News Flash
China: Drive to make companies go global
A new government focus is being placed on the development of the southern city of Shenzhen as a location to base Chinese multinational enterprises.
An incentive scheme has been established to encourage local companies to go global. It is offering
Editorial: The rise and rise of the shorter work week
As the French government struggles against militant union opposition to remove its statutory 35-hour week, much of the rest of the developed world is moving headlong towards reduced work weeks.
In Europe lifestyle demands by employees have gone hand in
Improve your know-how about a major issue facing HR today
The way companies handle personal data has come to the forefront in the last few years and now represents one of the biggest risk areas facing HR Professionals. That is why FedEE is establishing a forum to allow HR generalists
Spain: Ruling on requirements of collective redundancy dismissal letters
The Supreme Court of Spain has confirmed that, during a collective redundancy, failure to mention in the individual dismissal letters the selection criteria that were applied does not support a case for unfair dismissal. This is because the criteria will
Iraq: New Labour Code now in force
A fresh Labour code has come into force in Iraq to replace the former code that dated back to 1987. The new code introduces the right for employers to ask employees to undertake three months’ probation and gives employees a
Chile: Social security contributions to be required of independent contractors
The use of independent contractors in Chile will become significantly more expensive from 2018 when such workers will, for the first time, be legally required to pay contributions to a pension fund as well as workers’ compensation and health insurances.
Sweden: Gender pay reporting to become a more frequent obligation
From January 1st 2017 companies in Sweden will be obliged to report salary statistics broken down by gender to the national statistical agency, Statistics Sweden, every year. Currently it is only required every three years. The company size threshold will
Editorial: If governments exceed their powers – should multinationals use theirs?
The great thing about countries that call themselves democracies is that their governments can claim justification for all kinds of behaviours that would not necessarily even come to the mind of the most vicious tyrant. As the late Richard Crossman
Portugal: Reinstatement of temporary early retirement rules
On March 9th 2016 Decree-law 10/2016 came into force in Portugal re-establishing temporary early-retirement rules that had been in effect during 2015. These rules provide that access to early retirement benefits is only available to workers over the age of
Sri Lanka: Establishment of national minimum wage
Although wage boards have been in existence in Sri Lanka since 1941, there has — until now — been no universal minimum wage for the private sector as a whole. Earlier this month parliament passed both the National Minimum Wage
Sweden: New agreement on employee inventions
A new Inventor Agreement has been negotiated between the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the Council for Negotiation and Cooperation (a body representing 25 trade unions). The Agreement is widely recognised as the basis for determining ownership and compensation in
Vietnam: Labour market opened to foreign workers
Vietnam’s labour market is being opened up to foreign workers for the first time since 2003. From April 1st employers will be able to hire workers from outside the country if after 30 days search through a government employment agency
Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi
UK voters will go to the polls on June 23rd to decide if Britain will stay within the European Union (EU). With the country heavily divided and the vote swinging at present in favour of an EU exit –
Data Protection: Not with a bang, but a whimper
With the passing of the deadline for companies to stop relying on Safe Harbor rules, a successor mechanism – the ‘Privacy Shield’ (PS) has been hurriedly announced by the European Commission and the US Commerce Department. Unfortunately, details of the
Italy: Non-EU work permit quota published
Employers wishing to hire non-EU nationals to work in Italy this year should move quickly to submit their applications before the annual quota is met. The government published its annual decree on February 8th setting a limit of 30,850