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Middle East Edition
20th May 2022
 
THE HOT STORY
Taliban says female TV presenters must cover their faces
The Taliban has ordered female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while on air. The ruling comes two weeks after all women were ordered to wear a face veil in public, or risk punishment. One female Afghan journalist working for a local TV station in Kabul, who did not want to be named, said she'd been shocked to hear about the decree. "They are putting indirect pressure on us to stop us presenting on TV," she told the BBC. "How can I read the news with my mouth covered? I don't know what to do now - I must work, I am the breadwinner of my family." The ruling will take effect from May 21st, Reuters news agency reported, quoting a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.
LEGAL
U.S. sanctions Lebanese businessman over Hezbollah links
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced new Hezbollah-related sanctions that target Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, the Lebanese businessman who is the Iran-backed group's financial facilitator, and his companies. Abdallah is a Hezbollah official and an active member of its global financial network, according to the Treasury. Hezbollah is classified by the U.S and other Western countries as a "terrorist organization."
Ex-employee must pay back salary following HR error
A worker who continued to receive her monthly salary for a year despite being terminated has been ordered to return the sum. The Abu Dhabi Court for Family and Civil Administrative Claims instructed the woman to return Dh52,415, which was mistakenly transferred to her account by the employer from September 2020 to September 2021.
WORKPLACE
The death of ‘forced fun’ in the office
BBC Worklife reports on how a complete overhaul of office culture has effectively ended the ‘forced fun’ of the pre-pandemic era, including mandatory monthly birthday celebrations, afterhours drinks and outings to obstacle courses.  Participation out of obligation creates a “corporate cult,” according to Paul Lopushinsky, founder of Vancouver, British Columbia-based consultancy Playficient, “where it’s almost indoctrination. You end up with fake smiles. ‘Oh yeah, of course, it’s great here, I just love these activities.’ It’s a culture of harmony with a lot of disharmony just below the surface.” Nevertheless, a new kind of work fun is increasingly important. Events that people actually want to attend are a helpful way to facilitate team bonding, and to give those who’d prefer to remain mostly remote a good reason to re-join their colleagues. Smart companies are working to identify the types of ‘fun’ workers actually like: the things they’ll show up for because they want to, not because their arm is twisted. 
HEALTH & SAFETY
Wellness and happiness top the corporate agenda
Trade Arabia reports on a forecast from CRTKL, a global cultural agency specialising in architecture, planning and design, that details the future of the workplace and hybrid work. "Whether in the gym, café, car, bar, beach or other – people want autonomy over how, when, and where they work," said Prodipto Ghosh, Principal at CRTKL, adding, "The UAE is a pioneer in the WFA landscape and took the third spot in the Mena region and 41st worldwide, ahead of France, New Zealand and the US, for the best countries for travel and remote working in 2022." He says the emphasis in the Middle East is on delivery of work rather than location. "However, what works for one group of people or one organisation in the region will not suit everyone, so the imperative is to establish a framework that allows the individual some autonomy while maintaining culture, knowledge sharing, productivity, and brand," he added.
STRATEGY
Saudi food delivery firm Jahez seeks to buy rival
Saudi food delivery firm Jahez has signed a non-binding pact to acquire The Chefz. Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition last year rejected Delivery Hero's takeover offer for The Chefz, which started out as an app that specialized in home delivery for fine dining restaurants before expanding its services. It competes against Delivery Hero's Hungerstation and Jahez, which is the biggest locally owned food delivery group in Saudi Arabia. Jahez made its trading debut in January.
INTERNATIONAL
Banks ordered to pull staff out of the City
The European Central Bank (ECB) has told eight unnamed banks to shift staff out of London, saying it has identified 56 groups of traders who should be doing their jobs from within the EU following an investigation into whether the institutions are seeking to dodge post-Brexit rules. An ECB exercise known as “desk mapping” found that the banks, which all have headquarters outside the EU, haven’t boosted sufficient local capabilities to manage their business in the region, people familiar with the process said, adding that part of the reason for the staff shortfall is a reluctance among senior executives to move from London to cities including Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris. The ECB’s review included US lenders such as Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, and also Barclays, HSBC and UBS, the people said. It is noted that the number of professionals leaving the City post-Brexit has been much smaller than initially predicted. EY estimates that around 7,000 roles have moved since 2016, far fewer than the 200,000 job losses that were forecast before the Brexit vote. 
Australia urged to intervene in Irish telco’s tax dispute with PNG
The Australian government is being urged to intervene in Irish telco Digicel’s tax dispute with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government in a last ditch attempt to sell its Pacific assets to Telstra. The shock $130m tax imposed on Digicel by PNG’s parliament in late March has put the Telstra deal in doubt. A recently lodged legal claim in the Supreme Court of PNG will argue that the legislation the PNG government is relying on to tax the company is unconstitutional as it was designed purely to target Digicel. Sources familiar with the matter said Digicel was escalating the matter to the International Arbitration Centre in Singapore in addition to filing documents in court. Digicel also wants the Australian government to make representations to the PNG government.
Pimco men sue over ‘fraternity’ culture
Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco) is now being sued by both men and women over a ‘fraternity’ culture that allegedly favours White males. Two men, a Black ex-employee and a former contractor who is Asian, say minority professionals at the US money management firm are less likely to be promoted, earn less for equal work and are often denied career-boosting opportunities. The company denies the claims filed in California’s Orange County Superior Court by Andre Dowtin and Patrick Kim.  “The lawsuits themselves are baseless and an affront both to PIMCO and to the facts,” Michael Reid, a Pimco spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “We pride ourselves on creating and fostering a safe, inclusive, and diverse community for all of our employees, with zero tolerance of discrimination in any form.” Reid observed that the pair had  previously attempted to attach their claims to earlier suits by women. Dowtin and Kim said in their suit: “PIMCO operates as a fraternity in a perversely literal sense . . . Senior male Caucasian managerial-level employees mentor young Caucasian male professionals, give them preferential assignments, introduce them to the investment firm’s powerbrokers, and groom them for membership in the investment firm’s leadership, even when their professional skills and qualifications are notably deficient.”
Swiss packaging company to cut 400 jobs in Ukraine
Swiss glass packaging firm Vetropack is to cut roughly 400 jobs in Ukraine in the wake of severe war damage to its Hostomel plant, northwest of Kyiv. Vetropack said it had continued to pay full salaries to its estimated 600 people there since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while releasing them from work duties, but damage from military activity has rendered the facility inoperable for the near future, and the group said it would need to let go roughly two-thirds of the workforce. “We are aware of the impact this step will have on our employees in Ukraine – but we see no alternative at the moment,” CEO Johann Reiter said, adding “In our estimation, it will not be possible to immediately resume our production in (Hostomel) - even if the war ends, which is currently not foreseeable.”
OTHER
Batelco honours top employees
Two Batelco employees who qualified for a youth leadership programme have been honoured by company chairman Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and other senior officials at the telecommunications firm. Customer experience manager Sana Mayoof and IT development specialist Walaa Radhi qualified for the next stage of the national project, ‘Lamea,’ which is sponsored by His Majesty King Hamad’s representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and implemented by the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry with other official agencies.
 


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