Legislative changes and new regulations are back on track
Legislative changes and new regulations are back on track following parliamentary and governmental lockdowns due to the pandemic. These modified or new measures include provisions on how to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on both the economy and society.
In Zambia, recently adopted employment rules proved particularly problematic as the pandemic disrupted the country. The newsletter article on the situation highlights how a productive tripartite dialogue enabled the permanent amendment of the Employment Code Act to better align with Covid-19 response and recovery efforts.
In other news, regulations beyond the coronavirus crisis started to take shape in particular on remote working in Spain or on the integration into national law of the amended European Directive on Posting of Workers in Sweden.
This newsletter also reports on the outcome of a longstanding case with the Supreme Court of Spain. The case ended up deciding that riders of a delivery company are employees and not self-employed workers. This case has important and wide-reaching repercussions on the companies involved as well as the entire sector.
Finally, a good example of proactively addressing the impact of the coronavirus on jobs comes from Singapore. The national government is working with the social partners to “identify and develop job opportunities and skills training for Singaporeans amidst the COVID-19 situation”. As unemployment rises across the globe, Singaporean social partners are making every effort “to get Singaporeans hired through temporary assignments, attachments and traineeships to improve their skills while waiting for permanent jobs to open up”. To date, 95,000 new job or training opportunities have been created, offering much hope to people deeply affected by the crisis.