The government of Québec recently passed the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (the Act), which strengthens and clarifies the existing mandate to use the French language in the province and requires employers to ensure that all their human resources documentation is available in French.
While most of the provisions of the Act entered into effect in 2022 and June 2023, others will enter into effect on 1 June 2025.
The Irish government recently published a bill introducing the mandatory automatic enrollment of eligible employees into a central government-run defined contribution pension fund. Auto-enrolment is expected to take effect in January 2025, once the bill is passed.
As combat operations continue in Gaza, there have been several developments affecting the workplace, employee rights, and employer obligations in Israel.
Cyprus has extended maternity leave entitlements for first-time birthing mothers, first-time adopting mothers, and mothers whose newborn is hospitalized for 14 or more days for health reasons. The extended leave provisions enacted by the Protection of Maternity (amendment) Law of 2024 apply to female employees who are on maternity leave or commencing maternity leave from 1 March 2024.
UPDATE: From 1 July 2024, government-paid combined gender-neutral parental leave will increase from 20 weeks to 22 weeks. Parental leave entitlements will increase again to 24 weeks from July 2025 and 26 weeks from July 2026.
High-performing organizations feature engaged workforces that are motivated by the connection employees feel towards their work, teams, leadership, and organization as a whole. And the digital technologies that are a central part of modern life can strengthen that connection while giving employees greater flexibility in when and where they perform their work. For this greater connectivity to promote positive engagement, employees also need to know that they can safely disconnect and recharge, which is only possible when organizations communicate reasonable expectations around working outside of normal working hours, including monitoring and responding to communications (emails, chats, posts, etc.).
The Ukrainian parliament recently adopted a new law introducing certain limitations to employment rights as a response to the presidential Decree No. 64/2022, which declared martial law in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
“On Organizing of Employment Relations During Martial Law” (the “Law”) entered into effect on 15 March 2022 and is expected to apply until 13 May 2024, as extended by the Ukrainian President.
The Luxembourg Parliament recently approved a new Bill clarifying employee holiday entitlements when two paid public holidays fall on the same day, as is the case with the upcoming public holidays: Ascension Day and Europe Day, which both fall on 9 May 2024.
Bill 8266 is expected to enter into effect sometime before May 2024 (exact date to be determined).
The UK government has published draft regulations to implement the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 (the “Act”) providing employees with one week of unpaid carer’s leave per year to arrange or provide care for a dependent.
While the Act entered into force on 4 December 2023, the Draft Regulations implementing unpaid carer’s leave are expected to be effective from 6 April 2024.
The Mexican Parliament recently introduced an amendment bill to increase employer-paid paternity leave from five working days to 20 working days.
If the bill is approved by the Mexican Senate, this increase will be effective early 2024 (the exact date will depend on the legislative process).