French company liable for worker who died after sex on business trip

Paris, France - Should a heart attack during an adulterous tryst on a business trip count as a work-related accident? A French court has ruled it should, surprising even seasoned watchers of the country's protective legislation.

In February 2013, a company called TSO specialized in building railway tracks and based in northeastern France sent a technician on a business trip to the town of Meung-sur-Loire.

The last the company heard of the man identified in court papers as Mr Xavier was when they received a call to say he had suffered a heart attack and died after having sex at the home of a woman he met on the trip.

France's health insurance fund ruled that the man's death was an industrial accident and ordered TSO to compensate his family, a decision which was challenged in court.

After losing a first appeal before a social security tribunal, the company took the matter to the Paris Court of Appeal which confirmed the lower court decision in May, according to the ruling seen by AFP.

The judgement, which only came to the attention of local media in recent days, found that having sex was as normal as "taking a shower or having a meal" and that Mr Xavier was still entitled to his company's protection.

The company argued the man was not working when having "an adulterous affair with a perfect stranger".

Rouen-based lawyer and lecturer Sarah Balluet, who brought the case to public attention on social media, said it lowered the bar for workplace accidents.

Under French law, an employee is considered at work for the entire duration of a business trip, unless the company proves otherwise.

Balluet argued that in her view by engaging in sex the technician had "removed himself from his employer's authority".

But the court ruled that TSO had "failed to provide proof that the employee broke off his mission to perform an act that was completely separate from it".

Balluet described the ruling as "surprising" compared with previous rulings by the Cour de Cassation, France's highest court, "which has always attempted to establish whether or not the employee was carrying out his professional duties."

Neither TSO nor its lawyers were available to comment on the case, which has put employers in a bind.

"The question companies are asking themselves now is whether they need to expressly forbid workers from having sex during a business trip," Balluet said.

cb/adp/har

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Rising number of businesses cut ties with Brunei over gay sex death penalty

LONDON - Travel agents, London's transport network, and finance houses were among a rising number of companies on Friday to cut ties with businesses owned by Brunei to protest over the Sultanate's introduction of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

The small Muslim-majority former British protectorate on April 3 rolled out further Islamic Sharia laws, which punish sodomy, adultery, and rape with death, including by stoning, and theft with amputation, sparking a global outcry.

The move prompted a corporate backlash after actor George Clooney and singer Elton John called for a boycott of hotels owned by the Southeast Asian country, including the Dorchester in London and the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

STA Travel, a global travel agency owned by privately-held Swiss conglomerate Diethelm Keller Group, said it would no longer sell flights on national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines.

"We've taken this stance to add our voice to the calls on Brunei to reverse this change in the law and in support of LGBTQI people everywhere," the company said in a statement.

Virgin Australia Airlines, the second biggest airline in Australia after Qantas, ended an agreement that offered discounted tickets on Royal Brunei Airlines for staff.

Royal Brunei did not respond to requests for comment.

Transport For London (TfL), which is responsible for London's transport system, said it was removing adverts promoting Brunei as a tourism destination from the city's public transport network due to "great public sensitivity."

Deutsche Bank banned its staff from staying in the 9 luxury hotels of the Dorchester Collection, which is owned by Brunei's state-owned Brunei Investment Agency (BIA).

BIA did not respond to a request for comment. The UK-based Sovereign Wealth Center estimates the BIA has US$39 billion of assets under management.

The Dorchester Collection made a public appeal, saying its values were "far removed from the politics of ownership".

"We understand people's anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don't believe should be played out in our hotels and amongst our 3,630 employees," the Dorchester Collection said in a statement on its website.

But this did not prevent numerous organizations moving their events elsewhere.

British estate agent Knight Frank, property industry networking group Movers and Shakers, which has about 300 corporate members, and property investment company Landsec said they would not use Dorchester Collection hotels.

As well as owning the hotel group, the BIA holds about 4 percent of London-listed digital tech venture capital firm Draper Esprit PLC which it acquired in 2018.

Draper Esprit's CEO Simon Cook said the company "naturally abhor" the moves in Brunei but added the BIA bought shares on the open market and has no "influence either on our company culture or our investment decisions".

The backlash also spread to universities.

More than 50,000 people signed a petition calling on Oxford University to rescind an honorary degree awarded to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, 72, the world's second-longest reigning monarch and prime minister of the oil-rich country.

The university's information office said they shared the international condemnation of Brunei's new penal code and backed the United Nations' call to stop this entering into force.

"At present, the University has not taken any decision on rescinding the Sultan of Brunei's 1993 Honorary Degree of Civil Law by Diploma," the university said in a statement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Elton John joins call for boycott of Brunei-owned hotels

LONDON--British pop legend Elton John has joined actor George Clooney in calling for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's new death-penalty laws for gay sex and adultery.

The call came as a growing list of politicians and celebrities added their names to those condemning the new laws and supporting a boycott.

"I commend my friend, #GeorgeClooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of #Brunei - a place where gay people are brutalized, or worse - by boycotting the Sultan's hotels," the singer wrote on his Twitter page late Saturday.

The 72-year-old, a veteran gay rights campaigner, said his "heart went out" to staff at the hotels, but that "we must send a message, however we can, that such treatment is unacceptable".

The nine hotels mentioned by Clooney are located in Britain, France, Italy and the United States. They include London's exclusive Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. 

The Dorchester Collection luxury chain issued a statement saying that its code emphasizes "equality, respect and integrity in all areas" and that "we do not tolerate any form of discrimination", CNN reported.

Clooney called for the boycott earlier this week, saying "every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery".

'BARBARIC' DECISION 

"No one should face the death penalty because of who they love. Brunei's decision is barbaric," Britain's international development minister Penny Mordaunt wrote on Twitter.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark called the new penal code "shocking" and "barbaric".

Amnesty International called on Brunei to "immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments".

In the US, Clooney's call drew supportive declarations from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle and a strong statement from the Trump administration.

"We strongly oppose human rights violations and abuses against LGBTI persons, including violence," the State Department said in a statement.

LGBTI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex. Intersex people are people born with physical features that are neither wholly male nor female.

US CONDEMNATION 

Former US vice president Joe Biden, who is expected to seek the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, tweeted on Friday: "Stoning people to death for homosexuality or adultery is appalling and immoral...

"There is no excuse -- not culture, not tradition -- for this kind of hate and inhumanity."

Another Democrat seeking the party's nomination, Senator Kamala Harris of California, joined the chorus. "These human rights abuses cannot be tolerated," she said.

And Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said on Twitter: "This is wrong. It is barbaric. America should condemn this immoral and inhumane law, and everyone should be united against it."

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis also tweeted in support of her fellow actor's stand. "I stand with George Clooney, a good man doing the right thing, fighting an unjust and barbaric law."

Clooney and his wife, human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney, have been active in humanitarian causes. 

Brunei, an absolute monarchy ruled for 51 years by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is to implement the new penal code starting Wednesday.

Homosexuality is already illegal in the sultanate, but it will now become a capital offence. The law applies only to Muslims.

Brunei first announced the measures in 2013, but implementation has been delayed, in the face of opposition by rights groups, and as officials worked out the practical details.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Adultery no longer a crime in South Korea

SEOUL - South Korea's Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down a controversial adultery law which for more than 60 years had criminalized extra-marital sex and jailed violators for up to two years.

The nine-member bench ruled by seven to two that the 1953 statute aimed at protecting traditional family values was unconstitutional.

"Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should not intervene in individuals' private lives," said presiding justice Park Han-Chul.

The decision saw shares in the South Korean firm Unidus Corp., one of the world's largest condom manufacturers, soar by the daily limit of 15 percent on the local stock exchange.

It was the fifth time the apex court had considered the constitutional legality of the legislation which had made South Korea one of the few non-Muslim countries to regard marital infidelity as a criminal act.

In the past six years, close to 5,500 people have been formerly arraigned on adultery charges -- including nearly 900 in 2014.

But the numbers had been falling, with cases that ended in prison terms increasingly rare.

Whereas 216 people were jailed under the law in 2004, that figure had dropped to 42 by 2008, and since then only 22 have found themselves behind bars, according to figures from the state prosecution office.

The downward trend was partly a reflection of changing societal trends in a country where rapid modernisation has frequently clashed with traditionally conservative norms.

Public views 'have changed'

"Public conceptions of individuals' rights in their sexual lives have undergone changes," Park said, as he delivered the court's decision.

Reading the dissenting opinion, Justice Ahn Chang-Ho insisted the 1953 statute was a key protector of family morals, and warned that its abolition would "spark a surge in debauchery."

Under the law, adultery could only be prosecuted on complaint from an injured party, and any case was closed immediately if the plaintiff dropped the charge -- a common occurrence that often involved a financial settlement.

The debate over its future had simmered away for years, bubbling over from time to time especially if a public figure fell foul of the statute.

Such was the case in 2008 when one of the country's best-known actresses, Ok So-Ri, was given an eight-month suspended sentence for having an adulterous affair.

At that time, Ok unsuccessfully petitioned the Constitutional Court, arguing that the law amounted to a violation of her human rights in the name of revenge.

The court had previously deliberated the issue in 1990, 1993 and 2001, but those moves to strike down the law had failed to gain the support of the six judges required.

Ok's 2008 petition had come close with five judges deeming the statute unconstitutional.

Improving gender equality

The law was originally designed to protect the rights of women at a time when marriage afforded them few legal rights, with most having no independent income and divorce carrying enormous social stigma.

But even socially conservative civic groups who had supported the legislation in the past acknowledged that times had changed.

"Adultery must be censured morally and socially, but such a law is inappropriate in a modern society," said Ko Seon-Ju, an activist with the Seoul-based civic group Healthy Families.

"It used to be an effective legal tool to protect female rights, but equal rights legislation has improved," Ko said.

"Adultery is an issue that should be dealt with through dialogue between the partners, not by law," she added.

While the adultery law may have been ruled out of existence, social disapproval of marital infidelity remains potent.

In April last year, South Korea blocked the newly launched Korean version of the global adultery hook-up site Ashley Madison, saying it threatened family values.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com