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Middle East Edition
22nd June 2021
 
THE HOT STORY
Most UAE companies have experienced cyberattacks targeting remote workers
Almost 80% of UAE-based organisations have experienced cyberattacks due to more employees working remotely, according to a poll from VMware. The fourth instalment of VMware’s Global Security Insights Report was based on the responses of 3,542 CIOs, CTOs and CISOs from around the world, including 250 in the UAE. Ahmed El Saadi, Regional Director of Sales, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, VMware, observed: “Complexity is the enemy of security. This means organisations can’t see into the corners where personal mobile devices and home networks have been grafted to corporate distributed IT infrastructure through insecure technologies such as VPNs. It is vital, therefore, that organisations gain visibility of their networks through cloud-based technologies such as SASE (Secure Access Services Edge). Having infrastructure than can provide a security operations centre, with robust situational intelligence, will give context to threats and help prioritize potential targets and remediate risk with confidence.”  
WORKFORCE
Saudi Arabia has improved its Global Labor Resilience
The 2021 Global Labor Resilience Index (GLRI), compiled by public policy and strategy advisory firm Whiteshield Partners in partnership with the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School and the Institute for the Future of Work, indicates a dramatic improvement in Saudi Arabia's overall ranking, reports Arab News. The GLRI identifies the countries that are best placed to cope with labour market disruptions and those which can turn such challenges into opportunities. Saudi Arabia is placed 62nd in this year's list, and has moved up the ranking by 27 places since 2016 and improved its position by 13 places compared with last year.  “Being the Arab world's leading economy and maintaining economic stability have laid the foundation for improvement,” Tom Flynn, a senior manager at Whiteshield Partners, said. Switzerland is the most resilient labour market in the world, according to the GLRI, followed by Germany and The Netherlands. A new framework was used to measure resilience this year, meaning that the US (ranked 14th) and the UK (12th) no longer feature in the top 10.
REMOTE WORKING
The workers pushing back on the return to the office
Employers are beginning to unveil their post-pandemic visions for work, but pushback movements from employees who are keen to retain their work-from-home privileges are bubbling up. Localised protests may be indicative of more widespread resistance among workers to revert to pre-pandemic patterns, reports Brian O’Connor for BBC Worklife.  Employees may well feel they've proved they can be productive at home – and that the reasons companies say they want them back in the office don't stack up. For example, Apple’s pre-pandemic policies discouraged remote work, and early in June, CEO Tim Cook sent out a company-wide memo telling staff they would be required back in the office by early September. But post-Covid-19, the tech company’s employees are challenging what they call “a disconnect between how the executive team thinks about remote/location-flexible work and the lived experiences of many of Apple’s employees.” Kimberly Merriman, professor of management at the Manning School of Business at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, observes:  “A few numbers really reach far. Companies should be concerned when any number of employees complain like that [the Apple case]. It can escalate and give an impression, even if it’s a small number of employees, that this is the tone of the organisation.”
HIRING
Israel’s hi-tech start-ups are on a hiring spree
Hundreds of start-ups around the Tel Aviv area, Israel’s hi-tech heartland, are currently looking to hire, reports the Jerusalem Post. The firms have raised more than $10.8bn in investment capital since the start of the year, and are set to raise more than twice as much as a year ago. But there are 13,000 open positions that cannot be filled, and 60% of Israel’s hi-tech firms say they are having difficulty hiring for R&D positions, according to a recent report by the Israel Innovation Authority and Start-Up Nation Central.
Mall of Oman will create 3,500 jobs
The Mall of Oman, to be opened by Dubai-based mall developer Majid Al Futtaim in September, is expected to create 3,500 job opportunities. The property development company will also support the upskilling of Omani nationals by preparing them for a potential career in the retail industry through the ‘Tamheen’ initiative in partnership with The Retail Academy. "We . . . look forward to pairing our Tamheen graduates with our latest retail partners in time for the opening, providing new job opportunities to many,” said Husam Al Mandhari, Director of Shopping malls in Oman at Majid Al Futtaim Properties.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Bumble to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break
Bumble, the dating app where women are in charge of making the first move, has temporarily closed all of its offices this week to combat workplace stress. Its 700 staff worldwide have been told to switch off and focus on themselves. Bumble has had a busier year than most firms, with a stock market debut, and rapid growth in user numbers. Senior executive Clare O'Connor revealed on Twitter that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd had made the move "having correctly intuited our collective burnout." Ms Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman, at 31, to take a company public in the US when she oversaw Bumble's stock market debut in February.
INTERNATIONAL
Hong Kong ahead of London and NY in bid to get bankers back in the office
London and New York are falling behind Hong Kong in the race to get bankers back in the office, with Morgan Stanley already having 70% of its Hong Kong workers back at their desks and Credit Suisse around 70%. JP Morgan plans to reach that same office occupancy in the coming weeks, while Bank of America aims to reach full office capacity in Hong Kong by the end of this month. An HSBC spokeswoman said the bank's Hong Kong headquarters was now open for all staff to return but that people could choose between working from office and home. “I hated working from home,” said a sales banker at HSBC. “I missed being able to chat with my colleagues all the time for leads and gossips. It was not fun at all at home.”
Spanish government welcomes bank efforts on job cuts
Efforts by banks in Spain to reduce the number of initially planned layoffs after talks with unions have been welcomed by a government minister. Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said she hoped Caixabank and unions will reach an agreement regarding plans by the lender to cut more than 7,500 jobs. “I appreciate that the restructuring processes are being carried out in a negotiated way, in some cases an agreement has been reached and in others an agreement with the workers’ representatives is getting closer.” She also urged banks to explore new paths to profitability. “If the sector is to return to a path of profitability (...) we need banks to deploy new and profitable business areas,” Calvino said, without saying what these might be. BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank, has reached an agreement with unions to lay off 2,935 employees. The bank was to initially cut 3,798 jobs.
Labour law architect says rules mustn’t impede growth
Tito Mboweni, South Africa’s current finance minister and the architect of many of the country’s labour laws, says it may be time to review them to ensure they aren’t impeding economic growth. He has said that when he served as the first post-apartheid labour minister from 1994 to 1998 “we made a number of mistakes that need to be attended to . . . To what extent are some of the labour policies we put in place acting as binding constraints?” [and] How do we make sure that our labour laws don’t impinge on the ability of small and medium enterprises to function effectively?”  Bloomberg notes that South Africa’s labour laws have been both praised and criticised for protecting workers rights and discouraging hiring in a country where a third of the labour force is unemployed - in part because of their rigidity.
US Supreme Court sides with food giants in child labour suit
The US Supreme Court has sided with Nestlé and Cargill in a lawsuit that claimed the companies knowingly bought cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labour. The justices ruled 8-1 in favour of the food companies and against a group of six adult citizens of Mali who claimed they were taken from their country as children and forced to work on cocoa farms in neighbouring Ivory Coast. Justice Clarence Thomas said: "Although respondents' injuries occurred entirely overseas, the Ninth Circuit held that respondents could sue in federal court because the defendant corporations allegedly made ‘major operational decisions' in the United States. The Ninth Circuit erred by allowing this suit to proceed."
OTHER
London and New York are the world's top cities for the ultra-rich
London and New York are the most important cities for ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) to live, invest and do business, according to Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report. The two cities rank joint first in the Knight Frank City Wealth Index, ahead of Paris in third position. London was ranked highest in terms of lifestyle and shared top spot with New York in terms of policies toward UHNWIs. Henry Faun, Partner, Knight Frank Private Office, Middle East observed, “Given the established appeal of London as a cultural and business hub, ease of language, attractive educational system and weaker Pound Sterling in recent years, we see Middle Eastern demand for Prime London homes continuing in future years.”

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