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Pay transparency measures can help expose pay differences between men and women and identify the underlying causes …

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The controversy over fair pay agreements in New Zealand needs to be seen against its broader context …

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Until it was decided to put the question onto survey forms during the pandemic, there probably always was a large section of the population that would declare that they intended to quit their job over the next year unless some desired state was met …

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The October IMF report has just been published and contains a special chapter on the dynamics of wage-price spirals …

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The size of the globally mobile workforce differs, according to estimates, from 66M to 1.9BN, but how lawful are the transfers that take place?

The mobile workforce clearly consists of a number of distinct types of worker – ranging from the unskilled migrant workers in the third world seeking paid openings in more affluent countries to expats sent on assignment by multinational employers. In between are a mix of self-employed service personnel and digital nomads, employees sent on secondments and executives on business trips. The law does not bend to adapt to meet every circumstance and those without official documentation make up a high proportion of those in overseas work, especially within countries with leaky borders – such as those in Latin America and some parts of Africa and Asia. But how compliant are multinational companies when it comes to international transfers? Compliance is generally strong when seeking to recruit foreign nationals within a country, but often becomes shaky when sending employees to work temporarily in other countries. Few companies concern themselves with checking jobs posting requirements when sending staff on business trips, or for overseas training, especially within the European Union. Compliance in the EU improves with longer term assignments, but remains weak when sending staff outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland/UK. In many countries outside the EU ambit no recognition exists in respect to employment contracts in a home country – even though double-taxation and social security totalization agreements are in place to deal with such eventualities. It is therefore necessary simply to suspend a home contract, find an organisation in the host country to act as temporary employer and then apply for work and residence permits to cover the assignment period. Here compliance by employers is particularly low, relying instead on the inefficiency of government inspectorates not to detect a foreign visitor at work, or for the illegal expat not to be injured in a workplace – after which questions will be asked.

Yet more variants of the virus are emerging and some are resistant to existing vaccines and antivirals …

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Can any EU employer ever overcome the security risks involved in processing personal data from a home or otherwise remote office? Although there is scope under the GDPR to introduce safety procedures, systems and protocols to protect data, at some point all personal data has to be unencrypted and processed into and within its raw state …

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The UK has so many remnants of empire that a change of monarch has numerous reverberations around the globe …

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Even after more than two and a half years, there still remain a number of common misconceptions about this virus …

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In many countries around the World – such as Afghanistan, Iran and Russia – adverse political conditions, poverty and corruption are driving out many of the most talented to live in countries with less oppression and better living conditions, as in Australia, Britain and the US …

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Unless there are unforeseen developments in the global economy between now and the end of the year, we could well enter 2023 under the worst global phenomenon of all – stagflation …

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Changes in hourly earnings have varied widely throughout the World over the last two and a half years …

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In 2022, the global gender opportunities divide has been narrowed slightly …

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The football world cup in Qatar is likely to disrupt workplaces when it kicks off this Autumn …

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Employers are regularly being called upon to seek out government forms concerning double taxation refunds, residence and related matters …

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