News Flash

A number of major changes were introduced in the Irish government’s 2013 budget that will take effect on January 1st 2013:

* Maternity Benefit: Benefit will be treated as taxable income, but will still be exempt from the Universal

The European Commission has published country-by-country demand projections for 24 occupational groups covering the period 2010 to 2020. These show that the expected demand for corporate managers will range from -43.3% in Romania to +82.1% in Cyprus. Machine operators and

The upper house of the Dutch parliament has voted through a measure that will require large companies to change their external accountants every eight years. Firms will also not be able to provide business consulting services to companies they audit.

A draft law to protect whistleblowers has been submitted to the Czech parliament by Deputy Prime Minister Karolína Peake.

Under current legislation an employee who is dismissed after reporting wrongdoing in their workplace must be able to prove that their

The Irish Equality Tribunal has awarded a claimant 95,000 euros because she was found to be unfairly selected for redundancy on the grounds of her pregnancy. This ruling illustrates the stringent conditions which are applied by the tribunal in such

An extra higher rate income tax band is to be introduced in Finland next year. Currently all income above 70,300 euros is taxed at 29.75%. In 2013 an additional rate of 31.75% will be applied on those elements of income

An analysis of recent UK pay deals by Incomes Data Services has found that collectively agreed pay rises averaged 2.5%, with employers predicting similar increases next year. The survey found few pay freezes, although the number of rises in excess

Several governments have recently declared a change in the level of their national minimum wage.

In the channel island state of Guernsey the statutory minimum wage has increased to GGP 6.30 (7.76 euros) per hour for employees over the age

The Netherlands central statistics office has reported that wages rose on average during Q3 2012 by 1.7% – the biggest rise since the end of 2009. The largest increases were in the industrial (2.3%) and construction (2.1%) sectors.

The regional labour court of Dusseldorf (Germany) has recently permitted social plan provisions awarding less favourable benefits for employees approaching pension age. The clause in question reduced the claimant’s redundancy pay because he was entitled to a statutory retirement pension

On-call arrangements have now been tightly restricted in Italy (Law 92/2012) and may only be used in specifically defined circumstances. These are: intermittent duties provided for by national collective bargaining agreements, duties limited to weekly, monthly or yearly terms, or

The Amsterdam District Court has recently ruled that contractual bonus payments and the employer’s contribution to pension premiums must both be included in the accrued (but not taken) holiday pay calculation when an employee’s contract is terminated.

A new state short-time working scheme has been launched in the Czech Republic and will run until August 31st 2015. The subsidy will apply where a genuine work shortfall of between 20% and 60% occurs and employers must use the

EU hourly labour costs rose by 1.8 % during the first half of 2012. There were increases in all national economies, with the largest rises in Romania (7.1%), Finland (4.9%), Bulgaria and Latvia (both 4.8%). The smallest increases were in

The Danish tax authorities have confirmed that certain favourable tax rules relating to employer-provided ‘free housing’ will be repealed from January 1st 2013. From this point on, the taxation of a ‘free’ residence must be based on the home’s market