Introduction
There are several ways in which parties can discharge their contractual obligations. For example, the doctrine of accord and satisfaction allows parties to discharge their contractual obligations by performing certain modified obligations or by novating or rescinding the existing contract.(1) In other words, a liability arising out of a breach of contract can be discharged by a new agreement (an accord ), wherein the parties mutually agree a new consideration, forfeiting their right of action against their previous contractual obligations.(2) The satisfaction is the discharge of the substituted obligations. Central to this is the consent and mutual agreement of all parties involved.
Whether employers can review employees corporate email accounts and rely on any findings collected during such an inspection in a potential termination is a controversial issue in terms of personal data protection and privacy. The Constitutional Court has rendered two recent decisions on the right to privacy and the privacy of communication with regard to corporate email accounts. Both decisions elaborate in particular on employees information rights.
Constitutional Court s recent decision
On 17 October 2020 the Constitutional Court ruled in an application filed by an employee of a law firm that the applicant s rights to protection of personal data and privacy of communication had been violated on the grounds that the employer had:
President Trump recently signed into law the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which aims to increase oversight of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges and force the delisting of those that refuse to comply with US audit inspection requirements. This bipartisan legislation was motivated by longstanding US frustrations over China precluding inspections of locally conducted audits of Chinese companies.
the graphic designers were entitled to compensation for non-pecuniary damage.
Invalid termination – joint employer responsibility
Pursuant to Section 15-7(1) of the Working Environment Act, a downsizing process as a result of reduction in production must be objectively justified by a company s situation and circumstances. The legal requirement is that the entire downsizing process must have a justifiable basis and implies, among other things, that the selection circuit cannot be unjustifiably limited.
The graphic designers argued that there had been a joint employer responsibility between
Dagbladet and Aller Media and that the selection circuit had therefore been unjustifiably limited by including only
The Federal Council recently tasked the Department of Finance with drafting a bill which will introduce a cyberattack notification obligation for operators of critical infrastructure. The draft will appoint a central reporting office and provide uniform criteria for all sectors in order to clarify how the reporting procedure would work. This step forward represents a key point of implementation of the national strategy for the protection of Switzerland against cyber risks.