On 29 October 2021, the National Wages Council (NWC), a tripartite body made up by employer, employee and government representatives, developed its annual Guidelines on wages and employment-related issues for the period 1 December 2021 - 30 November 2022.
The NWC therefore also calls on all employers who have not done it yet to implement the Flexible Wage System (“FWS”).
The government proposed a package aims to overcome the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic, including beefing up support for companies actively raising employee wages.
It is working on plans to raise the maximum tax deduction rate to 40 per cent for small businesses and 30% for large corporates that increase employee wages.
A Swedish and Danish proposal on a ‘social partners option’ to the minimum-wage directive to unblock negotiations while protecting well-functioning collective bargaining systems.
It ensures hourly wages for California’s garment workers in lieu of piece-rate pay, which often amounts to wages well below the state’s $14 minimum wage.
The new law makes California the first state to require hourly wages for garment workers.
Employment law amendment cover minimum wage, working hours, protections for employees against wrongful disciplinary actions, new penalties for failure to adequately handle workplace harassment, new claim procedure and remedies for gender-discrimination and sexual-harassment claims, use of childcare leave during pregnancy and right to request working-hours adjustment during pregnancy.
These measures will go into effect later in 2021 and 2022.
On 15 July 2021, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) stated that the provision on the application of the minimum wages of the country in which the work is habitually carried out cannot be waived, regardless of the existence of a transnational posting.
The decision delimits the perimeter within which the parties to an employment contract can freely choose the law to be applied.
The database on up-to-2020 collective bargaining processes for wage-setting and minimum wages on 56 OECD/non- OECD countries was released
The database provides comparable data on trade union and employers’ organisations density as well as on the role played by these actors in each collective bargaining system