scholarly journals Respiratory Protective Equipment and Facial Hair in Light of COVID-19: Legal and Ethical Dilemmas

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110606
Author(s):  
Attila Lakatos
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Respiratory Protection ◽  
Facial Hair ◽  
Safety Considerations ◽  
The Right

Facial hair inhibits the functionality of certain respiratory protective equipment, yet employers have a duty of care to provide protection for their employees against communicable respiratory diseases such as COVID-19. Could individuals be forced to remove their facial hair? How can staff with facial hair be protected from COVID-19? These issues present legal and ethical dilemmas for employers and employees alike regarding the provision and use of respiratory and personal protective equipment under health and safety considerations. This is a law review examining various UK statutory instruments and case law surrounding the use of facial hair and the use of respiratory protection. Facial hair is a hazard when considering respiratory protective equipment provision and use. Unless there is an absolute need requiring the removal of facial hair for any reason, individuals have the right to grow facial hair as they see fit. It is arguable though what an “absolute need” may be, as numerous proportional and reasonable adjustments can be made to accommodate facial hair that can mitigate the risks associated with respiratory diseases.

Between health and salary: The incomplete regulation of working time in European law

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-385
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Ferrante
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

The European Union competences on health and safety of workplace constituted the legal basis for the 93/104 Directive to be adopted (and for the consolidated text of 2003/88 Directive). The Court of Justice has firmly maintained this approach refusing to take into account the history of international regulation on working time, which links together work and salary in perspective to give the workers the right to fair and equal treatment as regards their working conditions (as has been recently proclaimed also by the European Pillar of Social Rights). Building on these general premises, this article analyses the more recent European pieces of legislation and cases related to on-call time and proposes a new model for the definition of working time in the light of CJEU case law.

scholarly journals Hearing the voices of Australian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMJ Leader ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. leader-2020-000386
Author(s):  
Michelle Ananda-Rajah ◽  
Benjamin Veness ◽  
Danielle Berkovic ◽  
Catriona Parker ◽  
Greg Kelly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Control Culture ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Respiratory Protection ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
Work Health

BackgroundThe statistics of healthcare worker (HCW) COVID-19 infections do not convey the lived experience of HCWs during the pandemic. This study explores the working conditions and issues faced by Australian HCWs.MethodsQualitative analysis of free-text responses from Australian HCWs from 3 August to 26 October 2020 from an open letter calling for better respiratory protection for HCWs, transparent reporting of HCW COVID-19 infections and diversity in national infection control policy development. The open letter was sent to an email list of 23 000 HCWs from a previous campaign and promoted on social media.ResultsAmong 3587 HCWs who signed the open letter during the study period, 569 free-text responses were analysed. Doctors and nurses accounted for 58% and 33% of respondents, respectively. Most respondents came from Victoria (48%), New South Wales (20%), Queensland (12%) or Western Australia (11%). Dominant themes included concerns about: work health and safety standards; guidelines on respiratory protection including the omission of fit-testing of P2/N95 respirators; deficiencies in the availability, quality, appropriateness and training of personal protective equipment; and a command-and-control culture that enabled bullying in response to concerns about safety that culminated a loss of trust in leadership, self-reported COVID-19 infections in some respondents and moral injury.ConclusionDeficiencies in work health and safety, respiratory protection, personal protective equipment and workplace culture have resulted in a loss of psychological and physical safety at work associated with an occupational moral injury. The challenge for healthcare leaders is to repair trust by addressing HCW concerns and fast track solutions in collaboration with them.

When mandatory exercise at work meets employees’ rights to privacy and non-discrimination: a comparative and European perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 203195252199430
Author(s):  
Céline Brassart Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Related Case ◽  
The Right ◽  
Different Levels

In 2017, the municipality of Copenhagen made exercise mandatory for social workers performing physical tasks, such as lifting patients, cooking and cleaning. Private Danish companies have also started to impose exercise on their employees, including sedentary employees. Rationale behind mandatory exercise in the workplace is that it makes employees healthier and more productive, which is a win-win for employees and employers. However, mandatory exercise can put employees in a vulnerable position as employers potentially interfere with some of the fundamental rights of employees, namely their bodily autonomy and privacy. In addition, the increased emphasis on exercise at work and being ‘physically fit’ can indirectly lead to unlawful discrimination practices in recruitment, during employment, and at termination, as employers may exclude or sanction people who are not be able, or do not want, to exercise on various grounds, ranging from age, disability, pregnancy, religion, to health conditions. Therefore, this article examines the lawfulness of mandatory exercise at work in light of the fundamental rights of employees in two selected jurisdictions (Denmark and France), as well as under relevant European Union (EU) law, and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and related case law. Using a comparative and European perspective, the article examines the legality of mandatory exercise at work in the selected jurisdictions. It analyses and compares the level of protection of employees’ rights to privacy, autonomy and non-discrimination in France and Denmark. It also assesses whether mandatory exercise could qualify as an occupational health and safety measure in the selected jurisdictions. The article examines these questions in light of the increasing recognition and integration of fundamental rights in labour law at European, EU, and national levels. The article finds that the French and Danish labour laws offer different levels of protection of employees’ rights to autonomy, privacy and the right to non-discrimination. As a result, mandatory exercise would likely be deemed to be legal in Denmark, and illegal in France. However, the legality of mandatory exercise under Danish law could be challenged in light of the strong protection of employees’ fundamental rights at EU and European levels. The article concludes that rather than an obligation, exercise should be framed as a right for employees.

scholarly journals Is it discriminatory to require hospital staff to be clean shaven to facilitate the effective wearing of personal protective equipment?

2021 ◽  
pp. 002581722098097
Author(s):  
Amanda Steadman
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Facial Hair

National Health Service employers are subject to legal duties to protect the health and safety of their employees and third parties who come into contact with their staff. In order to discharge these duties, National Health Service employers must implement a range of protective measures to mitigate risk. One such measure is to require staff to wear personal protective equipment, including respiratory protective equipment, in certain circumstances. This is of particular importance during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the presence of facial hair has a negative impact on the effectiveness of respiratory protective equipment. This article discusses whether a requirement to be clean shaven could amount to discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Thinking about Publishing? On Seeking Patient Consent to Publish Case Material

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Clulow ◽  
Ernest Wallwork ◽  
Caroline Sehon
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Case Material ◽  
Clinical Material ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Therapeutic Action ◽  
Scientific Advancement ◽  
Patient Consent ◽  
Ethical Responsibilities

The onus on therapists to seek the consent of their patients before publishing clinical material may be one reason why so few decide to write about their experience. There are inevitable and unavoidable tensions in balancing the duty of care to patients with other ethical responsibilities, including the needs of the professional community for education and scientific advancement. In this paper, we explore the context and dynamics of seeking consent from couples and families to publish material relating to their therapy and propose a way to manage some of the ethical dilemmas involved in writing about patients that is in keeping with the contemporary analytic literature on the interpersonal unconscious between patient and therapist, and the interpsychic/interpersonal dimensions of therapeutic action. Throughout this paper, the term “patient” is used to designate couples and families as well as individuals.

The right to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya Samovich
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Educational Organizations ◽  
European Court ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Judicial Procedure ◽  
The Right ◽  
Judicial Protection

The manual is devoted to making individual complaints to the European Court of human rights: peculiarities of realization of the right to appeal, conditions of admissibility and the judicial procedure of the European Court of Human Rights. The author analyses some “autonomous concepts” used in the court's case law and touches upon the possibility of limiting the right to judicial protection. The article deals with the formation and development of the individual's rights to international judicial protection, as well as the protection of human rights in universal quasi-judicial international bodies and regional judicial institutions of the European Union and the Organization of American States. This publication includes a material containing an analysis of recent changes in the legal regulation of the Institute of individual complaints. The manual is recommended for students of educational organizations of higher education, studying in the areas of bachelor's and master's degree “Jurisprudence”.

Standardy należytego uzasadnienia w świetle orzecznictwa Trybunału Konstytucyjnego i Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka

2014 ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
Przemysław Florjanowicz-Błachut
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
European Court ◽  
Judicial Reasoning ◽  
The Right

The core function of the judiciary is the administration of justice through delivering judgments and other decisions. The crucial role for its acceptance and legitimization by not only lawyers, but also individulas (parties) and the hole society plays judicial reasoning. It should reflect on judge’s independence within the exercise of his office and show also judicial self-restraint or activism. The axiology and the standards of proper judicial reasoning are anchored both in constitutional and supranational law and case-law. Polish Constitutional Tribunal derives a duty to give reasoning from the right to a fair trial – right to be heard and bring own submissions before the court (Article 45 § 1 of the Constitution), the right to appeal against judgments and decisions made at first stage (Article 78), the rule of two stages of the court proceedings (Article 176) and rule of law clause (Article 2), that comprises inter alia right to due process of law and the rule of legitimate expactation / the protection of trust (Vertrauensschutz). European Court of Human Rights derives this duty to give reasons from the guarantees of the right to a fair trial enshrined in Article 6 § 1 of European Convention of Human Rights. In its case-law the ECtHR, taking into account the margin of appreciation concept, formulated a number of positive and negative requirements, that should be met in case of proper reasoning. The obligation for courts to give sufficient reasons for their decisions is also anchored in European Union law. European Court of Justice derives this duty from the right to fair trial enshrined in Articles 6 and 13 of the ECHR and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Standards of the courts reasoning developed by Polish constitutional court an the European courts (ECJ and ECtHR) are in fact convergent and coherent. National judges should take them into consideration in every case, to legitimize its outcome and enhance justice delivery.

Formation of Contract and Third Parties in Cambodia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ly Tayseng
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Civil Code ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Third ◽  
Contract Formation ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Formal Requirements

This chapter gives an overview of the law on contract formation and third party beneficiaries in Cambodia. Much of the discussion is tentative since the new Cambodian Civil Code only entered into force from 21 December 2011 and there is little case law and academic writing fleshing out its provisions. The Code owes much to the Japanese Civil Code of 1898 and, like the latter, does not have a requirement of consideration and seldom imposes formal requirements but there are a few statutory exceptions from the principle of freedom from form. For a binding contract, the agreement of the parties is required and the offer must be made with the intention to create a legally binding obligation and becomes effective once it reaches the offeree. The new Code explicitly provides that the parties to the contract may agree to confer a right arising under the contract upon a third party. This right accrues directly from their agreement; it is not required that the third party declare its intention to accept the right.

The Old Order Changeth, Yielding Place to the New (Murli Manohar Joshi’s Tenure)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Original Intent ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Old Order ◽  
Reinforcing Factors ◽  
The Right

This chapter elaborates the shifting case law over the 24 year period from 1982 to 2006 in regard to the right of private individuals and organisations to establish educational institutions, the regulation of admissions to private-unaided institutions (self-financing institutions), and the regulatory power of AICTE. It offers a theoretical explanation of these shifts by elaborating two major reinforcing factors. The first is the adoption of an interpretational philosophy that legitimates judges going beyond the express wording and original intent of Constitution makers, discerning the purpose underlying a constitutional provision, and applying the purpose so discovered to rectify failures of public policy and governance types. The second factor is the inbuilt trait to expand as a result of a generous policy of admitting appeals. Given that judges differ considerably in the judicial philosophy they hold, and their perception of policy problem and solutions case law has bene fluid, creating uncertainty for institutions which are regulated as well as regulators like the AICTE.

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