Corporate social responsibility
10 December 2019
On 09 December, the German Employment and Social Affairs Employment Minister, Hubertus Heil (SPD), announced during an interview that he, along with his Economic Cooperation and Development colleague, Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) were formulating draft legislation on supply chains (Lieferkettengesetz) that would require German businesses operating internationally to guarantee that their...
26 November 2019
The World Players Association (WPA), that represents players and athletes globally (85,000 sportspeople across more than 100 players associations and across more than 60 countries), and which acts as the leading voice of organized players in the governance of world sport, is continuing its work of building human rights awareness among the international sporting bodies and their members. On 04 December, WPA Executive Director, Brendan Schwab will be hosting a webinar on this issue that follows closely after the...
25 November 2019
In a statement published on 21 November, the US tech corporation Intel called on its corporate law departments, located in the US, to consider performance on diversity when using external law firms. In concrete terms, as of 1 January 2021, Intel says it will only use external legal service providers that “meet two diversity criteria: at least 21% of the firm’s US equity partners are women and at least 10% of the firm’s US equity partners are underrepresented minorities (which, for this purpose, we define as...
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Digital tools
16 October 2019
Oxford-based visual data management start-up, Zegami, has just launched a new tool for employers that will enable them to predict which employees are most likely to resign from their jobs. Called Zegami HR, the platform operates using a tailor-made algorithm developed from work carried out at the Oxford University Computational Biology division into the factors that made people happy at work in a company. The algorithm uses relevant data and includes age, salary, career path, academic history, career satisfaction...
30 September 2019
Doing an internship at a multinational firm without even leaving the house, and perhaps while still in one’s pyjamas, is now a possibility, thanks to the concept of virtual work experience offered by the Australian start-up InsideSherpa. Since 2017, the company has offered short work experience programmes, exclusively online, at companies from all over the globe. While students see the platform as an unprecedented opportunity to discover large companies and gain experience, employers using this method hope to...
19 June 2019
In an interview on 04 June with David Green for his website My HR Future, HR Tech advisor, Yvette Cameron shares her vision of blockchain storing and managing data technology as it applies to HR. Planet Labor summarizes her vision below (for the full 38′ podcast, click here).
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HR practices
13 January 2020
More than 18 months ago Jean-Roch Houllier, director of educational innovation at the Thales Learning Hub, established a structure geared towards helping his company’s training system meet new demands and “above all remain at the hub of an arena that has become considerably more complex with the arrival of new players”, which has led to a kind of “uberisation” of training....
10 January 2020
India’s leading mid-range hotel chain, Lemon Tree is making the hiring of those with disabilities an integral part of its business model. Initially implemented in 2007, many hotels have are following suit.
16 December 2019
With the festive season fast approaching, a digital marketing start-up in the north-west of England has attracted attention for offering its employees “hangover days”. The idea behind the policy at Bolton-based The Audit Lab is to allow employees who have perhaps had one too many the night before to work from home, multiple times throughout the year. Claire Crompton, co-founder and director of The Audit Lab, explains: “We wanted to offer something to younger millennials who typically go out mid-week. My team...
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Industrial relations
14 January 2020
Roman Zitzelsberger, IG Metall’s chief in Baden-Württemberg, has earmarked job security as one of the trade union’s priorities ahead of collective negotiations set to kick off by 17 March in the metals and electrical engineering sectors. The push comes after a report, published on 13 January by a working group made up of experts as well as representatives of companies and trade unions, warned that at least 410,000 jobs could be lost in Germany by 2030 as part of the transition to electromobility. For...
13 January 2020
The leadership of the Communications Workers of America, a large trade union that has a strong presence in the telecommunications industry, has decided to expand into the sectors of tech and video games, with the launch of a nationwide unionisation campaign.
8 January 2020
For several years works council specialist consultants have been active in both European Commission funded sector-level social dialogue, as well as in French EWCs. More recently however, these consultancy experts have also been working with non-French EWCs, oftentimes with the backing of local trade union bodies, and they have periodically succeeded in creating sustainable working industrial relations. Although concentrated in number, and albeit if these consultancy companies do vary in actual size, these firms’...
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Legal developments
14 January 2020
While still candidate for the position of EU Commission President, and in a bid to secure European Socialist support for her candidacy, Ursula von der Leyen threw her support behind the concept of a minimum salary level that enables workers to live decently.* Accordingly on 14 January 2020, the EU Commission launched the first stage of the procedure towards its achievement, namely a consultation with the European social partners. Mindful of the need to respect national prerogatives, and especially those concerning...
14 January 2020
On 12 January 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed fresh regulations that set out four factors to be used to determine joint-employer status as regards the responsibilities and obligations intended in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The new joint-employer status qualification scale, which comes into force on 16 March 2020, seeks to limit the likelihood of co-employment status. This new scale is a response to previous efforts (especially by the Obama administration) to broaden the notion and to...
10 January 2020
In a country that has lost 11% of its active population in the space of 20 years, Japan remains reticent over the idea of opening its borders to long-term immigrant workers. Companies in need of manpower instead turn to ‘technical trainees’ to fill the gaps. ‘Technical trainees’ is a term for young Asian unskilled workers. Increasingly prevalent (367,000 in June 2019) and rising at an annual 25%, ‘technical trainees’ tend to come from Vietnam and China. They are employed in small factories and farming...
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