European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Article 16 of the Processing of Personal Data (Protection of Individuals) Law of 2001 (138(I)/2001) (annulled).
Until 2018 Cyprus had a law [the Processing of Personal Data (Protection of Individuals) Law] which included certain provisions regarding employment. However, this law was annulled in 2018, and replaced with a new one (the Law on the Protection of Natural Persons Against the Processing of Personal Data and the Free Movement of such Data), which made no reference to employment.
Regarding this issue, during a relevant seminar organised by the Cyprus Bar Association and the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection of Cyprus, Cyprus' Commissioner for Personal Data Protection stated that at present the matter is largely dependent upon the specific facts of each independent incident. Examined, as such, on a case-by case basis, the resolution of relevant issues in an employment relationship on the one hand requires compliance with national and European Union law, and on the other hand it is highly dependent on the discretion of the Commissioner.
Recognising the understandable confusion, the Commissioner provided the following guidelines, aiming to avoid any kind of violation of human rights and the law, while also to provide necessary information both to the employer as well as to the employee regarding their duties and rights respectively:
1) The company/employer should have a handbook referring to its established policy with exact precision on the regulation of data protection at the workplace and whether such company/employer allows the possibility to use their email account for personal or work use only.
2) In the cases where there is such an employment dispute/issue, it will be taken into account whether the employer is the owner of the computer and the email account while also whether the email account was solely used for work purposes. If a company’s policy indicates clearly that any email accounts (in the workplace) shall be solely and strictly used for work purposes and that employees or use it for any other private purpose, then this will weigh in favour of the employer.
3) In cases where there are suspicions of criminal or unlawful use of the email, the employer has an obligation to inform the employee about accessing their email and in such a case the employee must be present. If the employee does not consent and/or approve such an act, then the employer may need to go to court in order to obtain a court order for accessing the email account.
Eurofound (2023), Cyprus: Employee monitoring and surveillance, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/employee-monitoring-and-surveillance/cyprus
Between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, almost 300,000 employees working for ‘big tech’ companies were laid off across the world, making headlines for months in global media. This development has been a shock, considering the high numbers of jobs in well-known tech corporations with a reputation for offering good working conditions and well-paid positions.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions. Many banks in the sector have been undergoing serial restructuring since the global financial crisis, and it is one of the few service sectors with stagnant or declining employment.
Since 2011, the Restructuring support instruments database of the EU PolicyWatch has been collecting information on measures that assist companies and workers to anticipate and manage restructuring. This article looks at measures in the database aimed at supporting employees and employers during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022).
Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor database reveals the impact of the energy crisis on employment in the EU. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, energy prices have hit record highs. The European Commission imposed sanctions and limitations on the import of oil and gas from Russia, which has reacted by reneging on supply commitments to many Member States.
