Talking Work

In this episode, lawyers from the UK, the US, Denmark and Hong Kong discuss some of the benefits of the new ways of working that have emerged from the pandemic, along with some of the challenges. For instance, is greater flexibility always a plus? What about the right to disconnect? And how has gender equality been affected and how have people with disabilities fared? Our panel discuss these issue...

Chile is getting a new president and his views about how employment should look are very different from those of his predecessors. We talk to Marcela Salazar, partner in our Chilean law firm, to find out what’s likely to happen, as the new president takes office on 11 March. If you’d like to contact Marcela Salazar, click here for her details. Our host, Deborah Ishihara, can be found here . Talkin...

How does the law protect women in India and what is the legacy of #metoo? We ask Debjani Aich, partner at our Indian member firm Kochhar & Co., to come on the podcast to discuss these things and to tell us what her clients are doing to promote equality in their workplaces. Discover the Diversity series page here . Read more about the D&I monitoring survey here . If you’d like to contact De...

Burkard Göpfert from our German law firm joins us today to talk about restructuring and focuses on some of the ways to avoid the pain of workforce reduction. We also look at the challenges for unions in representing remote workers and whether employers need to provide them with electronic means of contacting workers. Listen in for this and more. Read more about the New Workplace, restructuring and...

How can businesses build back after Covid in a way that enables them to deal with the large-scale challenges ahead? Burkard Göpfert from our German law firm gives us some insights. We ask him what environment sustainability means for the practice of HR and find out about rules in some countries that require businesses to check the ethics of their supply chains. Read more about the Resilience repor...

In this episode we are joined by Jovita Valatkaitė from our Lithuanian firm, to hear her update on what’s happening in Lithuania. She describes several issues to do with pay, including a hike in the minimum wage, reflecting inflationary pressures. If you’d like to contact Jovita Valatkaitė, click here for her details. Our host, Deborah Ishihara, can be found here . Talking Work is a podcast by Ius...

There are new rules in the UK that will affect what trustees of pension schemes invest in – and the rules could help in the fight against climate change. Trustees must now identify the climate risks of investment opportunities, provide metrics and state what they are doing publicly – opening their choices up to the scrutiny of stakeholders and activists. But the UK approach is not the only way to...

What are the key workplace issues in Mexico at the moment? David Puente Tostado from our Mexican law firm, Basham, Ringe y Correa tells us about teleworking rules, vaccination, collective bargaining and changes to the profit-sharing rules. On the international side, he talks about the two cases being brought against Mexico by the US for alleged failure to comply with the terms of the trade agreeme...

What economic and health measures introduced by governments in response to Covid-19 have been the most successful? Join this interview with Bettina Schaller, head of group public affairs in the Adecco Group, to examine what worked well for some countries and what didn’t work so well for others, based on a report co-authored by Ius Laboris and the Adecco Group for The World Economic Forum. Read mor...

What are the forces driving changes to the employment landscape and how can we quantify and evaluate them? James Davies, partner at our UK law firm, has written a report identifying 8 drivers of change and 8 emerging themes. He’s also come up with some predictions about where we’re headed. Join us to hear his fascinating insights. Read more about the 8 drivers here . If you’d like to contact James...

Exactly what happened in 2021? We talk a look at the employment law trends from across the world with our guest, Marco Sideri, partner at our Italian law firm. We also think about how many of the changes are likely to last beyond the COVID era. Join us to find out. Discover the Review of 2021 article here . Read more about The New Workplace here . If you’d like to contact Marco Sideri, click here...

How might climate change shape employment law and practice in future? We take a look at this weighty question today, with one of our most interesting thinkers, James Davies, from our UK law firm, Lewis Silkin. Join us to hear some fascinating insights. Discover the Climate emergency, work and employment law article here . If you’d like to contact James Davies, click here for his details. Our host,...

What will the world of work look like once we start moving beyond Covid? For many people, it will have changed forever. In this episode we talk to Sophie Maes, of our Belgian law firm, Claeys & Engels about our major report into ‘The New Workplace’, covering all the issues that are top of mind for employers now, along with some that have been less-well explored so far in the media. The report...

We talk today to Anastasia Petrova about how employers should conduct internal investigations in Russia: what steps to take in advance, how to deal with data privacy issues and crucially, in these days of home working – how to conduct the investigation remotely. Discover The New Workplace, investigations page here . Find our Workplace Investigations series page here . If you’d like to contact Anas...

The Social and Economic Committees, which are the employee representative bodies in France, now have a new remit to scrutinise the environmental implications of projects planned by employers. Arnaud Teissier, partner in our French firm, CAPSTAN Avocats, gives us the low down. Find Arnaud Teissier’s article here . Discover the article on sustainable corporate governance in the EU here . If you’d li...

The unions have faced some difficult challenges during COVID and in this episode we talk to David Hopper, partner in our UK law firm, Lewis Silkin, about how they have tried to meet them. We also think about future challenges: how to motivate young people to join; how to deal with technological advancements and how to stay relevant when other, newer, pressure groups start moving into their space…...

In this episode, Alexander Ulrich of our German firm, Kliemt HR Lawyers, explains all about our new digital tool, which enables employers to find what legal obligations they have based on their employee headcount. It turns out that headcount matters for lots of reasons: health & safety, trade unions and redundancies, for example. You can choose any of 30+ countries, tell the system how many em...

COVID-19 has also taken a toll on the mental health of many employees. While some people are dealing with feelings of isolation when working from home, others can find it hard to switch off from work. In this episode, we discuss these twin issues with the Italian Chair of our international Expert Group on health and safety, Stefano de Luca Tamajo. If you’d like to contact Stefano de Luca Tamajo, c...

The 6 main parties taking part in the German Federal elections have set out their ideas and in this episode, we take a look at their plans for employment. Till Heimann from our German law firm, Kliemt HR Lawyers, joins us to explain what they each envisage. If you would like to contact Till Heimann, click here for her details. Our host, Deborah Ishihara, can be found here . Read Till Heimann'...

US attorney Dawn Siler-Nixon talks to us about how the new US administration is putting a big focus on the rights of LGBTQ+ people at work. According to Executive Orders issued by President Biden: ‘Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love.’ We look at what federal agencies are now required to do and wh...

If you can’t measure it, how can you improve it? If you want to increase the diversity of your workforce, you first need to know if you are allowed by law to ask your employees diversity questions. In some countries you can, but in others you can’t. In this episode we ask Ben Favaro, data privacy specialist from our UK law firm, Lewis Silkin, about the results of our international survey into dive...

We invited Karen Baxter from our UK firm, Lewis Silkin, and Síobhra Rush from our Irish firm, Lewis Silkin Ireland, to discuss internal investigations and the new EU Whistleblowing Directive that comes into effect in December. Karen takes us through a scenario in which an employee is accused of sexual harassment by another employer and shares tips on how to avoid any...

Having worked remotely during the pandemic and traveled a little during the holiday season, many people are starting to wonder what it would be like to work abroad on a more permanent basis – particularly in a sunny country. We invited Inês Reis, partner at our Portuguese member firm pbbr, to tell us about relocating to work from home in Portugal. If you would like to contact Inês Reis,...

Board members in Germany cannot currently suspend their mandate temporarily in case of pregnancy, sickness or to care of a sick family member. However, this is about to change as a result of the initiative #stayonboard. Joining us is Jessica Jacobi, partner at our German firm Kliemt HR Lawyers and one of the initiators of #stayonboard, along with one of her co-ac...

Pride Month is coming to a close, but we still have more to discuss about LGBTQ+ equality at work... We invited Debjani Aich, partner at our Indian member firm Kochhar & Co., to tell us about equality in terms of transgender rights, as Indian law now protects the 'Third Gender'. We also discuss the impact of #metoo in India and what India has been doing in relation, for example,...