Like every year-end, it is time to take stock and make resolutions.
Building on the conclusions of the second part of the virtual International Labour Conference (ILC) 2021, which reaffirmed the need to develop new strategies to tackle inequalities and boost skills and life-long learning, we move to the new trends and expectations of employees, which employers will need to take into account in order to attract and retain talent, as described by the Randstad Workmonitor 2021.
We highlight the strict connection between the world of work as well as the so-called “green transition” and climate change through an analysis of a recent Adecco group campaign on The Future of Work and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the COP-26 outcomes and the new challenges for businesses and employers on this issue.
We report on a new draft of EU directive on cybersecurity and the long-awaited and discussed proposal on platform work.
At a national level, a new law on remote work introduces a prohibition for employers to contact their employees outside working hours in Portugal, while the United Arab Emirates implemented a general reform on employment law. We also report on the decision to introduce compulsory vaccination for health workers in Germany, analysing the development of similar measures in Europe.
The Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) clarifies the scope of the concept of working time, stipulating that time spent by employees on employer-imposed training is to be regarded as working time.
We examine government initiatives on wages in Japan and Singapore and a social dialogue initiative in Namibia during the apprenticeship promotion week.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), in cooperation with the national employers and employees’ associations, introduced two self-assessments, to help, respectively, employers facing Covid-19 in Indonesia, and international and national institutions to implement a better social dialogue systems.
Finally, we illustrate the perspective on remote work offered by Deutsche Bank, that traces the impact of this way of working in companies and workers, referring to the world of sport as an inspiring model for the well-functioning of teams and companies.