Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

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New Law on Flying and Resting Times

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: David Carvalho Martins, Partner and Head of Employment, and Tiago Sequeira Mousinho – DCM | Littler

The government issued Decree Law No. 25/2022, dated March 15, 2022, which places flight time limits, service time and rest requirements for mobile staff in civil aviation, and applies to commercial air transport operations with helicopters, in particular in the context of emergency medical services, where the operator has its principal place of business in Portugal.

Among other employment measures, with regard to rest conditions, the aircraft operator shall ensure the following: (1) If the flight duty period for the reinforced technical crew exceeds 16 hours there must be on board, for each reinforced technical crew member, a bed or equivalent separate and isolated from the flight deck and passengers, (2) If the flight duty period for the reinforced technical crew is 16 hours or less, a bunk or equivalent or a comfortable reclining chair separated and isolated from the flight deck and passengers must be carried on board for each reinforced technical crew member, and (3) Comfortable reclining chairs separate from the flight deck and isolated from the passengers must be provided on board for the rest of either one-third or one-quarter of the cabin crew depending on whether the flight duty period is longer than 16 hours or between 14 and 16 hours. The operator must also provide the crew member with at least seven local days off for each calendar month, and 96 local days off in each calendar year.

No-Poach Agreements to be a Priority for Portuguese Competition Authority in its 2022 Agenda

Important Action by Regulatory Agency

Authors: David Carvalho Martins, Partner and Head of Employment, and Tiago Sequeira Mousinho – DCM | Littler

The Portuguese Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência or AdC) in a recent Statement outlined its Competition Policy Priorities for 2022, noting that in a context in which the promotion of economic recovery and employment assumes a dominant role, the AdC is committed to continue promoting the labor market’s openness to new opportunities that support a resilient, innovative, and inclusive economy. To that end, the AdC will focus on combating nonpoaching (or nonsolicitation) agreements.

The AdC will be attentive to horizontal no-poach agreements by workers, as well as any wage-fixing agreements, which may arise in any type of agreements or activity sector. (Note, it is not clear if this would include collective bargaining agreements.) AdC also states that it will continue raising awareness among professionals of this type of anti-competitive behavior.

COVID-19 and Employment Restrictions: A Cause for Dismissal?

Trend

Authors: David Carvalho Martins, Partner and Head of Employment, and Tiago Sequeira Mousinho – DCM | Littler

The Superior Court of Lisbon recently issued a decision relating to COVID-19 restrictions and internal rules established for the protection of employees. The court noted that it is impossible to maintain the employment relationship for reasons attributable to the employee when such maintenance can no longer be demanded of the employer, and there is no other sanction capable of remedying the serious contractual crisis opened up by such behavior.

According to the Lisbon Superior Court, this would be the case when an employee who works for a pharmaceutical distributor ignores COVID-19 restrictions, such as social distancing; when the employee leaves the workplace before exit time and then proceeds to smoke in the area of another group of workers that the employer had decided to work separately to minimize the risk of contagion COVID-19.