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European Edition
12th August 2022
 
THE HOT STORY
Europe’s meal couriers sweat amid heatwave
Couriers who are getting lunches and dinners to customers amid a heatwave in Europe typically don’t enjoy labour practices such as offering workers cold water, shade and extra paid breaks. Many of the workers in the meals delivery market are on freelance contracts and so such measures are not universally adopted or enforced. Glovo, Uber and Deliveroo follow a model whereby couriers are considered to be self-employed. Just Eat Takeaway, the largest European meals company, employs its own couriers in most markets. In a response to questions from Reuters, Glovo parent Delivery Hero said its "riders have the freedom to choose their shifts, can request a break at any time, and receive appropriate equipment for the season." The European Trade Union Confederation has renewed its call for the setting of a maximum working temperature - none currently exists. "It's surprising how few nations have rules," observed Juanita Constible of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an international environmental advocacy group. "I'm hopeful that as countries are grappling with what it means to live in a warmer world, they'll pay more attention to what workers need."
HIRING
Spain wants workers From Latin America
The Spanish government has relaxed rules to allow the recruitment of workers in other countries, mostly in Latin America, for both skilled and unskilled jobs that are hard to fill. Spain’s population will shrink by a third by the end of the century — and the situation is even worse without migration. “An aging population means you will have to depend more on foreign workers to help European countries maintain welfare states and pensions,” Social Security and Migration Minister Jose Luis Escriva, the architect of the reform, said.  “It is more of a medium-term problem, but this measure is designed with that horizon in mind.” Andreu Domingo, deputy head of the Barcelona-based Centre for Demographic Studies, nevertheless cautioned: “These measures are a good step, but they don’t address the real problem . . . It doesn’t change an economic structure based on low productivity with low wages that will lead to a constant demand for low-skilled workers.”
UK finance urged to hire more working class managers
A UK government-sponsored report has said the UK’s finance industry should set "stretching targets" for appointing people from working class backgrounds to senior positions. A taskforce commissioned by the government and led by the City of London Corporation said that 49% of all levels of seniority in the finance industry were from a professional background, rising to 64% for senior leaders. For the UK population as a whole, 37% of working people are from a professional background. The survey also found white men from a professional background account for 45% of senior roles, compared with 23% for their female counterparts while just 13% of senior roles are filled by white men from working class families. "This data provides a robust baseline by which the sector can begin to track its progress on socio-economic diversity and address gaps," said Catherine McGuinness, who chaired the taskforce. "We urge firms to collect data, set stretching targets and ensure they provide a level playing field for all."
The 'boomerang' employees who return after quitting
BBC Worklife reports on the growing number of workers who are going back to companies they left, including Calgary, Canada based HR professional Chris, who departed his job for a rival firm, only to became a ‘boomerang employee’ two years later, when he returned to the same company as before, but in a stronger position than when he left. “Some companies had formal policies banning rehires,” observes JR Keller, an associate professor of human resource studies in the ILR School at Cornell University, New York, about previous stigma around such job hopping. “Hiring managers were worried that bringing these employees back suggested they were rewarding disloyalty, that it would encourage others to leave.” But now, in the tight labour market, “recruiters are . . . having to think of new ways to widen their talent search. The perfect candidate may well be a former employee: you never know when someone wants to come back,” explains Nicola Thomas, talent manager at UK based digital marketing agency iCrossing, who says she keeps tabs on past employees as a source of recruitment.
LEGAL
Progress on narrowing gender pay gap in UK's energy industry is slow
Data analysed by law firm Pinsent Masons show 97 employers working within the UK energy sector have reported their gender pay gap for the year 2021-2022. A study of the data by the firm reveals that of the electricity or gas suppliers which have reported, women are paid approximately 16% less per hour than men - roughly on par with other industries - while in the oil and gas companies that reported there was a median gender pay gap of approximately 20.2%. Lisa Byars, a senior associate at Pinsent Masons, said: “Most oil and gas operators have been showing a year-on-year improvement on GPG since reporting began in 2017, with several companies reporting improvements of up to 5%. However, despite some notable improvements, progress across the industry is generally slow.” She went on to say that the transition to net zero has the potential to provide a new range of jobs for women, but a study by PwC found that men can expect to get twice as many new jobs than women in the energy sector. “This needs to be addressed quickly to avoid the historic gender imbalance within the sector being carried through the energy transition.”
CORPORATE
Companies push car fleet managers toward EVs
Corporate clients chasing environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals are increasingly pushing firms that lease and manage car fleets to convert to electric vehicles (EVs). France-based fleet management company ALD, a unit of Societe Generale, has set a new goal that around 50% of its new vehicles will be either EVs or hybrid models by 2025, deputy chief executive officer John Saffrett told Reuters. Corporate clients are “all sitting there trying to figure out how they’re going to meet their sustainability objectives,” Saffrett said. “An obvious part of their footprint today that they’re trying to address is their vehicle fleet.” He added: “The challenge you have with electrification as a corporate is you can’t just switch drivers on day one . . . You’d love to, but it simply doesn’t work.”
REMOTE WORKING
Home-working is a trap for women
Writing for Bloomberg, Anne Helen Petersen says the additional flexibility and perks offered by remote working arrangements are undeniable gains for many women, but open up a space that is quickly filled with responsibilities that were once more equally distributed. Extra flexibility “becomes a blessing and a burden for women in the contemporary American workplace. It makes family life much easier. But it can also default into a far more regressive division of labour than either member of a couple intended.” The author notes the findings of Deloitte’s 2022 Women at Work survey, in which 53% of the 5,000 women surveyed reported higher levels of stress than a year ago.
TECHNOLOGY
Meta's chatbot says the tech giant 'exploits people'
Meta's new prototype chatbot – called BlenderBot 3 - has told the BBC that Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg exploits the platform’s users for money. When asked about what it thought of Mr Zuckerberg, the bot replied "our country is divided and he didn't help that at all . . . His company exploits people for money and he doesn't care. It needs to stop!" A Meta spokesperson explained that the chatbot was a prototype and might produce rude or offensive answers. "Everyone who uses Blender Bot is required to acknowledge they understand it's for research and entertainment purposes only, that it can make untrue or offensive statements, and that they agree to not intentionally trigger the bot to make offensive statements," the spokesperson said. BlenderBot 3's algorithm trawls the internet to inform its answers, and it is likely its views on Mr Zuckerberg have been "learnt” from other people's opinions that the algorithm has analysed.
INTERNATIONAL
Young workers hit hardest by lockdowns, ILO says
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said the job prospects of young workers have been hit hardest by the pandemic and the legacy of Covid lockdowns, with dire consequences for the long-term future of the global economy. “Young people were especially affected because firms that survived the crisis sought first and foremost to retain workers, while new recruitment collapsed,” the ILO said. “In addition, young workers were less likely to have the seniority and types of contracts marking them out for retention by employers, and hence were more likely to lose their job. Moreover, government‑sponsored job retention schemes, where they existed, were less effective in protecting young workers.” The ILO also observed: “The mass influx of refugees from Ukraine is creating further pressure for the labour market and social protection systems in neighbouring countries, while the deterioration of the Russian economy could exacerbate employment challenges in Central Asia.”
Former JPMorgan traders cleared of racketeering, found guilty of fraud
A trio of ex-JPMorgan traders have been acquitted of racketeering and conspiracy charges in a landmark futures manipulation trial. Two of them were however found guilty on other charges including fraud, a Department of Justice spokesperson said. Reuters says the case against the bank's former global precious metals desk head Michael Nowak, precious metals trader Gregg Smith and salesperson Jeffrey Ruffo is seen as the Justice Department's most aggressive to date targeting the manipulative futures trading tactic known as spoofing – the placing and then quick cancelation of orders to falsely create an impression of high demand or supply. The three defendants were accused of using the tactic to manipulate precious metals futures between 2008 and 2016. The practice was outlawed in 2010 when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act after the financial crisis. Prosecutors have argued that earlier instances constitute fraud.
Chinese court rejects high-profile #MeToo appeal
A court in Beijing has rejected an appeal over sexual misconduct claims made by Zhou Xiaoxuan, one of the leading figures of China’s #MeToo movement. Ms. Zhou accused Zhu Jun, a well-known state television presenter in China, of sexually harassing her when she was an intern. He sued her that year for defamation in response, and Ms. Zhou in turn took her sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Zhu to court. A court dismissed the case last year, citing a lack of evidence, and an appeals court has now again rejected the case. “The evidence submitted by Plaintiff Zhou was insufficient to prove that Defendant Zhu had committed sexual harassment against her, and the appeal request could not be established,” according to a statement by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. The Wall Street Journal observes that the case is unusual for the way that Ms. Zhou has challenged a Chinese household name who is closely tied to the state through his work at China Central Television.
 


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