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The premises for a draft bill on collective labour agreements and collective arrangements have been published in the list of the Council of Ministers’ legislative and scheduled work.
The new regulations are intended to regulate comprehensively the rules for entering into and registering collective labour agreements and collective arrangements. From the perspective of employers, the most important of these are:
- Specific term of an agreement. Two terms have been introduced for these agreements: 5 years for an enterprise-level agreement and 10 years for a multi-enterprise agreement. The parties will be able to extend an agreement’s duration for a further term.
- Open range of matters. The range of matters that may be covered by an agreement will be determined by the parties. This represents a significant broadening of the existing scope.
Work is still in progress on the amendment to the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict in Ukraine. A new draft was published on 17 April which includes the following changes (as compared to the previous version):
- The change of status from UKR to CUKR (where a person with UKR status receives a temporary residence card) will take place on the day he/she receives the card and not on the day he/she receives a temporary residence permit;
- The requirement for a minimum period of stay in Poland and a minimum number of permits will be abolished when applying for a residence card to reunite with family members;
On 17 April 2024, a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers was submitted to Parliament, which aims to implement the European Parliament and Council (EU) Directive 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019.
We wrote about the most important changes for employers with respect to the previous draft here and the text of the draft can be reviewed here.
The law is generally expected to enter into force three months after its announcement.
The European Court of Human Rights, in its judgment of 20 February 2024 (48340/20 Dede), found that disciplinary dismissal for providing critical information about the actions of a superior is contrary to Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which deals with freedom of expression.
The dispute arose after a Turkish employee sent an e-mail to a group of employees from the HR department criticising management methods at the workplace. He alleged, among other things, distancing by his supervisor, the use of biased criteria in the recruitment process, favouritism towards certain employees and a lack of action to improve the overall situation. The employer dismissed the employee on disciplinary grounds, as it considered the message to be an infringement of the supervisor's personal rights and a violation of work order.
On 31 March 2024, Bulgaria and Romania were 'partially' accepted into the Schengen area.
Controls on persons at the internal air and sea borders of both countries have now been abolished. However, controls remain in place at land borders between Bulgaria, Romania and the other Schengen countries.
The next step of integration is expected to be a decision on the targeted abolition of controls also at land borders by the end of 2024.