Managing people across national borders
FedEE provides essential information and expertise about international employment law and HRM. We exist to improve the effectiveness of multinational HR departments, give them tools to use, ideas to apply and a clearer picture of the way ahead.
From the point when we were established with assistance from the European Commission in 1988 it was understood that Multinational companies need help to retain and manage their pool of global talent, as well as maintain effective recruit ment and reward policies and practices. Today, FedEE is an independent body with many of the World’s top employers in Membership.
FedEE has its own Professional Academy offering an Advanced Diploma in Multijurisdictional Employment law and the professional designation “HR Counsel”®. Join forces, join FedEE today.
〠 POST-PANDEMIC HR WORLD: So what are the key things you need to think about now? What will be the barriers faced and what kind of world will it be like? Start your journey here.
〠 SHARING THE JOURNEY: FedEE is running a series of E-Meetings to examine, step by step, how companies are approaching a resumption of operations in EMEA and APAC.
〠 WORKPLACE RULES: FedEE has developed its own set of model back to work rules that Member companies may adopt and brand as their own.
〠 FUTURE THREATS: We predicted the last recession two years before it happened, and the present pandemic back in June 2019 – and now continue to look ahead for future threats.
Monitoring and legal compliance
We track hundreds of thousands of employment-related laws and court cases each year in over 320 national and state jurisdictions around the world. No other organisation undertakes this task in such a practically-orientated way. Yet, without it, multinationals would not be able readily to ensure their legal compliance.
FedEE has over 30 years experience of analysing and interpreting legal sources and we can do this because we are not under conventional commercial pressures and have many of the world’s largest companies providing us with a constant stream of feedback about what issues matter most to HR practitioners.
FedEE monitors too, the glaring gaps and contradictions in the law, and also numerous laws that are still upheld – even though they have lost their legal foundation. Employers, for instance, continue to be prosecuted under French language law, even though a native language requirement has been ruled against by the European Court of Justice in LAS vs PSA.
Our huge “knowledgebase” provides an essential 24/7 resource to all employers operating across national borders, whilst our Members are kept constantly up to date with changes as they occur. The way our data is presented allows them to immediately select what is useful, whilst our online/telephone helpline gives direct access to our multijurisdictional team – who are able to quickly resolve most legal and HR questions within minutes.
FEDEE ALERTS
☞ The United States Attorney General has ordered all US attorney offices to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute any misuse of government funding provided to alleviate the impact of the health crisis on companies.
☞ UK employers should take note of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – as it has been the principal way that those infected by HIV/AIDS have sought damages. Only COVID-19 is much easier to prosecute as it does not involve consent.
☞ Pawa-hara laws just coming into effect in Japan are going to make life very difficult for conventional employers.
☞ Do you know the occupational groups given special entry requirements this year under different country points systems?
☞ Why should employers in Azerbaijan be particulary concerned about making employees who own land redundant?
☞ What is the position of employees stranded in countries – whose visas have expired?
☞ What are the HR data retention periods around the World?
☞ May an employer force an employee to take annual leave?
The FedEE Story
FedEE was founded in June 1988 at a meeting of HR Directors at BP PLC’s Head Office in London. It was supported initially by the European Commission
FedEE Services
FedEE offers a range of “must have” services to the individual Multinational employer.
Persolicy
FedEE’s International HR Policy Updating Service, tackling those neglected handbooks.
Aftermath
FedEE’s frightening analysis concerning prospects for a post-pandemic World.
Maintaining company pay freedom
Unless EU employers do something soon they will all be locked into collective bargaining and have to face up to unions that have been given a huge new lease of life by the European Commission. This is not “crying wolf”, but a reality under recent EU proposals.
For the last 20 years FedEE has been seeking to make the European Union institutions stick to Article 153 (5) of their own Treaty and not meddle in pay. They have no powers to do so – but MEPS and Officials keep knowingly ignoring their own Treaty obligations.
Now the Commission wants to impose a minimum wage system across EU Member States which is entirely determined by collective bargaining. Once around the table, however, unions will not stop there – and will want to spread their scope for negotiation to all levels in a company. This is in spite of unionization progressively declining across the EU and being as low as 8% in some EU countries. Moreover, sectoral and national CBAs are wage cartels and should be treated as such.
Although the minimum wage is a critical safeguard, the petty politics of collective bargaining is not the way to achieve it and the European Union has no legitimate role to play in this field.
HOW THINGS STAND
- Not all EU States – such as Austria, Finland and Italy – currently operate a national minimum wage.
- Article 153 (5) of the EU Treaty excludes any powers in respect to pay from the scope of the European Union.
- The European Commission has long wanted to take greater control of the wage and salary market.
- The Commission has ignored in the past the EU Treaty by introducing pay-related elements in Directives. Only FedEE has opposed them.
- The Commision began this year to consult “social partners” about an EU Minimum Wage Directive.
- The Commission’s current proposals are to ensure that collective bargaining is central to the new wage system.
- To sidestep the Treaty problem (and FedEE) the Commission wants to draw up an agreement on Article 155. This will do nothing to remove Article 153 (5).
- If allowed to go ahead, their proposal will impose collective bargaining on employers in each Member State. If your company opposes this – join FedEE.
Services Tailored for You
Your Employment Law Questions Answered – Practically and Fast
If a quick check of the FedEE Knowledgebase does not come up with all the details you are looking for then the FedEE legal helpline is just a phone call, or email message, away. We seek to answer all email questions raised within four working hours. In fact, over 90% of telephone enquiries about our core 35 countries are resolved during a 15-minute call.
Updating Your HR Policies to Comply with Statutes and Rulings
The most constant lament that arises in our periodic member surveys concerns the updating of HR policies. If a policy is out of date, and thus at variance with the law, or phrased in an ambiguous way a company can find itself being challenged by employees with whom they are in dispute, an ex-employee or a factory inspector. All policies should therefore ideally be reviewed on an annual basis. FedEE offers a policy review service called “Persolicy” that could be just for one policy in a single jurisdiction, a complete handbook or for multiple countries. This service is at a fraction of the cost charged by a conventional law firm.
Let FII-Legal provide you with the employment law assistance you need during the current crisis
FII-Legal is an independent spin off from the Federation and can offer expert advice, information and support at a fraction the cost – and many times the speed – you would be charged by an old-style legal firm. Our expertise is also based on a depth of international HR experience and is led by a former Advisor to The European Commission and the ICO who also has a track record in mining, electronics and engineering. We cover over 120+ country jurisdictions, plus federal laws, from a single international centre. FII-Legal is also open to non-members of the Federation. So call us today on (+1) 857 576 8452 or email enquiries@fedeeglobal.com.
Ask FII-Global’s legal research team to undertake an investigation into a difficult legal challenge, or brief you on a particular jurisdiction
We have undertaken numerous customised research exercises for major companies to assess the best jurisdiction and labour market for expansion into Eastern Europe, restructure the business as a Societas Europea (SE), or set out all the steps necessary for a major transfer of undertakings. We specialise in M&A HR legal strategy – and in 2019 we were a key player in one of the largest mergers in recent times.
Becoming a multinational for the first time? Let FedEE help reduce the delays and risks
During the last ten years the average size of multinationals has fallen from over 5000 employees to just 700 employees and many start to become multinational – especially in the service sector – when they have fewer than 100 employees.
Membership of FedEE will be an invaluable aid to successful growth in other countries. Not only can we show you how to avoid the legal pitfalls, but can put you in touch with local service providers and provide statistics to help you assess things like the size and nature of local labour markets.
We can also help you turn your HR services around – both to deal with global emergencies, such as those created by the coronavirus pandemic, but also put in place an HR Recovery Plan. We estimate the recovery in advanced economies outside China will begin by late July 2020. It may also, ironically, remove the threat of a recession by the end of 2020 – as demand bounces back with a new dynamic.
The FedEE HR Counsel Programme
Now there is an opportunity for HR professionals in multinational organisations to obtain a legal qualification that prepares them for a role as the departmental expert in employment law. FedEE’s Advanced Diploma in Multijurisdictional Employment Law (Adv Dip MELL) is a one-year part-time programme offered through our Academy and undertaken primarily through distance learning.
If you are a University graduate with at least three years relevant HR experience you may join the programme at any time. You do not have to possess a first degree in law and the programme will begin by preparing you to understand legal concepts and basic principles of law.
The programme focuses on ten principal jurisdictions – China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, UAE, UK and the USA. However, participants may also choose other jurisdictions for their personal research. There are a total of 24 modules to complete (two per month) and, as a graduate, you will possess greater knowledge of trans-border legal requirements than most conventional legal professionals.
The course is designed to fit in with a busy work schedule and if not completed within the year it may be extended for a further twelve months. The programme not only ends with a valuable qualification, but you will also be able to use the job title “HR Counsel”®
Please also note that: during the present global crisis the normal Programme fee has been substantially reduced – especially for those HR professionals facing furlough, or redundancy. Why not make this programme part of a severance or enforced suspension programme for you or your colleagues? Multijurisdictional HR legal compliance skills are rare and are going to be in much demand when the present crisis ends.
For further information, please download the programme brochure and, if you wish, speak to a qualified Barrister here at FedEE. Click here and sign up today to participate in the Programme.
For further details, please contact the Programme Director on Academy@fedee.com.
Press Releases and Newswires
White papers
FedEE Member companies gain access to a wealth of information and guidance.
Press Releases
FedEE’s latest press release distributed to media, newspapers and agencies.
Past Newswires
Examples of our fortnightly newswires sent to all FedEE Member organizations.
Join FedEE Today
Many of the world’s largest multinational companies already belong to The Federation of International Employers (FedEE®). We have a Worldwide Membership – with particular concentrations in North America, Western Europe, India and Japan. We were founded in 1988 and are regularly voted by our Members as an organisation they would recommend to other multinationals.
If your company has over 150 employees in two or more countries, has its own in-house HR department, and has been operating for two or more years then you really cannot afford to operate without being part of the Federation. The approval process takes less than a day and for immediate access to our services we have an online credit card payment facility. Membership costs as little as €995 a year. Please check here to view the table of our membership services. Sign up now.
Why not take a short tour of our knowledge-base before joining FedEE® to see the nature and extent of the employment law, HR data and support that we offer? Please contact our Membership Secretary on membershipservices@fedee.com to arrange for a one-to-one webinar for you and your colleagues, arranged without obligation and entirely at your own convenience.
Contact Us
Address, email, telephone numbers and on line payments so you can get in touch from anywhere around the world.
Senior Management Team
Introducing our key staff and Board Members.
Training and Events
The World’s advanced professional transnational law training course.
Clear Thinking
Most people are not taught to think and few realize that clear thinking originates in perceptions and personal identity.
