Answer ... A female employee is entitled to maternity leave on full pay.

The Labour Law does not grant fathers paternity leave. A draft law providing for three days’ paternity leave was introduced and approved by the Council of Ministers in January 2018, but has not yet entered into force pending its enactment by the Lebanese Parliament.

Answer ... A female employee is entitled to 10 weeks of paid maternity leave, subject to a medical certificate estimating the date of birth. The maternity leave can be taken by the pregnant employee before her expected due date. The employee is entitled to take the remaining days of the maternity leave after the delivery, provided that the aggregate period of maternity leave taken by the employee prior to and after the delivery does not exceed 10 weeks.

The maternity leave to which the employee is entitled is additional and without prejudice to her paid annual leave entitlement, detailed in question 3.3.

An employer may not legally terminate the employment of an employee or serve her with termination notice during pregnancy or maternity leave, unless it is proven that she was employed by another employer during such period.

Answer ... The Labour Law divides trade unions into four main sectors: industry, trading agriculture and artisan.

The freedom of employers and employees to establish and join trade unions is recognised and protected under the Labour Law. The establishment of trade unions is contingent on the issuance of a permit by the minister of labour.

The purpose of trade unions is limited to matters that promote a certain profession, improve its conditions, protect its interests and further its development. Trade unions must not be involved in politics or participate in meetings or demonstrations of a political nature.

Answer ... The Labour Law does not set out specific data protection rules to be applied in the workforce. However, the recently enacted E-transactions and Personal Data Law (81/2018) protects and regulates the collection and processing of personal data, among other things.

The E-transactions and Personal Data Law defines ‘personal data’ as all types of information that relate to a natural person and help to directly or indirectly identify him or her, including through comparing the data or overlapping data collected from multiple sources.

In principle, a permit is needed from the Ministry of Economy and Trade to process personal data. However, the E-transactions and Personal Data Law allows data processing without a permit in certain cases, including where the data processing is concerned with employees of commercial companies and institutions, trade unions, associations and self-employed persons, within the limits and for the purposes of exercising their activities in a legal manner.

An employment relationship under Lebanese law implies the existence of a supervisory and controlling authority of the employer over the employee. This may suggest that the inspection by the employer of work-related documents and information in the employee’s possession could fall within the general supervisory authority of the employer conferred on it by law.

Furthermore, work created by employees in the course of carrying out their professional duties under their employment contract and related IP rights shall be deemed the property of the employer, unless agreed otherwise in writing.

Answer ... Temporary workers are guaranteed the right to severance pay as detailed in question 5, provided that they have been engaged to do certain work for at least one uninterrupted year.