Our Asia Pacific Employment & Compensation team is pleased to share our quarterly update, which highlights key employment law changes across the Asia Pacific region in the first quarter of 2023.
In this employment update, our team sets out key Australian employment law changes employers should be aware of in relation to the following topics:
• Discrimination, harassment and psychosocial risks
• Workplace flexibility and parental leave
• Pay secrecy
• Fixed term contracts/temporary agreements
• Collective Industrial Relations changes
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the workplace. Much like in countries across the globe, the benefits of new AI technology are gaining traction in Latin America. However, employers should be aware of its risks, particularly in our regions’ context
The German Whistleblower Protection Act was (finally) passed on 12 May 2023, after several attempts, following final amendments proposed by the Mediation Committee on 9 May 2023, which have now been accepted by the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). The long overdue law serves to implement the European Whistleblower Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1937), which actually provided for an implementation deadline of December 2021. The law will now come into force in mid-June 2023.
The Department of Labor and Employment recently issued Department Order No. 238, Series of 2023 or the “Rules on the Administration and Enforcement of Labor Standards pursuant to Article 128 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, as renumbered, and Republic Act No. 11058” (“DO 238-23”). DO 238-23 aims to strengthen the visitorial and enforcement power of the Secretary of Labor and Employment to ensure and maintain higher levels of compliance with respect to general labor standards, occupational safety and health standards, and other social legislations among various establishments across different industries.
Under Normative Rule 2,139, labor lawsuits will only need to be reported in the eSocial system starting July 2023. It may be understood that companies will not be required to include all ongoing labor lawsuits but only lawsuits with decisions no longer subject to appeal issued after the new July 2023 deadline, as well as those with impacts on employment obligations or tax, severance fund or social security payments.
Following the ruling issued on 8 June 2022, which determined that collective terminations require union involvement, Brazil’s Supreme Court has published on 25 April 2023 a new decision clarifying that such requirement applies to collective terminations implemented after 14 June 2022. The Supreme Court decision states that “prior union intervention is an essential procedural requirement for the collective termination of workers, which is not to be confused with prior authorization by the union or the signing of a collective agreement”.
In this fifth and final installment of ID&E IMPACT, our Labor and Employment team in the US and UK chat about what’s fueling the trending surge in pay equity audits, the risks and rewards, what organizations should keep top of mind in the pay equity review process, and what employers can expect as a result of the EU Pay Transparency Directive reporting requirement.
“Nearshoring” in Mexico is currently a hot topic for multinational companies considering moving business and manufacturing closer to home. COVID-19-era global supply chain disruptions and changes to the global economy are causing companies to reexamine their sourcing options and relocating to Mexico has much appeal. According to an analysis by the McKinsey Global Institute, in 2021, American investors put more money into Mexico – buying companies and financing projects – than into China.
This bulletin covers the period of October 2022 to March 2023 and includes a decision of the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) on the limitation period for bringing a Regulation 20 claim under the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999 and two interesting Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions considering: (i) whether the CAC has jurisdiction to hear complaints post Brexit where central management is situated in the UK, and (ii) whether the duty to inform and consult arises where collective redundancies are happening in multiple European Economic Area states but there is no common rationale for the redundancies.