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European Edition
19th January 2022
 
THE HOT STORY
Taking office chair home is not a sacking offence, German labour court rules
A German labour court has ruled that taking an office chair home in a pandemic is not a sacking offence. The plaintiff - the legal adviser of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne - took the ergonomic office chair without asking after being told to work from home by her employer. The judge said that while it was a clear transgression, it was not one that justified her dismissal, and he deemed that the termination of her contract was unjust.  The attorney for the archdiocese had argued that the chair was an "object of considerable value" and that taking it was "illegal." The judge found that the necessary equipment had not been made available to employees when the archdiocese instructed staff to work from home in most circumstances early in 2020.
WORKFORCE
Leonardo reaches agreement with unions on furlough for Aerostructures workers
Italian aerospace group Leonardo has agreed on a deal with unions to furlough staff at its Aerostructures unit in response to a drop in orders for commercial aircraft parts caused by the pandemic. Unions protested last year when the group sought to put more than 3,000 workers under a temporary lay-off scheme for 13 weeks. After talks with unions, Leonardo has agreed to furlough more than 2,000 workers for 13 weeks at four plants in southern Italy which employ more than 4,000 people in total.
Unemployment rate in UK falls to 4.1%
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data show that the UK unemployment rate dropped from 4.5% to 4.1% between September and November. The figures reveal that unemployment fell by 184,000, with the number of people on the payroll climbing to 30 million. Analysis shows that the employment rate was estimated at 75.5%, lower than before the pandemic but higher than in the June to August period. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, noted that the number of employees on payrolls is “now well above pre-pandemic levels.”
LEGAL
Fired manager accuses Deloitte of defrauding VW and a #MeToo cover-up
A manager fired by Deloitte’s German business after raising concerns about alleged misconduct has accused the consultancy of defrauding Volkswagen and ignoring sexual harassment allegations against senior staff.
STRATEGY
EU reconsiders clearing access deadline
The EU has climbed down from a deadline to pull European finance firms’ access to London clearing houses. Brussels is now planning on extending temporary permits allowing banks, brokers and fund managers on the continent to use UK clearing houses until June 2025. Mairead McGuinness, the European commissioner for financial services, said the extension of the deadline will prevent any “short-term cliff-edge effects” stemming from financial market volatility. Conor Lawlor, managing director for capital markets at UK Finance, said: “Given the interconnected nature of financial markets and the important role that UK clearing houses play, this decision provides needed certainty for EU and global customers and clients accessing the UK’s clearing infrastructure.”
N. Ireland manufacturers make ‘significant’ post-Brexit strides
Manufacturers in Northern Ireland have made “significant” strides towards adjusting to new trading arrangements that were imposed after Brexit, according to a survey by Manufacturing NI, the region’s trade body.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Skills shortages demand ‘grow your own’ training approach
The FT says the pandemic has given organisations more confidence in the value of virtual training, which can remove the biggest challenge of retraining for employers - accessing resources and funding.
TAX
Push to implement global tax deal encounters hurdles
Bloomberg reports that Sweden, Estonia, Malta and Bulgaria are warning that the European Union's agreed timeline on the implementation of a minimum corporate tax - to put new tax structures into effect by next year - is too ambitious, according to an EU official briefed on the discussion who added that Estonia, Malta, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary want progress conditioned to the other element of the global deal concerning taxation of digital multinational companies. “The political dynamics of the deal were always delicately balanced,” observes Bloomberg of Europe’s prioritisation of the digital part of the deal, while the US pushed the minimum tax.
US lawmakers seek to strip IOC of tax-exempt status
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) would be stripped of its federal tax-exempt status under legislation that could be proposed this month. USA Today reports that the proposed legislation has bipartisan support and is in response to the IOC’s refusal to challenge China on human rights abuses. Because the IOC is based in Switzerland, however, tax attorneys and economists say that, depending upon how the legislation is written or interpreted, the organization could find loopholes that would continue to allow it to avoid paying US taxes. "If Switzerland did it, it would have a whole different effect," said Victor Matheson, a specialist in sports economics and professor at Holy Cross. "But why not? The IOC, along with FIFA, are probably the two least-deserving companies in the world deserving of charitable status." The US has already announced a diplomatic boycott of next month’s Winter Olympics, which begin February 4th in Beijing.
SUSTAINABILITY
BlackRock's Larry Fink wants companies to value more than profits
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has defended so-called ‘stakeholder capitalism’ in his annual letter to CEOs. The head of the world’s largest asset manager rejected suggestions that an investor focus on the interests of wider society rather than profit is “woke,” writing in his missive, entitled The Power of Capitalism, “It is not a social or ideological agenda . . . It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers and communities your company relies on to prosper.” He urged his fellow CEOs to find a purpose and to take into account issues like climate change as part of stakeholder capitalism. Meanwhile, Fink said that companies can no longer expect employees to come to the office five days a week, neglect workers' mental health and keep wages low for those at the lower end of the income scale. "No relationship has been changed more by the pandemic than the one between employers and employees. CEOs face a profoundly different paradigm than we are used to," he wrote in his closely watched annual communication.
Maersk plans to become net zero a decade ahead of its initial target
Danish shipping giant Maersk says that, alongside its whole supply chain, it will become net zero by 2040, a decade before the company’s initial 2050 target. Maersk has set both near and medium-term targets to aggressively cut its environmental impact, including a 50% reduction in emissions per transport container and a 70% reduction in absolute emissions from fully controlled terminals. The company said that by 2023 it will have the world's first liner operating on green methanol, and a year later 16,000 TEU vessel will be capable of using the green technology. “The science is clear, we must act now to deliver significant progress in this decade,” said Maersk CEO Soren Skou. “Our updated targets and accelerated timelines reflect a very challenging, yet viable pathway to net zero which is driven by advances in technology and solutions.”
TECHNOLOGY
Furhat has made a play for Misty
Swedish robot developer Furhat Robotics has acquired Colorado-based Misty Robotics to establish a US base. Stockholm-headquartered Furhat, which has developed a social robot with human-like expressions that can converse with people autonomously using AI technology, will oversee a partial integration of ‘Furhat' and ‘Misty' features to enhance future social robots. Furhat has recently partnered with a Swedish recruitment firm to offer candidates job interviews performed by a robot that it is said is free from unconscious biases. “We know that in the next few years the robotics market will be worth billions, and service robots reflecting the best of human behaviour will be at the centre of it,” said Furhat chief executive and co-founder, Samer Al Moubaye.
INTERNATIONAL
Women should take their rightful place at the decision-making table, UN official in Dubai says
Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, has told an audience at Expo 2020 in Dubai that women should never have to apologise for being at the decision-making table and should use their power and position to confront biases and gender discrimination. Speaking about her own experience, Mohammed said: "There is a lot that might have prevented me (as a woman),” adding “It still holds you back . . . the male-conscious bias in a room where you are chairing a meeting, and then suddenly the men around the room [are] having [a] meeting without you. I mean, it is still happening." Reem Al Hashimy, the UAE's minister of state for International Cooperation, who also attended the same panel discussion about the urgency of implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs), said without women at the heart of policy decisions, countries cannot make progress on such targets.
HSBC splits Hong Kong team to manage Covid risk
HSBC has split its Hong Kong team to different locations to manage quarantine risks amid what the lender sees as a threat to business continuity as the financial hub tightens its Covid policy to contain a fifth wave of infections. “The risk we now face is not merely about being infected by Covid-19, but most importantly being 1st, and 2nd level close contact and being taken to government quarantine for 14 and 4 days,” HSBC wrote in an email to staff. “We are trying to protect staff from this risk and to continually be able to support the business.” The bank has split its global markets division into three. A group of about 190 people are working at its main office on Queen’s Road Central, a team of about 65 people are at an office in Shek Mun, and a third team of about 200 are working from home. Other international banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, have also tightened work rules at their Hong Kong offices and moved to split teams.
T Rowe Price’s Bill Stromberg on building the right culture
The FT speaks with Bill Stromberg, the former CEO of Baltimore-based asset manager T Rowe Price, about an “unusual” level of fatigue in the sector that has drawn attention to company culture.
OTHER
Switzerland tests digital currency payments with top investment banks
The Swiss central bank has successfully used digital currency to settle transactions involving five commercial banks. The pilot in wholesale markets by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), called Project Helvetia, could bring the introduction of central bank digital currencies a step nearer in Switzerland. The SNB has overseen some of the most advanced central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiments in Europe. "We have demonstrated that innovation can be harnessed to preserve the best elements of the current financial system, including settlement in central bank money, while also potentially unlocking new benefits," said Benoit Coeuré, head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, which also took part in the trial that demonstrated that it was possible to instantaneously execute payments, ranging in size from 100,000 to 5 million Swiss francs ($109,469 to $5.47m), eliminating counter-party risk.

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