated changes in how work is organised are, essentially, forcing upskilling and retraining. This topic is also particularly relevant to the policies that employers draw up, which increasingly offer subsidised training to employees as a benefit encouraging them accept offers of jobs or to remain in employment.
On 24 April 2024, the European Parliament adopted new legislation to improve the working conditions of online platform workers. It is set out in the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving working conditions on online platforms. As many as 554 MEPs voted in favour of the Directive (56 voted against and 24 abstained).
Purpose of the Directive
The Directive aims to improve the working conditions of online platform workers and provide them with protection by ensuring that their employment status is properly established through introducing a presumption of employment and establishing minimum rights applicable to anyone working through online platforms in the EU.