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Non-competition agreement
20-28Views:215The “agreement on non-competition” is essentially the extension of the protection of the basic economic interest of the employer. While during the employment relationship several labor law provisions protect the interest of both parties, the “agreement on non-competition” is designed to protect the employer’s interests after the termination of the relationship. This means – in return for financial compensation – the former employee needs to refrain from any kind of business competition against his/her former employer. This necessarily involves financial compensation and may have several restrictions, such business or geographical area or time.
The previous Labor Code did not specify for detailed regulation of the issue and the law remained rather vague. It merely referred to the fact that parties – based on their own free will – may enter into such agreement. However the new Labor Code contains explicit regulations under title XVIII of the Act as “Particular Agreements Related to Employment”.
The “agreement on non-competition” belongs to the field of employment law. Unlike the previous Labor Code that categorized this possible agreement as of purely civil law in nature, the new Labor Code declares it to belong under the scope of the Labor Code. The previous regulation even ordered the provisions of the Civil Code to be applied to such agreements however the new legislation brought a conceptual change.
The currently effective regulation provides for a 2-year limitation on such conduct on the employee’s part that would create competition with the employer. The exact amount of the consideration payable for this obligation remains to be decided by the parties however the Labor Code suggests that it shall be based on how difficult the applied restrictions make it for the employee to find another job with his qualifications and experience. As a basic limit the law provides that the amount shall not be less than one-third of the base wage payable for the same period of time.
The “agreement on non-competition” is not to be confused with similar legal institutions. The paper points out two close similarities in the legal system. One being the employee’s obligation of confidentiality; this prevails after termination of the employment relationship as well without any time or similar restrictions and even without any financial compensation. The other one is the so called “non-compete” agreement from the field of competition law. This is applicable after takeovers where the seller shall refrain from engaging into business in the same area as the buyer.
In the field of labor law the time period for the “agreement on non-competition” is up to the agreement of the parties however the new law invokes an upper limit of two years that is following the termination of the employment relationship. This is a decrease from the previous regulation that provided for a period of three years. The agreement can be modified by the consent of both parties just like the employment contract or civil law agreements.
In case of violation of the agreement three cases are to be analyzed. The first is the case of the employee breaching the provisions of the contract. In this case the employee is liable for damages towards his/her former employer. The provisions of the new Civil Code and those of the Labor Code are to be applied to the damages. In the second case the employer may request an injunction to prohibit the employee from any conduct breaching the agreement while the third case involves the breach of the agreement on the employee’s part for which the rules of the Civil Code and the Labor Code are to be applied as well.
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Theoretical issues of equal treatment in relation to the legal classification of labour law
57-79Views:157There are many national and international academic debates on the classification of labour law. On the one hand, labour law can be categorised as private law when we consider the establishment of employment relationships. The legal basis for an employment relationship is exclusively the employment contract, thus labour law belongs to classical private law. On the other hand, the content of the employment relationship can be determined not only by the employment contract, but also by a number of other rules. These norms typically have public law content and, as so-called public law elements of labour law, seek to limit the contractual freedom of the parties. The existence of public law elements is typically justified by the legislator on the grounds that there is subordination between the parties in the employment relationship, so that the contractual balance of rights, which is characteristic of private law, is shifted in favour of the employer. The presence of elements of public law, and in particular the requirement of equal treatment, is intended to redress this imbalance in employment law by limiting the contractual freedom between the parties. In the present article, we examine in particular whether the presence of public law elements gives labour law a specificity of its own. In addition, focusing on the principle of equal treatment, we examine how the prohibition of discrimination in labour law and classical private law can be interpreted and whether this general behavioural requirement is capable of redressing the balance that has been shifted between the parties. Finally, we ask the rhetorical question: if the requirement of equal treatment is capable of redressing the balance, why is there a need for additional public law elements in labour law?
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Possibilities of workplace mediation in the European Union
1-13.Views:374The world of labor market and industrial relations is a field where conflicts and disputes are inevitable characteristics of the operation, regardless of the form of employment. Also, labor disputes appear both from an individual aspect, where the disputants are the employer and the employee, and in a collective respect, where the disputes take place between the employer(s) and the collective of the workers, typically represented by an employee organization (union) or a works council.
When a conflict or a dispute cannot be resolved through negotiation, the law offers dispute resolution mechanisms for the participants. Therefore, several legal mechanisms have been evolved in order to resolve disputes, starting from the classical form of litigation, where a court determines the end of the dispute by its judgement, and other alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, mediation and conciliation, where the parties can reach a decision or a settlement outside of the judicial system of the state.
EU Member States have introduced various legislative rules for labor dispute resolution covering all manner of individual and collective disputes. ADR schemes are also supported by the ILO, as the ILO Recommendation No. 92 (1951) suggests that voluntary conciliation should be made available to assist in the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes between employers and workers. Within the aegis of the European Union, several instruments have emerged with the attempt to elaborate the basic principles for the operation of ADR schemes in the context of cases between businesses and consumers. The Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ADR Directive”) and Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ODR Regulation”) ensured that consumers could turn to quality alternative dispute resolution entities for all kinds of contractual disputes with traders, and established an EU-wide online platform for consumer disputes that arise from online transactions with traders.
Workplace mediation is widely and successfully utilized in the USA for solely employment purposes both in the private and the public sector. Also, in the United States is a “employment at will” doctrine prevails, that basically means – unless stipulated to the contrary by the parties – the employment relationship can be terminated with immediate effect without any justification (just cause), thus workers do not have access to legal remedies as in the EU where the statutory laws provide a broad protection against arbitrary or unjust termination. Mediation, however, provide an effective solution for employees and workers, even if situated outside the protective scope of labor law.
While the role of customer/consumer ADR and mediation is increasing throughout the whole European Union, workplace and employment mediation still constitutes a “grey zone”. In many of the legal instruments of the EU and also in several products of the national legislations, consumers and workers are treated with the same legal awareness, thus protective laws compensate their weaker position in their legal relationships, but as far as the utilization and access of dispute resolution schemes are concerned, a significant but not always reasonable differentiation can be detected. Also, while mediation is an available tool for individual employment matters, still has not been utilized considerably, and remained an instrument only to resolve mostly collective conflicts. Therefore, the aim of this paper to present various styles of mediations from a comparative perspective, to express their biggest advantages and to highlight the areas where mediation could be more suitable to use in the context of the individual disputes of the workplace.
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Healthcare professional’s liability for damages
45-53Views:177The doctor-patient relationship requires set rules for liability considering the nature of professional norms on medicine and the protection of human life and health. According to these rules, the healthcare provideris vicariously liable for damages suffered as a consequence of healthcare servicesprovided to the patient. In such cases– on the grounds of labor law rules – the healthcare providermay transfer liability to its employee. Considering recent amendments of labor law regulations, it is essential to summarize and analyze relevant labor law norms relatedto medical liability.
The employee’s liability for damages is based on the employment relationship between the healthcare provider and the employee. Despite of the healthcare provider’s liability for damages, the employee’s liability is always personal.
According to the new labor code the employee’s liability for damages is only ascertainable if the tortfeasor did not act like a reasonable person would have actedunder given circumstances. This means that the tortfeasor’sintention or negligence is irrelevant in the course of ascertaining liability. The purpose of our study is to provide a review of the strict measure of due care in health care services, and to summarize rules about the healthcare professional’s liability for damages.
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The legal consequences of the unlawful termination of the employment relationship by the employer in the light of Act I of 2012 on the Labor Code
125-144Views:91Highlighting the consequences of the illegal termination of the employment by the employer, the thesis presents its recent short historical background, development direction, current regulation – mainly the Act I of 2012 on the Labor Code (Mt.) 82. § (1), (2) and (4)
paragraphs –, especially the practical application of the judicial experience accumulated over more than ten years. The thesis covers the legal basis of the labor law claims presented against the employer's decisions in question, as well as the summativeness of the issues, calling for help the case decisions of the higher courts, i.e. either the judgment boards or the Kúria, made in similar matters, which can be considered as guidelines in the application of the law. -
Living fabric on a metal frame, or the possibilities of asserting the claim of the "platform worker"
141-161Views:98Our aim in the present research is to present the theoretical and practical problems related to platform work, focusing on their subjects and possible legal gaps and other anomalies in legislation and enforcement.
The study is mainly based on two major pillars, in which – perhaps not in a very usual way –the old and current problem are presented, namely the classification issues related to employee status, the situation of employers, precisely the installation and enforceability of employer rights and obligations.
It is an undeniable fact that most of the studies in this field focus primarily on employee classification. Although, for the sake of this study, we want to focus on the relationship between the parties, as the legal relationship can be interpreted and analyzed in its entirety if – in addition to mapping the circumstances of the persons performing the work – the exercise of partial rights between the platform and the employer is sufficiently examined.
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Validation of the claim for paid leave
127-152Views:94The study covers the most important rules regarding leave, with the aim of helping employees and employers deepen their knowledge of how to grant leave. In this context, the study covers what should be done with leave not granted until the end of the year, whether the economic interest of the employer can justify its interruption, whether and when it can be redeemed for money, and how long the request in this direction can be asserted, i.e. when it occurs the statute of limitations. Furthermore, it covers what the solution is in the event of the termination of the employment relationship, when the employee has taken less or even more leave than he or she would have been entitled to in proportion to the time, focusing on who needs to prove what to successfully enforce the claim, and what is the importance of it the employer's registration obligation. In addition to the European Union and domestic regulation of freedom, the study included some guiding decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Curia, on the basis of which the conclusion can be drawn that the courts try to give the correct interpretation of the legislation in the individual cases that come before them, which are precedents due to their nature, they are also binding in other matters.