Employment Law has traditionally been a specialty subject to constant legislative modifications and updates. Specialists in this area are accustomed to an intense dynamic of legislative changes, sometimes advances or setbacks in workers’ rights, sometimes important modifications that allow employers to improve their relations with workers or provide them with greater flexibility in times of crisis. However, neither employers nor workers were prepared for the legislative tsunami caused by the pandemic generated by the spread of the COVID 19 virus.

Not only have we been confronted with a profound and temporary transformation of labour legislation, but also with a dramatic change in the way we work. The irruption of teleworking, which was already timidly appearing before 2020, seems to be a phenomenon that is here to stay and will have to be duly regulated in the short term. While measures and legislation are being prepared to deal with future relations between workers and employers, and while this exceptional situation lasts, a good number of legislative measures remain in force aimed at alleviating the crisis, protecting workers, and allowing employers to alleviate the severe losses that this crisis has generated.

In this newsletter, prepared by the Employment Practice Group of The Law Firm Network, we offer an analysis of the existing legislation around the world because of the appearance of COVID 19. A useful guide that allows the head legal counsel and the human resources director of companies with subsidiaries or interests in various countries around the world, to obtain a global vision of the legislative situation and to draw their attention to the changes that the different legislators have introduced.

This guide would not have been possible without the impetus of the two cochairs of the LFN Employment Group Laura Binnie Associate Solicitor and employment law specialist at the UK law firm Blandy & Blandy and Alice Mlýnková Partner and employment law specialist at the Czech law firm LTA LEGAL S.R.O, and naturally to all members of the Employment Group who have contributed.