After the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Framework invalid in October 2015, multinational companies with employees in the EU are facing the question how to legally transfer personal data. Current developments in the process of the proposed EU-U.S. Privacy Shield result in further uncertainty for companies relying on transatlantic data flows.
Employee Data Protection in the EU is subject to major changes, notable to multinational companies with employees in the EU.
A few days ago, after 4 years of negotiation, the European Parliament adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). As it is planned to be effective in 2018, companies should be aware that they only have two years from now to prepare for compliance.
In the heady days of the Coalition Government, gender pay gap reporting started to get some traction on the political agenda. This led to the 2011 initiative ‘Think, Act, Report’ which encouraged employers to voluntarily publish gender pay gap information. According to a Guardian article in August 2014, citing a parliamentary question from the shadow Equalities Minster at the time, 200 companies signed up to the initiative but only four of those ever published any data. £90,000 of public money later and we were clearly no further on.
Asia Employment Law Update
Proposed Regulations May Complicate Reductions in Force in China
On December 31st, 2014, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (“MOHRSS”) issued a notice to solicit public opinions on the draft Regulations on Personnel Cutbacks by Enterprises (“Draft Regulations”). The Draft Regulations set out detailed implementing rules for “mass layoffs” (defined under the Labor Contract Law as being a layoff of more than 10% of the workforce or more than 20 employees) and, if adopted in their current form, will further complicate the process for conducting reductions in force in China.
Welcome to the second edition of Orrick World: A Quarterly Report of Global Employment Law Issues for Multinationals. We have designed this newsletter to provide our multinational clients with quarterly updates on important employment law issues across the globe.
