International Expert Groups

Expert Group members are leaders in their field and keep abreast of all developments, legislation and emerging issues in that particular area of law and collaborate to provide guidance and best practice across Ius Laboris to clients worldwide. Occasionally, two or more groups collaborate on projects and discuss issues that affect those groups. Each group publishes legal content on the law and issues that impact on their area of expertise. Each Expert Group has one or two Chairs and holds regular conference calls (minimum three or four times a year) and at least one meeting (e.g. during our annual Congress), which you can dial into if you are not able to attend. 

• The Data Privacy Expert Group addresses all matters concerning privacy and data protection in the workforce. This includes, for example, the lawful processing of employees’ health information and other sensitive personal data; dealings with national data protection authorities; cross-border data transfers; pre-employment screening of job applicants; monitoring employees’ electronic communications and internet usage; and regulating employees’ social media activity. In 2016, the EU Parliament approved the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on 25 May 2018. The GDPR radically alters the rules on data protection in the EU and has implications for any business that interfaces with EU countries and EU citizens. Many businesses fail to comply with data privacy law simply because they don’t have total visibility of the data they hold. This can be due to a lack of auditing and appropriate advice. The increased cost of living and generalised energy crisis has raised new questions from employers worldwide about the legitimate search and processing of data regarding the financial situation of employees in order to provide benefits on a fair and non-discriminative basis. Our Ius Laboris online service, the GDPR Compliance Tool, is now available to help member firms and their clients with the data auditing process. Key Contact: Mr. Dimitrios Kremalis.
• The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Expert Group brings together leaders in their field from across the Alliance. They advise clients on strategic issues in an era of increasing OHS obligations aimed at improving workplace safety and minimizing corporate and personal OHS risk. Members also provide assistance with OHS legislative compliance audits; give advice on managing risk when workplace accidents occur; advise and provide representation in relation to worker claims arising from accidents; provide representation in criminal and other OHS prosecutions; advise on worker discipline for safety; and advise on bullying, violence and harassment issues and prevention programs. The Group provides local advice as well as coordinated assistance to multinational organisations on issues that cross jurisdictions, such as global accident response strategies and global workplace violence prevention strategies. The Managing a Serious Accident at Work publication helps employers in 18 countries understand their liabilities in the event of an accident and sets out some key post-accident steps to take.  Key Contact: Mr. Dimitrios Kremalis.
• The Individual Employment Rights Expert Group focuses on all individual rights for an employee vis-à-vis his or her employer. Our cross-border group is aware of strong demand from international clients for comparisons to enable them to quickly establish what kind of difficulties can be expected in various jurisdictions. The Group published a guide on Non-Compete Covenants in 2017. This second edition is updated with the most recent legal changes and outlines each country’s rules on non-compete covenants, the formal requirements, the principles regarding compensation, scope and permissible duration, along with guidance on local enforceability. It includes information from 36 countries within Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas. A guide on Individual Dismissals Across Europe was published in 2015 and explains the essential principles of dismissals in 22 European countries and the system for protection against dismissal in each country. Key Contact: Mrs. Korina Paschaliori.
• The Global Mobility Expert Group covers all legal issues affecting international employment situations, such as simultaneous employment in various countries, cross-border secondments or transfers, the hiring of foreign employees and salary splits. Besides pure immigration issues, lawyers within the Group also look at social security, tax and occupational pensions. In 2016, the group published an international handbook on Immigration, which offers practical advice on the business immigration requirements of 42 jurisdictions across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.  Key Contact: Mrs. Katerina Papastergiou and Mrs. Georgia Lamprakou.
• The Employee Compensation and Benefits Expert Group. A multi-faceted expert task force covering all legal issues relating to employers’ remuneration and benefits to their employees. The aim of the group is to keep employers informed on all important issues affecting their activities and to advise them on developments at national, European and global level regarding employee incentives, tax planning of voluntary benefits, social security, benefits in kind or in cash and stock options and the harmonization of payments and benefits between various countries where employers operate.  Key Contact: Mrs. Korina Paschaliori.
• The Discrimination Expert Group focuses on all forms of prohibited employment discrimination in all terms and conditions of employment. The Group meets regularly to study trends in emerging issues, types of claims, prevention methods, compliance tools, dispute resolution methods and recent litigation.Some of the issues we advise on are very topical in the world today. For example, the gender pay gap is rising on the political agenda in many countries around the world. Despite equal pay laws having become commonplace in many places more than just a few years ago, the gap stubbornly persists. To try to combat this, some countries are starting to enact legislation, for example, requiring transparent, public reporting on pay. We advise on compliance with those laws and recommend best practice. We also advise many of the world’s leading multinationals on how to prevent workplace discrimination more generally. In this way, we help all parties strive for fairness at work. This includes ensuring policies are in place to embed equality and diversity, paired with a zero-tolerance approach to harassment and bullying. Key Contact: Mr. Dimitrios Kremalis and Mrs. Georgia Lamprakou.
• The Pensions Expert Group brings together lawyers from across Ius Laboris and they advise on all sizes and structures of schemes across all industry sectors. Our involvement ranges from one-off projects to year-round management of schemes including investment, financing, disputes, employment and tax issues. The group is committed to staying abreast of all developments in the field, ensuring that our clients are continually aware of the legislation changes that affect them. Pensions law can impact on various other areas of law and so members of the Group work particularly with lawyers specialising in mobility, restructuring and compensation and benefits. In addition, the group seeks to keep up to date and monitor international developments in the field of pension systems due to the general increase in the cost of living and inflation, as well as to seek appropriate solutions for the adaptation and survival of social security funds. Key Contact: Mr. Dimitrios Kremalis.
• The Restructuring Expert Group This specialized working group deals with the issue of all kinds of business transformations and maintaining good industrial relations during this process. This group deals with issues of outsourcing activities, collective negotiations and collective labor agreements, compliance with the legislation in case of collective redundancies, negotiations and consultation with employee representatives and unions, application of fair selection criteria for redundant employees, industrial actions. The task force works with all stakeholders through restructuring plans that may include downsizing, outsourcing, moving core operations to other countries, and acquiring or selling businesses. Team members share their cross-border restructuring expertise with principals and produce a series of publicly accessible restructuring publications. Key Contact: Mrs. Korina Paschaliori. 
• Expert Group on Internal Investigations and Whistleblowing Internal investigations are an ever-growing area of ​​concern for HR professionals, especially in the EU with the enactment of the European Union Directive on the Protection of Whistleblowers. With this in mind, the Network has established a new Expert Group specializing in investigations and whistleblowing. This task force aims to assist employers in handling internal investigations, whistleblowing, compliance, litigation, privacy, poor performance and more by creating and implementing reporting and whistleblowing programs that comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, including the process and methods for resolving any bad practices, unconventional behavior, bullying or harassment. This specialized working group deals with the issue of complaints, internal investigations, compliance advisory services, personal data protection and possible judicial protection. Key Contact: Mr. Dimitris Kremalis and Mrs. Korina Paschaliori.