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North American Edition
23rd June 2021
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THE HOT STORY
Morgan Stanley to bar unvaccinated staff
Morgan Stanley's staff and clients will be barred from entering the lender’s New York offices if they are not fully vaccinated against Covid. Unvaccinated employees will need to work remotely, according to a person familiar with the matter. The policy comes into effect next month, in a move designed to allow the lifting of other Covid-related rules. Last week, the investment bank's chief executive called on workers to return to the office. An internal memo said: "Starting July 12 all employees, contingent workforce, clients and visitors will be required to attest to being fully vaccinated to access Morgan Stanley buildings in New York City and Westchester." The BBC understands the move will allow the company to remove restrictions in offices on face coverings and social distancing. The policy currently operates on an honour system, but the bank may later decide to require proof of vaccination status. Morgan Stanley had already implemented so-called "vaccine-only" workspaces in some departments, including institutional securities and wealth management.
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REMOTE WORKING
Nokia will allow staff to work remotely for three days a week
Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia says its employees can choose to work up to three days a week remotely with increased support for flexible working hours from January. The company’s current remote work policy ends in December. “The pandemic forced organisations to change. Technology gave people the tools to innovate. In many cases, the results have been too good to go back to the old way of doing things,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said. The company earlier this year announced  plans to shed as many as 10,000 jobs within two years to reduce costs and enable more investment in research capabilities. Nokia, which had about 92,000 employees in 130 countries at the end of last year, also plans to redesign offices to allocate up to 70% of the space in some sites to teamwork and meetings, with less area reserved for workspaces. Offices in Dallas, Singapore and Budapest have already been reconfigured.
WORKFORCE
Exxon workers dread performance reviews
Reuters reports that workers at Exxon Mobil are dreading the latest round of employee performance reviews because they consider the evaluations to be a precursor to stealth layoffs. The assessments are expected to assign about 5% to 10% of the U.S. oil major’s workforce to performance improvement plans that can precipitate forced departures for employees who cannot meet management goals, according to a person familiar with the process. The reviews, which are expected to continue into July, have been a feature at Exxon “for several years” and are “entirely unrelated to any workforce reduction plans,” spokesperson Casey Norton said.
Teamsters plan to unionize Amazon workers
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 1.4m workers in 500 unions in the U.S., will vote on Thursday on a landmark resolution to make its highest priority helping Amazon workers achieve a union contract. It is also planning pressure campaigns involving work stoppages, petitions and other collective action to push Amazon to bargain over working conditions and meet worker demands. “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters recognizes that there is no clearer example of how America is failing the working class than Amazon,” the resolution reads.
HIRING
Kohl's keen to hire 5,000 new associates
Kohl's is holding a hiring event at stores across the country from Thursday to Saturday, with the aim of hiring 5,000 new associates for both full- and part-time positions. The retailer is trying to increase staff at its existing stores and recruit associates for new stores opening later this year. The retailer will open two stores in Texas and others in South Carolina and Georgia in October. Kohl's is also in need of associates to staff the new Sephora at Kohl's locations opening in 200 stores this fall. 
REGULATION
NYCBA publishes framework on charging compliance chiefs
Chief compliance officers in the financial sector would get more clarity on their exposure to regulatory charges under a framework proposed by the New York City Bar Association.  It lists a dozen factors that should be present to bring charges, and three mitigating factors that would weigh against such charges. Questions that regulators would be asked to consider under the framework include whether charging a compliance officer would help the SEC’s regulatory goals and whether a CCO made a good-faith effort to fulfill job responsibilities. A mitigating factor would be if a CCO voluntarily disclosed and actively cooperated with regulators. Current and former compliance officers said the proposal is a good step forward that could help clarify expectations for both regulators and the industry. But without changes at the corporate level, many compliance professionals will continue to face liability dilemmas in their day-to-day work. 
LEGAL
Smithfield Foods accused of false meat shortage warnings
Meat processor major Smithfield Foods is being sued by a consumer advocacy group, which alleges that the firm misled the public when it raised an alarm over possible meat shortages in spring 2020. Smithfield temporarily closed some of its facilities as workers got sick with COVID-19 early on in the pandemic. Then-chief executive Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement announcing the closure of Smithfield's Sioux Falls plant that the country is "perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply". Food and Water Watch's case argues that the nation was never in danger of running out of meat, and that there were ample supplies in cold storage, while at the same time pork exports to China, in particular, were surging. “This fear mongering creates a revenue-generating feedback loop,” Food and Water Watch said in its lawsuit. “It stokes and exploits consumer panic — juicing demand and sales — and in turn, provides the company with a false justification to keep its slaughterhouses operating at full tilt."
INTERNATIONAL
German publisher tells anti-Israel staff to quit
Axel Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner has told employees at the Hamburg-based media company that they can leave if they don’t support its pro-Israel stance. The publishing giant had flown an Israeli flag outside its headquarters during the Israeli offensive on Gaza in May. Mr Doepfner said in a video call with staff worldwide: "I think, and I'm being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after anti-semitic demonstrations, should look for a new job. "After these weeks of terrible anti-semitic demonstrations,” he said, referring to pro-Palestine demonstrations in Germany in the aftermath of the May offensive, “we at our building headquarters said next to the European flag, and the German flag, [and] the Berlin flag, let's raise for one week the Israeli flag as a gesture of solidarity. We do not accept these kinds of aggressive anti-semitic movements.” German-Jewish writer Fabian Wolff said: "The German media’s approach [to Israel] is not centred on Jews or how to best combat antisemitism. It’s more about making Germans feel good about themselves."
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.
OTHER
More than 5m people become millionaires despite pandemic
A report from Credit Suisse reveals that the pandemic has been a boon for the rich, with aggregate global household wealth rising by about $28.7trn to $418.3trn after cheap money inflated asset prices. While many poor people became poorer, the number of millionaires increased by 5.2m to 56.1m globally. In 2020 more than 1% of adults worldwide were millionaires for the first time. Anthony Shorrocks, economist and author of the Global Wealth Report, explained that if asset price increases, such as house price rises, were removed from the analysis, "then global household wealth may well have fallen," adding "In the lower wealth bands where financial assets are less prevalent, wealth has tended to stand still, or, in many cases, regressed."

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