28 Jul 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of our International Employment newsletter – designed to ensure that those of you dealing with HR at an international level are kept up to date on important and interesting changes to employment laws in some of the key business nations. 

When compiling these newsletters, one of the most fascinating for us, is seeing the diverse nature of the issues faced by businesses across the globe and the differing approaches that are taken to tackle these issues. In a multinational company, this can be trying to keep things consistent across multiple jurisdictions at one end of the scale, to localising everything – at the other end of the scale. However, over the past few months, one single issue – unlike any we have seen before – has impacted both employees and employers across the globe. We are of course referring to COVID-19.

Given the gravitas of COVID-19, we have dedicated this entire issue to this topic. However, we know that there is already a lot of useful material out there about some of the real time issues – furlough, government schemes, lay-offs, restructuring, navigating remote working and health and safety. This issue touches on some of these issues, however, in addition our contributors  have shared their insights into how the pandemic has already changed the landscape of the workplace in their countries. Many have also looked into their “crystal balls” to anticipate what the longer term impact of COVID-19, is likely to be, on working arrangements in their country.

Our hope is that these insights help, as many of us start to take a breath and think about the future opportunities, not just work out how to fire fight the immediate issues. What is clear in many cases, is that the immediacy of the rush to implement measures to curb the spread of the pandemic is unlikely to be matched by a sudden return to “business as usual”. As such, this has given employers time to think about how working arrangements may work best in the “new normal”, for the benefit of both employer and employee alike.

If you wish to discuss an employment law issue in one of your countries, please do not hesitate to contact us or your usual contact at Taylor Vinters, or ask about what extra value we can provide you through our international ONE model.

Our thanks go to all of those who contributed to this special edition.

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