And to the workers in the metaverse… what law do we apply? | El País

The judgment of the Regional High Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Cologne of 23 May 2025 (15 UKl 2/25), in which the German court rejects the application for interim relief prohibiting the defendant from processing personal data published by consumers on Facebook and Instagram for the development and improvement of artificial intelligence systems, is analysed.

The declaration of the worker's incapacity does not automatically terminate the contract, unless the worker expresses his or her wish not to continue working. But permanent absolute incapacity and severe incapacity are incompatible with work. For the rest, the worker has (an extinguishment?) period of ten days to decide and the employer has (an extinguishment?) period of thirty days to decide. Companies with less than 25 employees can assess when the obligation is an excessive burden, but the rest is left to numerous factors, not always objectively measurable. The company must provide a suitable offer without knowing what this suitability depends on.

If a collective action is brought to challenge the unilateral conduct of a company in the offsetting of salary claims through a payroll deduction, the amount of the debt and the existence of quantitative discrepancies must necessarily be questioned in order to be able to assess whether or not there is legal offsetting on the part of the employer. Only by admitting that the debt is a liquidated amount that is due and payable will the employer - or the employee, as the case may be - be able to offset the debt, but if the debt is not disputed, the way is open for the offsetting of wage claims.

The obligation to accommodate the workplace for persons with a permanent incapacity has come to the fore with such incapacity no longer constituting an automatic termination-of-employment-contract event. Now, unless the employee intends otherwise, the employer has three months to make necessary adjustments or to offer a suitable vacant post, and a failure to do so that is not justified on the grounds of excessive burden means not only a breach of law with all its consequences, but also the continuation of the employer/employee relationship with all its consequences.

The Court of Justice of the European Union conditions the interpretation of legislation and case law on unlawful assignment of workers. It takes the view that EU legislation on temporary-work agencies must be applied even when an assignment is carried out by an unauthorised company. Something similar to what is provided for unlawful assignments in Spanish employment law.

In the absence of a Spanish Government budget, urgent measures have been approved in the fields of employment and social security that allow for the updating of some amounts and the application of some legislative provisions for 2025.

Ante la ausencia de Presupuestos Generales del Estado, se aprueban medidas urgentes que, en el ámbito laboral y de la Seguridad Social, permiten actualizar algunas cuantías y aplicar algunas normas previstas para el 2025.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled once again on the financing of the universal telecommunications service: there are no r. to be excluded from the cost-sharing system; the decision based on market competition lies with national regulatory authorities.

The impact of the DANA (Spanish acronym for a cut-off low pressure system) on economic and employment activity has made it necessary to adopt urgent measures to provide employers and workers with liquidity. Among others, benefits, exemptions, extensions and increases of some Social Security pensions.