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Welcome to the May edition of the international newsletter. This month two of our European offices- Ireland and Spain- focus on the issue of the ageing population with articles related to compulsory retirement and pensions reforms. Our Chile office outlines the newly introduced concept of ‘labour harassment’ and our Malyasian partner firm the Gan Partnership provide an update on the current position in relation to workplace harassment in that jursidiction. Finally, we have the second half of our two part immigration feature for those wishing to do business in India from our partner firm Khaitan Sud & Partners.

After what feels like a long wait the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill has finally become law and we can give you some firm dates of when the key reforms will come into force. We also bring you two new cases on redundancy which re-affirm that so long as a genuine redundancy situation has occurred, complicating factors relating to conduct and/or capability will not make a dismissal unfair. In addition we bring you another redundancy case on using existing employee representative bodies for the purposes of collective consultation. Finally the Government is consulting on how the fees remissions system will work when fees in the employment tribunal come in during the summer and the new Acas guide to collective consultations has also been published.

Welcome to the April edition of our international alerter, we hope those of you that were celebrating had an enjoyable Easter break. This month we lead with a joint article from our UK and Spanish offices examining the right to strike in these jurisdictions and from an international perspective, our German partner firm Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft highlights a significant change for organisations preparing for 2014 works council elections and Barry Reynolds from our Dublin office highlights additional ways to protect proprietary interests. We also provide a summary of the changes to UK immigration law that came into effect on 6 April 2013 and feature the first of a two part article outlining the immigration rules applicable to businesses wishing to enter the burgeoning Indian market.

This month we report on a number of cases which bring home the importance of following appropriate dismissal procedures, including a redundancy case which highlights the dangers of over reliance on competency assessments when carrying out selection. We also look at a disability case which confirms that obesity is not, alone and of itself, a disability and the latest TUPE case on dismissals preparatory to a sale of a business.

Welcome to DAC Beachcroft's Budget 2013 Alert.
Our analysis as to how today's budget affects the business community is below. The main game changer will be the introduction of the overarching general anti-tax abuse rule. The Annual Residential Property Tax will prove unpopular but brand new home owners will enjoy the boost of 20% free loans. There is quite a bit for SMEs, from the further SEIS and EMI advantages to the proposed abolition of stamp duty on AIM.

Welcome to the packed March edition of our international employment law newsletter. This month we feature a very topical Spanish case on IT monitoring and employee privacy, which has been brought to our attention by Carmen Torres. We have an update from our French "best friend" La Garanderie & Associés concerning the risks to group companies making redundancies and, with the help of Deacons, we outline the anticipated changes to paternity leave in Hong Kong. Our Chris Syder of our London office highlights the difficulties associated with balancing the employee’s right to freedom of expression with the employer’s restriction on the disclosure of confidential information and Barry Reynolds of our Dublin office highlights a recent decision on disciplinary proceedings and suspension. We also feature a recent case concerning the enforcement of restrictive covenants in employment contracts via our Canadian associated firm, McCague Borlack LLP. Finally, Jose Luis Arce Fernandez of our Mexico office outlines what you need to know, from an immigration perspective, to do business in Mexico.

We have had a number of interesting developments this month, particularly in relation to TUPE (including the first tribunal case to look at the issue of providing information about agency workers during collective consultation exercises for mass redundancies and TUPE transfers). The Equality and Human Rights Commission has also published guidelines on dealing with requests related to a person’s religion or belief, following on from the recent European Court of Human Rights decisions which we reported in January.

This has been another month of great activity by the Government in their drive to reform employment law. They have committed to capping unfair dismissal compensation at the lower of a year's salary or the statutory cap, as well as bringing in early conciliation for tribunal claims. They've also proposed doing away with the service provision change provisions in TUPE 2006. Discrimination law does not stand still either. We've already alerted you to the religious discrimination cases heard by the European Court of Human Rights this month.

Today the European Court of Human Rights has given its decision in four cases brought by individuals against the United Kingdom with respect to their freedom of religion under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the prohibition of discrimination under Article 14 of the Convention. The four applicants, all practising Christians, complained that restrictions or requirements imposed on them by their employers conflicted with their religious beliefs.

Happy New Year. We hope you enjoyed some time off over the Christmas break. It's been a fairly slow month but the Government was busy before Christmas announcing changes to collective consultation, and at long last setting out when some of the many legislative developments on the horizon in 2013 will come into force, enabling employers to start to plan.

Happy New Year, and welcome to the January 2013 edition of our international employment law newsletter. This month Barry Reynolds, our new Irish employment law partner, outlines an important new decision on the concept of 'corporate bullying'; whilst our London office highlights the development of draft sectorial guidance affecting international business and human rights and whether UK industrial action laws are likely to change in the upcoming year. Our Spanish office explains the introduction and reaction to new court fees in Spain. Our Italian best friend firm PG Legal track the recent changes concerning fixed term contracts. From Mexico, José Luis Arce Fernández provides an outline of labour law in the Mexican Republic.

This month has been jam packed with interesting cases from Europe as well as our domestic courts. In particular, in the first case reported below, the High Court has considered whether a firm of solicitors was negligent in taking instructions from two executive directors on amendments to their own service contracts. The other key cases this month cover TUPE, breach of contract and the perils of employees' use of social networking sites.

Another month, so yet more Government announcements about employment law. On 13 November the Government announced their decision to go ahead with the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees from 2014, provided they have 26 weeks' continuous employment. They also announced a new system of statutory parental rights to be introduced in 2015 allowing parents to share up to 50 weeks parental leave after the mother has taken two weeks' maternity leave. This month has also been jam packed with interesting cases from Europe as well as our domestic courts. We've picked out the most relevant below.

Another month, so yet more Government announcements about employment law. On 13 November the Government announced their decision to go ahead with the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees from 2014, provided they have 26 weeks' continuous employment. They also announced a new system of statutory parental rights to be introduced in 2015 allowing parents to share up to 50 weeks parental leave after the mother has taken two weeks' maternity leave. This month has also been jam packed with interesting cases from Europe as well as our domestic courts. We've picked out the most relevant below.

Welcome to the busy December issue of our international employment law newsletter. This month, Guillermo Amunátegui of our Chile office outlines the reforms adopted by the Chilean government to ensure uniformity in the labour courts. Khaitan Sud & Partners, our Indian "best friend" firm, provide an overview of Indian Labour law. Our Canadian "best friend" firm McCague Borlack LLP highlight a recent decision on just cause dismissals. We provide an European update on the issue of gender quotas for boards which was first raised in our October issue and Dr Robert von Steinau-Steinrück of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft outlines how to distinguish a freelance arrangement from an employment relationship. Finally, our immigration law slot this month is focussed on France.

This is the first EAT case to deal with the condition in the “service provision change” test that the activities must not be carried out post-transfer in connection with a “single specific event or task of short-term duration”.

Welcome to our November issue of our international employment law newsletter. We are delighted to bring to you contributions from Professor Robert von Steinau-Steinrück, of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Germany, our Spanish employment law partner Maria Guzman, Pradeep Kumar Singh, Partner, of Colin Ng & Partners LLP, Singapore, and Cynthia Chung of Deacons, Hong Kong. We also highlight some of the latest human rights developments affecting business and clarify the correct status of the new ISO26000 standard.