flash news
The European Court of Human Rights, in its judgment of 20 February 2024 (48340/20 Dede), found that disciplinary dismissal for providing critical information about the actions of a superior is contrary to Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which deals with freedom of expression.
The dispute arose after a Turkish employee sent an e-mail to a group of employees from the HR department criticising management methods at the workplace. He alleged, among other things, distancing by his supervisor, the use of biased criteria in the recruitment process, favouritism towards certain employees and a lack of action to improve the overall situation. The employer dismissed the employee on disciplinary grounds, as it considered the message to be an infringement of the supervisor's personal rights and a violation of work order.
On 31 March 2024, Bulgaria and Romania were 'partially' accepted into the Schengen area.
Controls on persons at the internal air and sea borders of both countries have now been abolished. However, controls remain in place at land borders between Bulgaria, Romania and the other Schengen countries.
The next step of integration is expected to be a decision on the targeted abolition of controls also at land borders by the end of 2024.
On 28 March 2024, another bill (dated 27 March 2024) was published on the website of the Governmental Legislation Centre, which aims to implement Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistleblowers under EU law. On 2 April 2024, the Council of Ministers adopted the draft, so it is expected to soon be debated by parliament.
The most important changes for employers with respect to the previous draft:
- Subject of violations. Human trafficking has been removed from the list of areas in which whistleblowers may report violations. It has also been clarified that only violations of constitutional human and civil liberties and rights in an individual's relations with public authorities can be reported.
Information has appeared on the website of the Governmental Legislation Centre about positions on ongoing work on amendment of the Foreigners Act, as submitted in March this year by, among others, provincial governors and the Citizens' Rights Ombudsman. Already at this stage of work on the Act, there are divergent positions in individual opinions concerning, inter alia, electronic form of the legalisation process (about which we wrote last week) or the elimination from a decision to grant a so-called EU Blue Card of elements such as the indication of the conditions of work or the employing entity.
Employer representatives note the need to provide entities entrusting work to foreigners with the power to monitor the status of pending proceedings, on which the Act in its current wording is silent.
On 9 February 2024, a draft bill on amendments to the Act on Foreigners and certain other acts was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre, which envisages revolutionary changes in the way applications for residence permits are submitted.
Among other things, the draft provides for the introduction of an obligation to submit the above-mentioned applications via an ICT system.
The first opinions of the provincial governors on the planned changes were made known at the beginning of last week. Most of them are negative – mainly because of the proposed change in the way applications are to be submitted.
On 6 March 2024, another draft bill (dated 26 February 2024) was published on the website of the Governmental Legislation Centre, which aims to implement Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistleblowers.
The most important changes for employers compared to the previous draft:
- Subject of violations: The catalogue of areas whose violations may be the subject of whistleblower reports has been expanded. The new areas are: human and civil liberties and rights, corruption, human trafficking, and labour law – as a result, whistleblower reports will be able to concern, inter alia, mobbing, discrimination, correct accounting of working time or observance of health and safety rules.