22 July 2021
On 14 July, Spain’s leading department store chain, El Corte Inglés signed an agreement with the CCOO and UGT trade unions, which establishes the framework for their...
24 June 2021
In June, LVMH launched its Heart Fund for its 150,000 employees worldwide. The luxury giant has announced that it will endow the fund with €30 million to provide a telephone based psychological support service, available wherever the company is located, and to...
14 June 2021
On 1 June, the UK business of French food services group Sodexo published – for the very first time and despite the pandemic – its ethnicity pay gap for the year 2020. According to the firm’s pay report, the hourly earnings of its employees in the UK and...
11 June 2021
The new mobility plan for the period 2021-2024, signed by the management of French telecommunications group Orange and the trade unions CFDT, FO and SUD, will enter into effect from 1 January 2022. Its aim is to significantly increase the number of employees using clean means of transport, public transport aside. In order to encourage staff to adopt new, more “sustainable” travel habits, and to “increase from 5% to 15% the percentage of employees using clean transport, public transport excluded, (i.e. 36%...
21 May 2021
Having been rocked by the scandal surrounding poor practices at its suppliers last year (see article n°12051), UK online clothing retailer Boohoo is looking to restore its image and has decided for the first time, under pressure from its shareholders as well as members of parliament, to calculate the bonuses pocketed by its executives on the basis of progress made on environmental, social and governance issues.
12 May 2021
The second wave of Covid-19 is sweeping across India like a tsunami. On 12 May, 348,421 new cases and 4,205 deaths were recorded for just one day. Companies are redoubling their efforts and initiatives in a bid to alleviate some of the suffering their employees are experiencing. Certain firms are taking charge of vaccinating their staff and sometimes even their relatives, while others are committed to financially supporting the families of the victims.
27 April 2021
On 26 April, Channel 4, the UK free-to-air public-service television network unveiled its new ‘Pregnancy Loss Policy’ that provides for least two weeks of paid leave for all cases of loss during pregnancy, including miscarriage, abortion, ectopic pregnancy, as well as death at birth or in the first 28 days following birth. This landmark provision augments the broadcaster’s global HR policy to support women and lift the lid on traditionally taboo subjects.
22 April 2021
Large companies in the metals, chemical and financial sectors are busy gearing up for their participation in Germany’s national vaccination campaign. Volkswagen and BASF have even started pilot projects, administering a few hundred vaccinations per day. However, due to insufficient vaccine supplies, mass inoculation in companies will not start before June, and before then a number of legal and ethical issues still need to be resolved.
20 April 2021
Nearly 500 British Gas engineers recently lost their jobs after they refused to sign up to new employment contract terms that included lower pay and longer hours, under the employer’s ‘fire-and-rehire’ practice. With this practice the employer offers the employee the opportunity to resign in order to sign a new, less advantageous contract, and the employee knows that if s/he refuses the new terms then s/he will be laid off. Perceived as a lifeline by some companies amid the current health crisis, this...
19 April 2021
San Francisco-based software company Salesforce is to gradually reopen its US sites from next month. If they are willing and have been vaccinated, employees in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Irvine, California, will be the first to return to the office. In order to ensure that this return is as safe and as secure as possible, Salesforce will make use of work.com, an in-house application that manages the flow of staff within its offices. Remote work will nevertheless be extended until at least 31 December 2021,...
19 April 2021
Car manufacturers, food companies and retail giants are opening vaccination sites and offering bonuses to encourage their employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
14 April 2021
The Covid-19 health crisis represents a major challenge for the vocational occupational training sector. Questions seeking answers include how to train apprentices from a distance and how to access and recruit new apprentices when traditional avenues (schools-based careers guidance, apprenticeship fairs, etc.) no longer take place. In this article we look at some of the innovative teaching methods being used by many companies in Germany as they strive to continue training apprentices amid the pandemic.
21 January 2021
On 21 January 2021, Unilever, the UK multinational consumer goods group, issued a press release detailing its commitments to help ‘build a more inclusive society’ (here). Foremost among these is to ensure that ‘everyone who directly provides goods and services to the company earns at least a living wage or income, by 2030.’ The press release lists other commitments aimed at fostering business relationships with suppliers that are owned and managed by under-represented groups, and at working to both develop...