Commissions | 22.04.2020

The Rights and Duties of employers’ in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

On April 22, 2020, the UIA Labour Law Commission held a Webinar on “The Rights and Duties of employers’ in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic”
During the course of the Webinar, which was made up of four main topics, we had the opportunity to discuss and debate the approach that is required in practice, from the employers perspective, to face the main issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first topic addressed the specific legal duties of an employer towards its employees in a case of a pandemic outbreak, in the scope of Safety and Health at Work.

The second topic dealt with some specific legal rights of an employer towards its employees in a case of a pandemic outbreak.

The third topic adressed the situation where the employer is prevented to operate normally and analysed the measures that the company can take in such a case.

Finally the last topic was related to the issues in connection with the introduction of home office work

Those four topics were brilliantly presented by the six following high-qualified speakers (all of them prominent members of the UIA Labour Law Commission):

• Juliette Duval, French lawyer, Deputy Director - Rule of Law of the UIA and lawyer at Duval Legal (Paris);
• Michael Meyenburg, Austrian lawyer, UIA Representative at the International Organisations, partner at Dr. Michael Meyenburg Rechtsanwalt (Vienna);
• Sonia Cortes, Spanish lawyer, partner at Abdón Pedrajas & Molero Abogados y Asesores Tributarios S.L.P (Barcelona);
• Federico Torzo, Italian lawyer, partner at Ughi e Nunziante (Milan);
• Kathleen Heycock, English lawyer, partner at Farrer & Co. (London);
• Ulrich Baumann, German lawyer, partner at Corplegal (Munich).

This Webinar was just the start of our discussions in this interesting field; it is a subject to which Labour lawyers and their clients will continue to return. Anyway, as it has been recorded, one will be able to see it again in the UIA Website.

By Acácio Pita Negrão
Labour Law Commission President
P.L.E.N. – Sociedade de advogados

Lisbon, Portugal

91651