A technical meeting on decent and sustainable work in the inland waterways sector was held in Geneva from 20 to 24 November 2023 to discuss opportunities, challenges, and future actions.
Representatives from governments, workers, and employers adopted a set of conclusions and recommendations to guide ILO and its Member States, encouraging a strict collaboration with river and regional economic commissions.
The Charter stresses the value of social dialogue and collective bargaining and promotes and guarantees freedom of association for all employees in the workplace.
On 25 October 2023, the Gauteng High Court stated that Sections 25, 25A, 25B, and 25C of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 1997 (BCEA) relating to the minimum period of maternity, parental, adoption, and commissioning parental leave are invalid.
The Court found that these provisions unfairly discriminate between mothers and fathers and between parents whose child is born of the mother, as opposed to surrogacy or adoption parents, in violation of the rights to equality and dignity of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
The declaration of invalidity has to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court.
On 10 October 2023, Barilla, Italian excellence in the production of food products, announced the adoption of a new maternity and paternity leave policy, which will be implemented from 1 January 2024 worldwide.
The policy will guarantee 12 weeks of fully paid leave for each parent, regardless of gender, marital status, and sexual orientation.
As we reported last May, British Colombia adopted the Pay Transparency Act, which addresses systemic discrimination in the workplace and aims to reduce pay gaps affecting women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and non-binary people.
According to the Act, employers can no longer ask job applicants about what they were paid in previous positions.
From 1 November 2023, all employers in British Columbia must include pay ranges in job postings, prepare reports identifying systemic pay discrimination, and disclose pay information to employees and applicants upon request.
The Pay Transparency Regulation (BC Reg 225/2023) was released on 23 October 2023 and is now in force. It provides details on the mandatory contents of the remuneration transparency reports.
On 18 September 2023, the Government issued Decree No. 70/2023/ND-CP, amending, with immediate effect, Decree No. 152 on foreign employees working in Viet Nam, aiming to streamline the recruitment process of foreign workers.
On 9 November 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Article 7 of Directive 2003/88 on certain aspects of the organisation of working time, in particular annual leave, does not preclude national rules or practices that limit the entitlement to paid annual leave once an employee has returned to work after a long period of incapacity.
Long periods of illness, even consecutive ones can result in a worker's absence, which defeats the purpose of the leave itself, namely to help the worker rest and benefit from a period of relaxation.
Consequently, on his return, the employee has no absolute right to take it.
It aims to help employers comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and provides practical advice.