The latest business Intelligence for HR professionals and people managers everywhere
Sign UpOnline Version
North American Edition
24th September 2021
Together with

THE HOT STORY
Starbucks claims workers lack right to unionize at store level
Starbucks workers shouldn’t have the right to vote for a union on a café-by-café basis, the coffee chain has argued to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). “The facts and the law do not support holding individual and separate elections,” Starbucks attorney Alan Model said in his opening statement at a hearing held by the agency amid efforts by workers in Buffalo, New York, to organize. He argued that, because of similarities among the stores, any labor vote should include employees at all 20 of the company’s Buffalo-area locations, meaning the union would need backing from a majority of participating workers across the region in order to win. His comments follow August petitions by employees at three Starbucks locations in the Buffalo area to join Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The union has signaled it has support at additional stores but isn’t currently seeking elections there. The campaign calls itself “Starbucks Workers United.” In order to overcome the labor board’s usual presumption that an election among just one location’s employees is legitimate, companies employ strategies like “centralizing the control of labor relations” among various locations to prove that a larger voter pool is more appropriate, said Mark Pearce, who was chairperson of the NLRB under President Barack Obama.
OVERCOME OPEN ENROLLMENT CHALLENGES

Open enrollment season has become more challenging for HR professionals

Open enrollment has been made even more challenging by recent struggles to work remotely and reopen safely. Employees will invariably turn to their HR team for guidance and support while companies continue to rely on HR teams to help employees understand and get value from their healthcare benefits. Making employees comfortable with their care provider is an essential duty — helping employees become more satisfied with their health insurance can increase their satisfaction with the company. We’ve outlined the four main challenges HR faces when it comes to managing employee healthcare benefits and how to solve them.
Download Our Open Enrollment Ebook


 
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
Biotech is behind on diversity
The search for vaccines and palliative treatments precipitated by the pandemic has increased interest in biotech and led to a hiring surge, but women and people of color are still underrepresented at the senior levels of the industry, according to a survey. In a poll  by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), an industry group, of its member companies, BIO and Coqual found that women make up 47% of total employees, but only 31% of executive teams and 23% of CEOs. Meanwhile, people of color account for 32% of the overall workforce and 21% of executive teams and 24% of CEOs. Joseph Panetta, CEO of the life-sciences association Biocom California, observes: “That needs to change if we’re going to benefit from the richness of experience and talent that could come with having a more diverse representation.”
LEGAL
Uber to backdate pensions for U.K. drivers
Uber is to pay out millions of pounds in missed pension payments to U.K. drivers dating back as far as 2017 under a deal with the country's retirement savings watchdog. Uber added that its private hire drivers would now be auto-enrolled on to a scheme through which it would contribute 3% of earnings into a pension pot. Drivers can choose to contribute up to 5% of qualifying earnings but will be able to opt out. Uber has been forced to pay pensions and offer other benefits such as holiday entitlement to drivers after the Supreme Court ruled in February that they should be classified as workers, not contractors. The judgment is thought likely to set a precedent for similar platforms. Mick Rix, national officer of the GMB labor union, which agreed a recognition deal with Uber in May, said: “Uber’s pension scheme is a massive step in the right direction and will no doubt help thousands of drivers as they reach retirement age. GMB urges other platform-based operators to follow Uber’s lead.”
California sued over solar power installer rule
The California Solar and Storage Association has filed a lawsuit against the state over a new requirement that installers be “certified electricians.” The case asks the Superior Court of California in San Francisco to overturn the rule change and allow the current training standards to remain in place for those who install increasingly popular solar panels and battery systems. “This is devastating to California's solar industry and the state's ability to build a clean energy future,” Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the association, said. “What they're saying is, this stuff is so dangerous that only certified electricians can do it. We don't have any evidence, a shred of evidence, that there's a problem.” The rooftop solar industry is also fighting with utility companies in California over the compensation that consumers receive for the electricity their systems provide to the electric grid. Utilities want to add more fees while cutting the credit consumers receive, known as net metering, by as much as 80% from the current dollar-for-dollar benefit. The net metering issue is under review by the California Public Utilities Commission.
REMOTE WORKING
Pandemic skewed view of remote work
Dr. Alexandra Samuel, a technology researcher who has worked remotely for 18 years, says remote working during a pandemic is not necessarily indicative of remote working per se. She writes: “For those who look at the past year and a half and say they aren’t cut out for remote work, my advice is not to throw in the towel just yet. Maybe it wasn’t remote work you hated. Maybe it was the pandemic.”
WORKFORCE
Weekly jobless claims total 315,000
Jobless claims climbed slightly last week but remained near pandemic lows, as demand for workers keeps a lid on layoffs. The Labor Department said that initial unemployment claims in the seven days to September 18th rose by 16,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 351,000 from a revised 335,000 the prior week, reaching their highest since the week ended August 21st. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a decrease to 320,000 new applications. Continuing claims for state benefits increased to 2.8m in the week ended September 11th. California saw claims rise by 24,221, and Virginia saw an increase of 12,879, by far the biggest increases last week. Louisiana saw the biggest decrease, as the state recovers from Hurricane Ida. “What we’re seeing is a labor market that continues to get better but we’re still dealing with high levels of unemployment,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at Pennsylvania-based PNC Financial Services Group. He projects that at the current pace of job growth and labor market recovery, unemployment claims will reach pre-pandemic levels some time in mid-2022.
HIRING
Target to hire 100,000 seasonal workers this holiday season
Target plans to hire 100,000 seasonal workers this year, fewer than last year, to prepare for the holiday season at a time when the industry grapples with tight labor supply. Instead of hiring more seasonal workers, the company said it will offer more work hours to existing employees during the busy period, resulting in about $75m more across its payroll. “We are offering more hours to team members who want them”, Melissa Kremer, the company’s chief human resources officer, said in a statement. “We have worked to provide our team members with more consistent schedules, which means more consistent pay and a more consistent way to manage their life". Retailers and restaurants have been offering pay raises and other incentives to retain staff, with many worried that they will not have enough workers during the holiday shopping season, which starts a day after Thanksgiving and continues into early January.
TECHNOLOGY
Pandemic was proof of concept for automation of routine office jobs
The pandemic has acted as proof of concept for the adoption of software robots designed to ease routine office work and paved the way for corporate technology leaders to make the case for expanding their robotic process automation efforts, reports the Wall Street Journal. Daniel Dines, UiPath’s co-founder and chief executive, says: “Widespread adoption requires cooperation between CIOs and line-of-business leaders . . . And this technology has been proven in the past two years.” Up to 40% of organizations world-wide increased their use of robotic process automation in response to the pandemic, according to estimates from technology research firm International Data Corp.
iPhone features aim to help detect depression and cognitive decline
Apple researchers are developing technology to help diagnose depression and cognitive decline. Sensor data around mobility, physical activity, sleep patterns, typing behavior and more could help identify digital signals associated with the target conditions so that algorithms can be created to detect them reliably. Apple has announced research collaborations with the University of California, Los Angeles, to study stress, anxiety and depression, and pharmaceutical company Biogen to study mild cognitive impairment.
TAX
Big Four lawyers take government gigs to shape tax rules
Tax lawyers from U.S. accounting and consulting giants do short stints at the Treasury Department to craft favorable tax policy for their former corporate clients, then return to their firms to receive promotions and pay increases, according to a recent report from the New York Times. The publication says that, in the last four presidential administrations, there were at least 35 instances of round trips from the big accountancies to the Treasury Department’s tax policy office, as well as the IRS and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, and then back to the original firm. In at least 16 of those instances, the professionals were promoted to partner.
INTERNATIONAL
EY announces almost 1,000 new jobs for Irish cities
EY has announced plans to create 816 new jobs across five counties in Ireland. This announcement will bring the headcount for EY to over 4,200 across the island of Ireland. 606 of the roles will be Dublin-based, while the remaining 210 roles will be located in Cork, Galway, Belfast, Limerick and Waterford. Commenting on the move, Frank O’Keeffe, Managing Partner, EY Ireland, said: “Our plans […] reflect the continuing strong growth of EY across the island of Ireland and the evolution we’re seeing amongst our client base. The fundamental changes brought about by the pandemic, coupled with wider macroeconomic headwinds and shifting business models, have created increased demand for our services as we help our clients tackle their most complex business challenges.”
Credit Suisse poaches Deutsche banker
Deutsche Bank’s Israel Fernandez has been snapped up by Credit Suisse to lead its financial institutions group (FIG) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Responsibilities will be shared with Julien Lamm, according to a memo seen by Reuters, which notes that the new leadership structure comes as Switzerland’s second-largest lender seeks to fill key investment banking roles left vacant by a talent exodus earlier this year following a series of scandals that have badly damaged employee morale.
OTHER
The next delivery of YOUR HR PLANNER will be with you on Sunday.

Due to the popularity of webinars and events in our industry the team at The Human Times has designed YOUR HR PLANNER to share relevant events, both upcoming and on demand.

Exciting events from Visier and others will be detailed.

We hope it will assist in the professional development of the HR sector.

Look out for it this Sunday!

 

The Human Times team is delighted to announce an exciting new referral program that enables our readers to earn access to in-depth HR-related analysis reports and a free annual subscription to the World of Work database - a 5 year searchable archive of all Human Times content categorized by topic, sector, region and geography, usually costing $250. 

To find out more see our latest Referral Program page for details...

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Email
WhatsApp

or, simply copy your own referral link to share with others

https://industryslice.com/subscribers/dbc8cfad-6689-4447-aeb1-9bd98d0a2b61?rh_ref=[[data:sl_referralcode]]

PS: You have referred [[data:sl_referralscount:"0"]] people so far

The Human Times is designed to help you stay ahead, spark ideas and support innovation, learning and development in your organisation. The links under articles indicate original news sources. Some links lead directly to the source material. Others lead to paywalls where you may need a subscription. A third category are restricted by copyright rules. For reaction and insights on any stories covered in the Human Times, join the discussion by becoming a member of our LinkedIn Group or Business Page, or follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFollow us on Linkedin

This e-mail has been sent to [[EMAIL_TO]]

Click here to unsubscribe