On 1 January 2024, an amendment to the Labour Code came into force that introduces final liability of the construction contractor for wage claims filed by third parties against its subcontractors. This includes wage claims from any employment agencies, up to the amount of the statutory minimum wage for each employee engaged in activities for the subcontractor.

It is a common labour law problem in Hungary that in case the employee, due to medical reasons, becomes permanently unfit for the job he previously fulfilled, the employer does not amend or terminate the employment (the latter of which would entail an obligation to pay severance pay), but keeps the employee on “idle time” without giving him tasks and salary. In our article, we examine this issue in light of the recent decision of the Hungarian Supreme Court.

Poland's Weronika Kapica and Daria Rutecka, Romania's Adina Damaschin and Mara Moga-Paler, Serbia's Zoran Soljaga, Slovakia's Michal Lucivjansky, and Slovenia's Peter Gorse have all been appointed to Partner positions with Schoenherr.

Employment contracts can only be terminated on specific grounds listed in the Bulgarian Labor Code. There are over 50 grounds for termination, each with its unique facts, documents, and procedures.

Insufficiently precise provisions of the law, unharmonized court practice, as well as the average duration of the employment disputes, were affected creating the “fear of litigation” amongst many employers. Due to the stated reasons, instead of unilateral employment termination, even in cases when there is firm evidence confirming its lawfulness and validity, the employers tend to execute the mutual agreement on employment termination, as well as to pay certain one-time compensation on the said basis.

Under the GDPR, data subjects may claim compensation if they suffered damages because the controller infringed his obligations under the GDPR. Does a data theft by cybercriminals mean that the controller has not adopted appropriate data security measures meaning that he failed to comply with his data protection obligations? Can the data subject claim compensation if his only damage is the fear that his personal data was misused? The Court of Justice of the European Union answered these questions in a fresh decision which will be analysed in this short article.