HR Without Borders
FedEE exists to enable you, as an HR professional in a multinational company, to operate in a truly effective way – with far less uncertainty. HRIS helps you to know how your internal HR systems are performing, FedEE keeps you in touch with external developments and ensures that you stay compliant with the law.
As an employers’ organisation we are on your side from the start. We provide great value for money and a speedy service – and FedEE Corporate Membership generally saves a company over half its annual legal fees.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing” (Socrates)
Relying on “common sense,” or the laws of a home country as a guide to legal requirements in another country can be very dangerous.
In fact, most HR professionals are not even aware of the laws in countries that are familiar to them. For instance: the bizarre fact that in the UK the Equality Act (2010) provides employment protection to women from the first day of their pregnancy – even before they could possibly know they are pregnant themselves.
In Argentina, a male employee may lawfully change their gender without supplying medical proof and then claim retirement at an earlier age as a female.
In Belgium, there is no initial trial period allowed when someone is hired for the first time.
In China, if someone has not resigned from their previous job, then the new employer becomes responsible for all previous outstanding liabilities.
In the Netherlands, an employee may take paid sickness absence for up to 104 weeks at their company’s expense. If they are not reintegrated correctly they take 52 weeks more paid leave.
In Slovakia, all job adverts must include the pay being offered.
In Spain, an employee may not be dismissed because of imprisonment on remand. In such a case, they must be suspended. They may only be dismissed upon conviction – and then only because of their absence.
The Employment Law Monitoring Service
There are over 350,000 legal amendments and over half a million court and tribunal cases in the field of employment law every year. In “common law” countries like the USA, UK, India and Singapore legal precedents are set almost every working day.
How does an employer know if they are compliant? FedEE constantly sifts through these changes and notifies companies about what they need to know through its daily updates and fortnightly newswires. Is there a coming deadline for completing a government social security return or preparing a pay gap report? When does a new law come into effect and how will it affect the way you do business?
Consult Our Huge Employment Law Knowledgebase
There can be few days when an HR professional is not confronted about a difficult people question and has to ask themselves about the legality of an action. Many flinch from such questions and hope for the best, but a true professional will check online by consulting the FedEE knowledgebase. Here they will find the requirements of employment laws in over 100 countries – all written up in simple English. A five-minute check could save a seriously wrong decision or expensive dispute down the line.
The FedEE Story
FedEE was founded in June 1988 at a meeting of HR Directors at BP PLC’s Head Office in London.
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.
Latest Brexit Update
FedEE’s analysis of the current crisis facing the British economy.
Your Priorities for 2020-2022
The World is rapidly becoming a more chaotic and uncertain place and it is only going to get worse. What has been happening on the streets of Hong Kong, Paris and Santiago is relevant for companies because the focus of protest is likely to be directed increasingly at them.
The old days when workers collectively went out on strike about an issue of dispute that could be resolved by negotiation is being replaced by random disputes generated by individuals that go viral on the social media. It does not matter in the court of the social media if a company ever did what they are accused of. The individual is believed if their story appeals to mass prejudices. Crowd funding will then support its escalation to a major confrontation that seriously harms an employers’ reputation. This is not a situation where PR can step in, the case is already lost and damage done. The only hope is that the employer will eventually be vindicated for having complied with the law.
No HR professional wants to be in the firing line for the kind of vengeance meted out by a digital lynch mob. For that reason the future preoccupation of major employers must be legal compliance – and the quickest, easiest and cost effective route to compliance is through membership of FedEE.
Things you can do in the next few months:
- Assess your level of employment law compliance.
- Ensure that your HR policies are in line with statute and case law – drawing on FedEE’s knowledgebase to do so.
- Have in place a specific contingency policy in case of a social media war.
- Run regular focus groups of employees to determine what are the latent, hot issues.
- Monitor social media traffic and tweets containing any reference to the company or top management.
- Centrally monitor all employee disputes/grievances at every stage – maintaining comparable statistics.
- When responding to any attack on the social media make clear that respect for personal privacy limits what the company can say, thus putting the company unfairly at a disadvantage.
- Ensure that at least one member of the HR team undertakes FedEE’s one-year HR Counsel course.
Test your own compliance
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 Us Prepare Your Quarterly HR Team Briefings
All our member companies receive regular country updates for over 100 countries plus a special quarterly review of relevant legal developments in France. This also comes with powerpoint slides for use when briefing colleagues. Such FedEE Focus quarterly reviews cover much detail that we cannot provide in our fortnightly newswires. They are available also for an annual fee in respect to the following countries – Australia, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, and The UK.
Ask our 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 statistics to help you assess things like the size and nature of local labour markets.
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 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 six months. The programme not only ends with a valuable qualification, but you will also be able to use the job title “HR Counsel” – as FedEE owns the term as a trade mark.
For further information please download the programme brochure and, if you wish, contact FedEE’s Legal Counsel, a qualified Barrister who heads up our team of Tutors, or click here to sign up today to participate in the course. Please note that the structure contained in the brochure describes the revised one shortly to be introduced. Those joining the programme in September and October 2019 will follow the original course structure – which contains the same modules in all but one case.
For further details, please contact the Programme Director on Academy@fedee.com or sign up here.
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, Japan and China. A high proportion of our members have been part of FedEE for many years and tell us we provide a both unique and excellent service with great value for money.
If your company has over 200 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 €895 a year. 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 and telephone numbers so you can get in touch from anywhere around the world.
Senior Management Team
Introducing our key staff and Board Members.
Training and Events
World’s advanced professional transnational law training course.
FedEE Economic Bulletin
Our periodic review of global trends affecting HR practitioners.
