Work/Life: international employment news update

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Issue 92

Welcome to the latest edition of our international employment news update.

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United Kingdom

UK employment tribunal fees could be reintroduced

Employment tribunal fees, ruled unlawful by the UK Supreme Court in 2017, could soon be reintroduced. The UK government has launched a consultation on reviving the fee system, proposing to charge claimants GBP55 per claim. For cases involving multiple claimants, the fee would be split between them. The same fee would be paid for appeals.

The proposals are at a significantly lower rate than the unlawful tribunal fees: simple Type A claims like underpaid holiday pay had a GBP160 issue fee and GBP230 hearing fee, while more complex Type B claims like discrimination had a GBP250 issue fee and a GBP950 hearing fee. Hearing fees would not be reintroduced under current proposals.

There was a sharp decrease in claims when fees were initially brought in, with a moderate sustained rise after their abolition in 2017. The consultation is open until 25 March 2024.

The UK's Labour Party plans for more gender-equal financial services

Labour last week unveiled its plan for financial services, engineered in part by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq. The agenda places an emphasis on bolstering the success of women "at all levels across the sector," stating: "We cannot neglect the talents of half the workforce."

The roadmap aims to address the gender pay gap (which stands at 26.6% in financial services, compared to 12.1% across the wider UK market), improve diversity and inclusion (citing a study that revealed companies with more diverse workforces outperform less diverse counterparts by 29%) and banish "outdated and prescriptive" rules at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

UK comes a global second for AI-driven HR

The use of AI in HR is snowballing, and the UK is at the forefront of the changing scene. A recent IBM study has found that 41% of UK companies leverage AI as part of their HR practice, from recruitment efforts to performance evaluation. The UK placed second overall in the worldwide take-up of AI-powered HR, with India taking the top ranking, and the US coming in third. The news comes amid calls for greater regulation of the technology, particularly due to concerns staff aren't adequately informed when AI is being deployed on their job applications or performance reviews.

Top performers and millennials bristle at mandatory office attendance

Enforced attendance in the office is, if not a deal breaker, then a deal dampener for UK employees. According to one survey, employees’ “intent to stay” diminished by 8% upon introduction of strict office attendance rules. That figure rose to 10% for millennials and 16% for top performing employees, who expressed a heightened resentment at a mandated return to the office.

Research suggests that top performers view the policy as a sign of employer mistrust, despite strong performance throughout the pandemic and remote working beyond it. Meanwhile, millennials were found to have more concretely customised their lifestyles to suit hybrid working than their Gen Z counterparts, while those at the upper end of the demographic were more likely to have caring responsibilities.

28% of foreign workers in Germany face discrimination at work

A survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found that foreign workers in Germany are facing high levels of discrimination. Germany is often lauded as a desirable destination for skilled international workers, though recent findings reveal a more sinister undercurrent. The OECD surveyed 30,000 highly qualified people interested in moving to Germany, and of the 5% who made the move (around half of whom worked in IT or engineering), 28% were discriminated against at work. Those on the fence about making the move have identified fear of discrimination as a barrier to entry, along with lengthy visa waits.

Reform plans in France from the new Government

On 30 January 2024, Gabriel Attal, newly appointed as Prime Minister, set out broad outlines of his programme. From a labour law standpoint, there are two main goals:

to enable low paid workers to benefit from higher earnings and lower income tax. To achieve this, professional sectors will be forced to review their wage grids and the tax and social security system will be redesigned to avoid various threshold effects that render increases pointless.
after the summer, "a new stage" in the reform of Labour law initiated in 2017 will be implemented. The measures to be taken will aim at simplifying everyday life for small and medium-sized companies, notably by reducing timeframes, raising the thresholds for employer obligations and suppressing some rules. To this end, greater space will be given to company-level bargaining.

Gender imbalance in Dutch board rooms is too pronounced, says Social and Economic Council

Despite recent years of growth, the number of women in the board rooms of top Dutch companies is not increasing fast enough, reports the Netherlands' Social and Economic Council (SER). Noting that Dutch companies' boards of directors comprised 14.7% women in 2022, up a modest 0.9% from 2020, the advisory council called the gender imbalance a "persistent fact".

Better balance is achieved among Dutch supervisory boards, which comprised an average of 26.2% women in 2022. This development may have been ushered along by a governmental quota which provides that at least one third of listed companies' supervisory boards should be made up of women. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the gender imbalance varies across industries: companies in the culture, sports and recreation sphere have most women in senior positions, and those in construction, the least.

Booking.com must participate in travel sector pension fund, rules Dutch court

The Court of Appeal in the Hague has ruled that travel platform Booking.com must participate in a travel industry pension scheme. The site maintains its principal function is as a technology platform which does not get actively involved in the agreement between accommodation providers and travellers, but the Court considered via Booking.com's articles of association, annual financial statements, website and general terms and conditions that the firm is materially involved in providing overnight accommodation. Booking Holdings, the platform's parent company, has estimated the additional cost will amount to EUR405 million.