Asia Employment, Pensions and Incentives Update December 2019

Our final Asia Employment, Pensions and Incentives update for 2019 looks at:

• the changes to immigration policies in China, that came into effect 1 August 2019 and relax the requirements for highly-skilled foreign workers and students which had previously been in place;
• in Malaysia, the amendments outlined in the Industrial Relations Bill which while not yet in force, will have a significant impact on how employment disputes are resolved including changes to representation during conciliation for unfair dismissal claims, to referral of unfair dismissal claims to court and to trade union sole bargaining rights;
• the changes to maximum weekly working hours from 68 to 52 hours for businesses in South Korea, and in particular, the requirement for smaller businesses to comply as well as the grace period given to businesses to find alternative working solutions;
• companies' obligations and good practice in regards to India's requirements on whistleblowing procedures; and
• a comparison article on how post employment restraints are used in Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

In addition, the global Employment, Pensions & Incentives team recently produced a Future of Work report which looks at the rise in ‘workforce activism’. Surveying 400 cross-sector C-suites, the report considers the trends and risks, and provides insights into the impact caused by employees increasing holding companies to account on both employment and wider social issues. You can read the full report here.

Finally, we are delighted to announce Gillian Miao has joined our Asia EPI team as a Counsel based in our Joint Operation with Kewei Law Firm in Shanghai. To introduce our expanded employment law capability in the PRC to clients, we will be hosting a PRC focussed breakfast seminar on 12th February 2020. To register, please click here.