Which country tops the employment litigation league in Europe?

Every employer knows that being taken to court is a costly and time-consuming process, but the risks of court action are particularly high in some European countries and foreign companies are even more vulnerable than local employers.

(PRWEB) September 22, 2004 -- A typical large company in Belgium can expect to defend 28 court cases brought by present or former employees every year, but a similar firm in Sweden faces an average of only one case every ten years. According to FedEE's litigation league table, Belgium ranks with Poland and the Netherlands as one of the three litigation capitals of Europe, whilst employers in Sweden and Finland rarely need to enter a courtroom.

View the league table on FedEE's website at http://www.fedee.com/litigation.shtml

So what makes employees so keen to go to law in some countries and not in others? In Scandinavia, despite the mass of employment legislation, there are many ways for employees to resolve disputes without the need for court action. In Belgium, however, although it is relatively easy for employers to dismiss staff, there is no formal system for dispute resolution outside the courts.

In the Netherlands, litigation figures tend to be inflated by the need for permission from a court or the regional employment authorities before an employee may be dismissed. In the Slovak Republic, the volume of cases is affected by the sheer amount of time taken to get through the courts - an average of 22 months. And if formal conciliation processes do not work, they will in themselves serve to delay litigation - a particular problem in Poland, Spain and Italy.

UK employers often complain that they face an excess of tribunal applications, but the number is modest by European standards and only one in every four applications leads to a tribunal hearing. From October 2004, the number of UK applications can be expected to fall as statutory dispute resolution procedures take effect.

FedEE's principal purpose is to educate HR professionals in how to avoid needless litigation. Our comprehensive employment law programme has become a key resource in this field since its launch two years ago, offering 24/7 access to the expertise of top legal practitioners in different European countries. Now, with the introduction of on-line certification, HR professionals have a standard by which they can measure their knowledge of international employment laws.

With our new certification scheme, managers can assess the knowledge of their HR staff and deal with any gaps in their expertise. Training is offered in the form of audio-visual webcasts covering 16 different countries, and these may be viewed directly on-line or downloaded for internal presentations. On-line assessment is on a country-by-country basis and certificates are available as soon as a pass level has been achieved. These have been designed so that they may be printed for display purposes, attached electronically to a CV, or incorporated into the new 'Europass' due to be introduced by the European Commission next year.

Employment Law Programme: http://www.fedee.com/enterlaw.shtml
Certification (including sample certificates): http://www.fedee.com/entercert.shtml
Employment litigation league table: http://www.fedee.com/litigation.shtml

For further information, please contact Jane Gulliver on 0044 (0)207 520 9264 or 0044 (0)870 241 6102, or by email at info@fedee.com.
###