What are the challenges labour markets still face as the pandemic continues? How are they recovering around Europe? And how has the crisis impacted global and regional trends in employment, unemployment, and labour force participation?
This edition examines two reports that attempt to answer these critical questions and many others. The first report, from the European Commission, highlights the resilience of EU (European Union) labour market and the benefits of strong national policy responses; the second one, from the International Labour Organization (ILO), analyses global patterns, regional differences and outcomes across economic sectors and offers projections for 2022 and 2023.
We report on new collective agreements in Sri Lanka for garment workers and in Spain for platform workers – while in the UK, Uber and trade unions for transport workers agreed to engage in social dialogue -. A joint recommendation adopted by the World Employment Confederation (WEC) Europe and UNI-Europe to support economic and social recovery is also included.
A new bill on the right to disconnect was adopted in Colombia while in the Philippines a new law providing for workers’ rest rights is being discussed. In New York, employers will have to include salary range in all their job postings from May 2022 and Pakistan amended the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, expanding its scope and limits.
Harassment in the workplace is also the subject of a recent ruling by South Africa's Labour Court, which ordered an employer to adopt an internal policy on the issue and found that its investigation of a worker's complaint had been inadequate and insufficient, providing important suggestions for companies on how to handle similar cases.
We examine a high-impact decision for companies and employers from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stating that hours during the holiday period must be counted as working time for overtime purposes.
In China, employers are now, under certain conditions, allowed to check employees’ criminal records, especially of those in positions of responsibility.
Finally, we report on two interesting corporate collective agreements with innovative content, signed in France and Netherlands respectively.