Dear Retail colleagues,
L&E Global is pleased to present its Retail Sector Group Newsletter. Our sector group spans borders, offering to be your partner for local and international issues relevant to retail employers. We advise our clients on the full range of labour and employment issues, from international regulatory compliance and wage and hours of work regulation to conducting whistle-blower and corporate ethics investigations. As a result of our experiences, we can provide industry best practices and practical solutions to common concerns in the retail sector.We also offer webinars with topics related to the retail sector. Our next webinar will be on 7 April 2020. We will keep you posted on the exact retail topic and webinar speakers.
In this newsletter we share with you articles from Canada, France, the Netherlands, Poland and USA. We hope you will enjoy this retail newsletter. Please feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues.
Please do not hesitate to call upon us if we can be of any assistance! If you have any questions, please contact Pascal Aarden.
LATEST RETAIL SECTOR GROUPS ARTICLES
Canada: Tis’ the Season for Holiday Hiring We Made a List of Best Practices for Retailers …and Checked it Twice!
It’s that time of the year again! Retail employers are hiring and onboarding seasonal employees in preparation for the upcoming demanding holiday season. Although most seasonal employees are hired for a short term, which often commences in November/December and ends in January, these workers are still “true” employees with legal rights and protections under employment standards and human rights legislation.
In an effort to avoid starting off the New Year with litigation, employers who hire seasonal workers should use best hiring practices from the outset of the employment relationship to minimize litigation risk and liability.
We recommend considering the following issues and potential pitfalls when hiring, managing and firing seasonal employees. Read more » click here.
France: The French Defender of Rights Tackles Appearance-Based Discrimination by employers
The French Defender of Rights is regularly seized of complaints about the requirements of employers regarding physical appearance, at the time of hiring or during their career, and which may relate to the way of dressing, hairstyles, facial hair, the requirements of size and thinness and body modification through tattoos and piercings.
Such questions have often shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the hiring and work practices of some retail businesses accused of discriminating based on appearance. It is an essential human-resources and public relations matter. Read more » click here.
The Netherlands: On-call workers and changes in employment law with as from 1 January 2020
As from 1 January 2020, Dutch employment law will be amended on a few points as a result of the Dutch Balanced Labour Market Act (Wet arbeidsmarkt in balans) entering into effect. This includes amendments in respect of on-call workers.
An on-call agreement exists when:
- the working hours are not determined as one fixed number of hours per month or per year;
- the entitlement to wage is not being spread evenly over that period of time.
What does this mean for the retail sector? Read more » click here.
Poland: The Restraint in Retail that got out of hand
In Poland, 2018 started off with a revolution for retail employees. On 10th January 2018 the Act on Restraint of Retail Trade on Sundays, Holidays and other days entered into force. The Act was initiated by the biggest Polish trade union – NSZZ Solidarnosc and their intention was to improve the life and working conditions of retail employees, especially the ones working in supermarkets and shopping malls. Before the Act had been implemented, work in retail during weekends was omnipresent, with a limitation that an employee performing work on Sundays should have had at least one work-free Sunday in every 4 weeks. In addition, the lawmakers’ goal and business rationale was to support small and medium-sized shops.
Restraint or prohibition? Read more » click here.
USA: Racial Profiling, Loss Prevention, and Section 1981 in Retail
‘Tis the season for shoppers to descend upon retailers in search of that perfect gift for loved ones. However, not all shoppers are having a perfect shopping experience. As Dr. Cassi Pittman, an assistant professor of sociology at Case Western Reserve University has noted, while money is portrayed as a great equalizer, her recent research titled “Shopping While Black” published in the Journal of Consumer Culture, contests that idea.
So what is a retailer to do? Read more » click here.
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