Recently, there has been a great deal of activity in the Parliament, and several new legal provisions have been sanctioned. Here is a quick summary.
1. Access to education and training with unemployment benefits
Under current law, unemployment benefits shall not be granted to persons undergoing education or training. The Ministry of Labour- and Social Affairs nevertheless has a narrow legal basis for issuing regulations on exceptions to this rule. From 1 July 2021, the regulatory competence will be expanded, which means that the ministry will have a general right to issue supplementary regulations on when unemployment benefits can be combined with training or education. After the change takes effect, the Ministry of Labour- and Social Affairs will no longer be bound by statutory restrictions, such as the fact that training must take place outside normal working hours.
2. Tribunal solution for retaliation cases after notification
If an employee has given notice of objectionable conditions in the employer's business and considers himself exposed to illegal retaliation, the employee must today take legal action and go to the court to have the dispute clarified. As of 1 July 2021, it is the Discrimination Tribunal that will have the authority to decide disputes about retaliation after notification. Read more about the tribunal solution here.
3. Extension of temporarily laid-off employees' access to membership in pension schemes as a result of Covid-19
The amendments to the Corporate Pensions Act, the Defined Contribution Pensions Act and the Occupational Pensions Act, which give employers the opportunity to decide that temporarily laid-off employees shall continue as members of the pension scheme, have been extended until 30 September 2021.
