Current Affairs

Denmark Employment Policy Changes

Denmark made some significant changes to its labor law in 2020. The changes include amendments to policies regarding holiday laws, paid leaves, and employee data protection, among others. The introduction of the Danish Holiday Act, though, is the most significant change out of all. Here we discuss the major 2020 Danish labor law changes in detail.

Danish Holiday Act
The new holiday act completely changes the way Danish employees obtain and earn leaves. Since January 1st, 2019, the law has been in its transition phase and will become fully effective from September 1st, 2020. The new Act introduces the following changes:

• Employees will now earn concurrent holidays and will be entitled to utilize them on the go. They can earn up to 2.08 days per month and utilize them each month or at the end of the year
• Employees are entitled to receive up to 10 weeks of paid annual leaves during the transition year. (however, the transition scheme will ensure that employees can still only take up to five weeks of paid holiday in the transition year)
• Employees can also take up to 3 weeks of consecutive leave within the main holiday season that extends from May 1st to September 30th
• Holidays accrued in the transition phase as per the old holiday act will be carried forward to the first four-month of next year

Extension of Paternity Leave
Keeping in line with the European Parliament and the policies for European Union’s Member States, the Danish legislation has also made amendments to the parental leave. As per the law, fathers are entitled to a leave of 2 consecutive weeks within 14 weeks after delivery.

As per the new law, they can extend their parental leave to a total of 2 months post-delivery. In case of adoption, both parents can take up to 4 weeks of paid leave, and in some cases, they may even be eligible for eight weeks of paid parental leave. Both parents are entitled to receive the statutory maternity leave pay amid the leave period unless stated otherwise in the contract of employment.

New GDPR rules
The Danish Government has also introduced general data protection rules that make employee and personal information data protection a priority. In some areas, the Danish DATA protection Act lays out even more stringent policies for data protection. For example, the processing of the social security number requires permission from the social security account holder. Unless ordered by law, nobody can process the social security number of anyone else.

Collective Bargaining Agreements
The Danish labor market parties have reached a consensus and agreed to a collective bargaining agreement effective for three years, from 2020 to 2023. It lays out various employment terms and conditions, including salary, working hours, overtime pay, maternity and paternity leave, etc. Amid the pandemic, many employers found themselves relying heavily on help from federal government relief funds to meet the daily running expenses. The collective bargaining agreement is a guideline for the continued predicted economic instability for the following years.

In this article, we have mentioned the significant 2020 Danish labor law changes. The main focus of the changes seems to be around improving employee welfare and bringing Denmark’s policies in line with other European countries.

Sweden Updates Employment Protection Act

The Swedish labor market makes for a very interesting case study as it is primarily governed by collective bargaining agreements between the employers and trade and labor unions. Both parties are responsible for maintaining peace by basing agreements on a comprehensive framework provided by the Government, which it updates as necessary. Here we discuss the changes to Swedish labor law in 2020.

China’s Response to COVID-19

China is one of the most affected countries by the coronavirus due to the fact that the outbreak first took root there. Despite being the first and one of the hardest-hit countries, it has managed to establish an efficient system to battle the virus and ensure economic stability as much as possible. In this article, we discuss China’s COVID-19 employment law changes to protect employer and employee rights amidst the pandemic.

Multi-National Partnerships in Taiwan

Taiwan is a country known for innovative technology and high levels of productivity across a number of different industries. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan, there were two industries with an unexpected overall increase in revenues in the first two quarters of 2020. The first was the electronics industry, followed by the semiconductor industry. The fact that these industries were able to actually increase overall revenues during a global pandemic helped to assure potential multinational investors of the resiliency of the country as a whole.

Remote Working and Deductible Office Expenses in Australia

With so many opportunities to work remotely due to COVID-19 many organizations are being required to make a quick pivot in order to support employees who are working outside of the traditional workspace. Organizations in Australia are now looking at the long-term viability of keeping employees working remotely in order to decrease operational expenses and overhead. This then generates the question, how can employees working from home continually be supported by their organizations?

Value Added Tax Proposed in Greece

Preliminary recommendations have been issued in Greece in order to reduce additional tax and social security contribution amounts with the hopes of potentially attracting investments from foreign parties. These investments may come in the form of multinational investors, multinational corporate partnerships or traditional tourism.

Reopening Tax Courts in Canada after COVID-19 Closures

Across many nations, the COVID-19 pandemic has either slowed, or completely halted the use of the court and judicial system in an effort to stave off the spread of the virus. Canada has been no exception to these practices, and now is preparing to cope with a massive influx of lawsuits from the backlog. With the judicial system in Canada already being fairly busy prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government and the Supreme Court of Canada have made the executive decision to be more creative with some of the proceedings.

India Minimum Wage Rates Vary by State

Cheap labor is equivalent to minimum wage, and that is exactly the condition across the many different states in India. Being such a massive country, India has over 1200 different minimum wage rates with variances across states, skill level and the different industrial sectors. Here is a look at the wage rates in some of the different states in India to see how they differ across states and across different skill levels/job positions.

UAE Employment Law Changes in 2020

The COVID19 outbreak has rattled the global economy and forced many countries to make amends to its labor law as a response. The UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization also introduced three ministerial decisions in 2020. The decisions 279, 280, and 281 all introduce 2020 UAE labor law changes meant to bring stability for employers and employees.