This edition reports on the first International Labour Organisation (ILO) Global Forum for a Human-centred Recovery. The Forum brought together heads of State and Government, heads of international organisations and multilateral development banks, and employers’ and workers’ leaders from around the world to propose concrete actions to strengthen the international community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
We also look ahead to the World Employment Conference 2022 to be held in Brussels on 31 May. It will focus on the radical changes in the labour market, the need for a more efficient world of work, and greater links between workers and businesses.
Next we report on social dialogue in Bangladesh that successfully strengthened the role of safety committees in garment companies and the action that the European Commission has taken against member states for non-implementation or late implementation of the Whistleblowing Directive.
An Eurofound report entitled Collective labour disputes in the EU shows the need to share information, outcomes and data on labour disputes at the EU level to develop more accurate and relevant statistics.
We move on to highlight the growing phenomenon of freelancers in Africa who may also work remotely, and an initiative by an Indian company to pay employees on a weekly instead of monthly basis, to provide them with greater financial liquidity.
We focus on several developments across the globe including in Peru where a new law has severely restricted the possibility of outsourcing, excluding for activities that constitute the company's core business, while in Taiwan amendments to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment have been introduced to reduce gender discriminations.
In Hong Kong, a new law has clarified issues related to the pandemic and the management of the employment relationship, such as vaccinations, absences due to quarantines, illnesses, and dismissals, to reduce litigation on these matters.
We also report on the amendment of the Cooperation Act in Finland, concerning consultations between employers and employees to facilitate open dialogue in the workplace, and the proposal of a labour reform in Belgium that aims to a greater flexibility and introduces, among others, a four-day labour week.
Interesting court decisions have also recently been made in Germany where the Labour Court awarded a work-related injury to an employee who was working from home and fell down the stairs. In Uruguay, the subordinate nature of the relationship between riders and platform was declared. Finally, in Turkey the Constitutional Court stated that the employer violates the employee’s privacy and freedom of communication if, without prior information, he accesses WhatsApp conversations on the company computer and uses them as the basis for a dismissal.