International Employment Law Map

February 05, 2024

By Paul Hastings Professional

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MAPPING THE TRENDS: THE GLOBAL EMPLOYER UPDATE 2024

5 February 2024

Executive Summary

Successfully navigating the complex and dynamic international employment landscape is more challenging than ever in today’s global marketplace. The latest edition of our guide, “Mapping the Trends: The Global Employer Update 2024,” provides updates on the key employment law developments across 79 jurisdictions to help our clients manage their global workforces. Our report is compiled from feedback from our local employment law counsel network around the globe who see the key issues and trends in their jurisdictions. After all, local realities impact global strategies.

Top 3 Global Trends for 2024

1. Money, Money, Money

This year it has been unusual to see all aspects of pay and benefits being called out by so many of our local counsel around the globe. These range from equal pay and pay transparency in the EU, Canada, South Africa and the United States, to increases in minimum wages in over 20 jurisdictions and debates about pay adequacy, termination benefit reforms in Bahrain, the UAE and Spain, creative pay solutions in light of inflationary pressures and flexible benefits in Venezuela, Brazil and Belgium, and early and old age pension reforms in France, Chile, Japan, Turkey and Zambia. There are some obvious legislative drivers in the EU with the transposition of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive and the proposed Pay Transparency Directive, but also remuneration reforms across many of the surveyed jurisdictions in Africa and, more widely, government responses to economic headwinds. A broader analysis of these measures suggests that their effects are largely in favour of the employees, and consequently employers are shouldering the bulk of an even heavier financial burden in 2024.

2. Boosting Economic Growth Through Family-Friendly Measures

In 2024 we see a real trend of governments around the globe taking legislative steps to improve family-friendly measures, for both parents and those with caring responsibilities. This may be because it is the right thing to do, but equally we know that a lever for economic growth and increased productivity is improving the rates of labour market participation of working parents and their effectiveness when at work. These measures vary from greater availability of flexible working arrangements, improved maternity, paternity and parental pay, leave and protections, mandatory obligations to provide childcare facilities at or near the workplace, tax breaks for childcare costs, and support for those with caring responsibilities. This trend in legislation has been identified by local counsel across all of the surveyed regions: in Europe, this is flagged in Austria, Denmark, Lithuania and the UK; in Asia, by local counsel in China and Pakistan; in Africa, there are new developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius; for the Americas, in Argentina, Ecuador and Puerto Rico; in the Middle East, by Jordan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; and for Australia. Only Austria bucks this trend of greater protection, ironically, it chose to reduce its existing parental leave entitlement when implementing the EU Directive No. 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers. Given all of these changes, we recommend that the global employer revisits their local policies and benefit plans to take account of the expanded rights and in some cases new family-friendly rights, as we start 2024.

3. The Dynamic World of Work

In 2024 it is evident that working practices and working relationships continue to evolve. Bulgaria, Canada, Mexico, Mynamar, Peru, Thailand and Mozambique all flag actual or potential legislation and allowances for ‘teleworking’. There is a focus on health and safety, workplace fairness and increased enforcement in new legislation in Sweden, Serbia, Venezuela, Ghana, Jordan, Malaysia and South Korea. We see developments in the status and rights of those working in the ‘gig economy’ in the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Israel and Singapore. Many EU jurisdictions such as Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Japan have called out legislative changes to the form of their contracts of employment, with restrictions on the use of fixed-term contracts and exclusivity clauses and new rules around probationary periods, undoubtedly spurred on across the EU by the EU Directive 2019/1152 on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions. It also evident though that many of those surveyed are highlighting more comprehensive employment law reforms on the horizon in the UK, Finland, Spain and New Zealand, and are frequently linked to political change. We also note again the constriction or relaxation of rules on termination in Norway, Portugal and Spain, outsourcing and access for foreign workers to the job market, where we contrast the Middle East with the relaxations seen in Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia and Vietnam. All of this before you even consider the seismic shifts that are occurring and will continue to occur with the use of generative AI and its relationship with employees in the workplace. Therefore, as we look ahead to 2024, we can understand why most may feel dizzy with the pace of change.

We encourage you to explore our guide to learn more about how the trends above are playing out across the 79 jurisdictions covered in this edition. We hope that this will also enable you to identify the action items relevant to your global workforce. To discuss any of these updates and how they may impact your company, please contact me or another member of our International Employment practice.

Suzanne Horne, Partner
Editor

Aashna Parekh, Associate
Assistant Editor

Darius Latham-Koenig
Assistant Editor