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North American Edition
25th November 2022
 
THE HOT STORY
Apple works with Foxconn to address worker concerns at Zhengzhou plant
Apple says it is working to resolve employee complaints at the world's biggest iPhone factory in China, after police were filmed beating protesting employees at the plant this week and employees began an exodus Thursday. A team from the US company is at Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, and is in talks with its largest contract manufacturer to address the worker complaints that led to the violent protests. “We have Apple team members on the ground at our supplier Foxconn’s Zhengzhou facility,” the Cupertino, California-based technology giant said. “We are reviewing the situation and working closely with Foxconn to ensure their employees’ concerns are addressed.” Labor groups have criticized Apple for failing to adequately protect the rights of workers at the vast Zhengzhou site. Workers have clashed with police following delayed bonus payments and conditions at the facility, which has been contending with an outbreak of Covid-19 for more than a month. Foxconn has blamed “an input error in the computer system” that occurred during the onboarding process that resulted in new hires receiving contracts intended for existing workers. The company said it guaranteed new hires will be paid what was agreed and in line with official recruitment posters. Foxconn has also offered a 10,000 yuan payment, equivalent to $1,400, to newly-recruited workers who wanted to leave their jobs and return home, according to text messages seen by the Wall Street Journal.
WORKFORCE
Amazon faces Black Friday protests in 40 countries
Thousands of Amazon warehouse workers in about 40 countries are planning to take part in protests and walkouts to coincide with Black Friday sales. Workers in the U.S., U.K., India, Japan, Australia, South Africa and across Europe want better wages and working conditions as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. A campaign called “Make Amazon Pay” is being coordinated by an international coalition of trade unions alongside other civil society groups. “It’s time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary for UNI Global Union, one of the campaign’s organizers. “While we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing on these important matters you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously,” Amazon spokesman David Nieberg said.
Latest weekly jobless claims jump to 240,000
First-time weekly claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 240,000 for the week ended November 19th, according to data from the Department of Labor,  a sharp increase from the previous week’s upwardly revised tally of 222,000, and surpassing economists’ expectations of 225,000. It’s the highest weekly total since August 13th, according to Labor Department data. Continuing claims, which count people who have filed for jobless aid for at least two weeks in a row, rose to 1.55 million for the week ending November 12th, an eight-month high.

 
CNN
HIRING
EY is sifting millions of resumes as recruitment surges
EY expects to sift through more than three million resumes this year as the firm moves to recruit around 220,000 people in the twelve months to July 2023, Trent Henry, the firm’s global vice chair for talent, has said – and that’s before a potential break-up of its auditing and consulting divisions takes effect, which could further boost a hiring drive that reached about 160,000 in the 2022 financial year, Bloomberg notes. EY is using automation to help its recruitment professionals and match candidates to job postings, Henry said. Bloomberg says the growth in recruitment underlines the continuing boom in demand for professional services, even as other industries are affected by lay-offs. “While there is a cooling off in the job market overall, accountancy has stood up pretty well,” observes Simon Wingate, managing director at job search website Reed UK. “If you look at traditional comparators like banking or legal, accountancy is by far and away the biggest in terms of job postings on our website.”
TECHNOLOGY
Domino's invests in EVs to combat labor shortage
For certain of its locations in the United States, Domino's Pizza is investing in electric vehicles in an effort to entice drivers and combat a labor shortage that has hampered pie deliveries across the board this year. The world’s largest pizza chain announced that it would buy 800 Chevrolet Bolts with the Domino's logo for 37 of its own stores and hundreds more operated by its U.S. franchisees. Domino's said that it would start using the branded trucks this month and that, following the initial round, it expected to place additional orders with the General Motor division. Domino’s said that store owners can let employees use the cars for pizza delivery as a way to help recruit new drivers, some of whom don’t have their own vehicles for work. As part of an operational review, Domino's found that shop owners identified cars as an impediment to getting enough delivery workers. The Wall Street Journal notes that the move is part of U.S. companies’ broader embrace of electric vehicles. Amazon has said it plans to deploy a fleet of EVs, FedEx has started operating electric vans, and Tesla said it plans to deliver its first electric semitrailer truck to PepsiCo next week. Uber, which has struggled with its own driver shortage, is also making an EV push.
CULTURE
Adidas investigates claims of 'toxic' behavior by Kanye West
Adidas has launched an investigation into reports that rapper Kanye West created a "toxic environment" when he was working with the brand. Some workers on the Yeezy collaboration claim that he showed them explicit pictures and videos as part of bullying tactics. In a letter, they said bosses were aware of West's "problematic behavior" but "turned their moral compass off". Adidas said it did not yet know whether the allegations have any merit. "It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true," the company said in a statement. "However, we take these allegations very seriously and have taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations." West, who was dropped by the company last month after he posted anti-Semitic comments online, has not responded to story.
LEGAL
Twitter says layoffs lawsuit lacks merit
Twitter has told a federal judge in San Francisco that a proposed class action lawsuit claiming the company violated U.S. law by laying off thousands of workers without notice is baseless, and has moved to send the claims to arbitration. On Monday, the company said it had complied with legal obligations by telling employees who were laid off that their last day would be January 4th, or more than 60 days later. Twitter said a pending motion by the plaintiffs to force it to notify laid-off workers of the lawsuit before asking them to sign severance agreements had only caused confusion and delayed severance payments, and asked a judge to reject it.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
AICPA scheme looks to help talent 'crunch'
The signing of Liberty Bank, Aon and HP to the Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners Program has been announced by the AICPA and the Department of Labor. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said that the program aims to cultivate highly engaged candidates for employment in financial jobs and expand the pool of qualified professionals. It “will help ensure diverse, skilled teams are ready to fill financial jobs.” Tom Hood, executive vice president of business engagement & growth at the AICPA, said that the program “establishes a cohort of employees that a finance leader can develop and monitor over time to greatly increase the chance of developing a highly engaged, more skilled, long-term employee.” Under the program, the employer will select and hire apprentices and provide on-the-job training and mentoring. The employer will communicate with the AICPA on trainees' progress and offer feedback on the effectiveness of the program.
STRATEGY
Grant Thornton launches change management app
Grant Thornton has released its empower.x application, which guides entities through organizational changes. It will be used by the firm's professionals, leveraging data to provide a range of capacities related to internal organizational matters for their clients. "Change at an enterprise level can be hard, slow and unpredictable," said Jennifer Morelli, a principal in the business change enablement practice at Grant Thornton: "This makes empower.x an ideal application to streamline the change process. When combined with Grant Thornton's change management experience, the application helps clients achieve a goal that is simple to define, but confoundingly elusive in practice: effectively manage change."
INTERNATIONAL
German Catholic Church updates its labor laws
The Catholic Church in Germany, which employees around 800,000 people, has amended its labor laws so that individuals can no longer be fired for being in a same-sex relationship or remarrying after divorce. Previously, employees of the church could lose their jobs if they were open about being in a same-sex partnership or if they remarried after a divorce. "Explicitly, as never before, diversity in church institutions is recognized as an enrichment," the German Bishops' Conference announced, adding that "all employees can, independently of their concrete duties, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their sex, their sexual identity and their way of life," be representatives of a church that "serves people."
Comfort food coaxes staff back to the office
Cheap meals at work can be a way for employees to offset daily living costs, and London’s employers are using subsidized food to coax workers back into the office, according to the chief executive officer of catering company Compass, which is seeing more of its client companies offering subsidized meals as “one of the levers to bring people back.” Dominic Blakemore said “There’s a lot of comfort food” alongside a focus on health and wellness. “We still have fish and chips on Fridays and chicken katsu curry is becoming one of the most popular items on the menus.”
OTHER
Fifth Avenue is now the world's most expensive shopping district
As rents rise above pre-pandemic levels, a portion of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is now the most expensive shopping street in the world. According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield, space on Upper Fifth Avenue, between 49th and 60th streets, garners some of the highest average rents. The corridor rose from second place in a ranking of shopping districts around the world before Covid struck to first place as a result of the area's resiliency amid the pandemic downturn and the strength of the U.S. dollar. Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district was the second most-expensive spot, followed by Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, London’s New Bond Street and the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris. In the U.S., rents for retailers are now 25% above pre-pandemic levels. The average price for a spot on Upper Fifth Avenue in New York climbed 14% from before Covid hit, according to the report. The Asia-Pacific region and the EMEA area have yet to fully bounce back from the downturn. Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui area is seeing rents 41% below pre-pandemic levels.
 


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