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North American Edition
22nd June 2023
 
THE HOT STORY
Supreme Court decision could affect corporate diversity programs
U.S. companies are preparing for a Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action which could have implications for their hiring and other personnel decisions. The outcome of two parallel cases, which involve admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, won't directly affect employers' practices and policies, which are governed by a different statute than admissions. But lawyers and business leaders say they expect that any decision restricting or prohibiting race-conscious admissions could lead to more legal challenges to company hiring and promotion decisions, and more internal resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The uncertainty leaves employers in a bind as they try to address the possibility of discrimination lawsuits from supporters and detractors of their initiatives.
CYBERSECURITY
More than 100,000 ChatGPT credentials compromised, report says
A report by cybersecurity firm Group-IB says more than 100,000 user accounts of the popular artificial intelligence chatbot platform ChatGPT have been compromised over the last year using information-stealing malware. The report identified 101,134 compromised accounts, the credentials of many of which have been traded over the last year on illicit dark web marketplaces. At its peak in May, nearly 27,000 credentials of compromised ChatGPT accounts were traded on the dark web. The report warns that logs containing user information, including data on the IP addresses, are being actively traded on dark web marketplaces. Experts urge users to update passwords regularly and implement two-factor authentication for accessing their ChatGPT accounts. Users are also advised to disable the chatbot's chat saving feature from its settings menu or manually delete conversations immediately after use.
WORKPLACE
Employers change how they police drug use at work
One in six American adults now say they smoke marijuana, a share that has eclipsed the number of cigarette smokers. As a result, many companies are changing their policies on employee drug-testing and instead relying on managers to spot signs of drug-related impairment on the job. Approaching workers who appear under the influence is a delicate proposition, and managers are advised to look for behaviors they can document and to broach the issue with questions like, “I noticed you are slurring, stumbling—are you feeling OK?” Companies are also changing their drug-testing policies due to the current difficulty of finding enough people to hire. Rising social acceptance of marijuana has made it easier for some employees to use drugs on the clock without their bosses knowing.
LEGAL
NLRB: Starbucks broke labor law at shuttered Seattle store
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Starbucks violated fair labor practices at a now-closed store on Capitol Hill, by telling an employee they couldn’t testify at an NLRB hearing without securing shifts and by prohibiting union activities during company-paid breaks. Employees of the store at Broadway East and Denny Way were the first in Seattle to unionize in December 2021, and the votes were certified about three months later. Last December, Starbucks closed the store citing safety concerns. According to the NLRB ruling, the board subpoenaed barista Rachel Ybarra to testify after Starbucks contested the union elections. A manager threatened to discipline Ybarra if they attended the hearing without finding coverage for their shift. Additionally, a manager instructed Ybarra not to hand union pins to customers and co-workers. The board found that “Starbucks offered no evidence of special business circumstances that would justify such a prohibition.” It also could not point to its employee handbook to forgo a violation, the ruling said. The decision marks the board’s second time ruling on a Starbucks case in Seattle. It previously issued a decision about the Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill, in which it decided Starbucks unlawfully refused to negotiate with the union.
Apple found guilty of violating labor laws
A U.S. labor board judge has ruled that Apple violated labor laws by subjecting employees to coercive interviews and interfering with the distribution of union leaflets at a New York City Apple Store. The judge found that an Apple Store supervisor had improperly asked an employee about his discussions with other workers regarding wage levels and about the employee's opinion of unionization efforts across the company. Similarly, Apple managers had singled out union literature for removal and disposal that sometimes involved shredding pamphlets. The ruling requires Apple to “cease and desist” from activities that violate established labor protections and to post workplace notices in the company's name acknowledging the court's findings, informing employees of their labor rights and pledging that the company will honor them. Apple faces four other labor complaints now pending before National Labor Relations Board judges.
Maine Senate advances paid family and medical leave proposal
The Maine Senate has voted to advance a paid family and medical leave proposal, which would allow up to 12 weeks of paid leave for qualifying conditions, such as the birth or adoption of a child, a worker's serious illness, or care for a sick relative. The proposal would be funded through a payroll tax split between workers and employers and capped at 1% of wages. Companies with fewer than 15 employees would be exempt. The bill would cost $71m to implement and $12.7m per year to administer. The governor supports the concept of paid leave but needs to review the bill and changes that have been made.
STRATEGY
Uber cuts 200 recruiters
Uber has cut 200 recruiters, or 35% of its recruiting team, to save costs amid tougher economic conditions. The layoffs affect less than 1% of Uber's staff and follow smaller rounds of cuts across the company. Uber has cut hundreds of other jobs this year, largely in its freight unit and food-delivery operations overseas. Those cuts, combined with Wednesday's layoffs, collectively account for less than 3% of Uber staff. The company has more than 32,000 employees across the globe.
HIRING
Biden administration to ease visa renewal for Indian workers
The Biden administration is set to announce a pilot program that will make it easier for Indian citizens and other foreign workers on H-1B visas to renew their visas in the U.S., without having to travel abroad. The program is part of the administration's efforts to improve visa access for Indians and to strengthen ties with India. The State Department could announce the program as early as Thursday, according to sources. Indian citizens make up 73% of the nearly 442,000 H-1B workers in the U.S. The program would also include some workers with L-1 visas.
WORKFORCE
Spirit AeroSystems workers to strike
Spirit AeroSystems' plant in Kansas, which produces structures for Boeing jetliners, will go on strike on Saturday after workers rejected a proposed four-year deal. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced the strike.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
National test scores show striking drop in 13-year-olds’ math and reading scores
National test scores plummeted for 13-year-olds, according to new data that shows the single largest drop in math in 50 years and no signs of academic recovery following the disruptions of the pandemic. Student scores plunged nine points in math and four points in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often regarded as the nation’s report card. The release Wednesday reflected testing in fall 2022, comparing it to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic began. The 13-year-olds scored an average of 256 out of 500 in reading, and 271 out of 500 in math, down from average scores of 260 in reading and 280 in math three years ago. Achievement declined across lines of race, class and geography. But in math, especially, vulnerable children — including Black, Native American and low-income students — experienced bigger drops. “These results show that there are troubling gaps in the basic skills of these students,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which administers the tests. The new data, she said, “reinforces the fact that recovery is going to take some time.” 
INTERNATIONAL
Call for international investigation into PwC’s Australian tax leak
The chair of an Australian senate committee examining the leak of a confidential government tax plan by PricewaterhouseCoopers has urged an international investigation into the matter. Committee chair Senator Richard Colbeck’s 33-page report on the leak said the scandal "extended internationally" and recommended that other countries should launch their own investigations. "This was something that was being worked on, negotiated, globally," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind that other jurisdictions should be looking at this matter . . . it would be in their interests to do so." Australian tax authorities have found that Peter Collins, PwC Australia's former head of international tax, who was advising the federal government on laws to prevent corporate tax avoidance, shared confidential information with colleagues which was then used to pitch to multinational companies for work. PwC Australia has already listed in an unpublished letter to the senate committee at least 67 current and former staff who may have known of the 2015 leak of confidential government tax plans. But the senate committee’s report, titled "PwC: A calculated breach of trust", said PwC should go public with the full details of those involved and accused the firm of a deliberate cover-up over many years. "Is PwC's internal culture so poor that its senior leadership does not recognise right from wrong, and lacks the capacity to act in an honest, open, and straightforward manner?" the report said.
Japan enacts LGBTQ law amid controversy
Japan has enacted a law to promote LGBTQ understanding, but the discussions about the legislation did as much to entrench existing discrimination as encourage more open attitudes, reports Japan Times. The debate has fomented culture war arguments over entry by transgender people into sex-segregated spaces such as bathrooms and traditional public baths, and the version of the law that finally passed includes a clause pledging to “take heed that all citizens can live with peace of mind.” The clause’s inclusion has been interpreted as a show of deference to the feelings of the majority in a law originally conceived to promote an understanding of sexual minorities. The Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation said the clause is “capable of doing huge damage to the LGBT community” due to its potential for overriding progressive local legislation to ban discrimination. Minori Tokieda, a transgender woman and representative of activist group Rainbow Tokyo Kita Ward, said the new law “really narrows understanding, and propagates a one-sided idea of acceptance.”
Abaya controversy tests secular limits of schools in France
A reported increase in Muslim girls at French schools wearing abayas - long garments worn to comply with Islamic beliefs on modest dress but which occupy a gray area in relation to a 2004 law that bans the wearing of clothes or symbols revealing someone's religion in educational settings - has precipitated a debate about France's sacrosanct commitment to secularism in education. "They talk about 'modest dress', but it looks a lot like a Trojan horse of Islamist entryism," Le Parisien newspaper declared in an editorial. Haoues Seniguer, a lecturer at the IEP Lyon university, said abayas are "much more ambivalent than the headscarf." In Gulf Arab countries, they are "not fundamentally or initially a religious piece of clothing," he told AFP.
OTHER
Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
A high-profile expert on ethics and dishonesty is facing allegations of dishonesty in her own work and has taken administrative leave from Harvard Business School. Data bloggers claim they have found evidence of possible research fraud in several papers by Francesca Gino, a behavioral scientist at the business school. The publications under scrutiny include a 2012 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper on dishonesty that has already been retracted for apparent data fabrication by a different researcher. “That’s right: Two different people independently faked data for two different studies in a paper about dishonesty,” wrote behavioral scientists Uri Simonsohn, Joseph Simmons, and Leif Nelson on their blog, Data Colada, where they published the new evidence supporting their allegations.
 


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