As businesses expand globally and cross-border operations become more complex, it has never been more important to ensure employment-related legal and compliance requirements are right from the outset.
Workplace policies are playing an increasingly important role for businesses with cross-border operations. They can act as a critical link between legal obligations, internal governance and risk management.
Approaches to workplace policies vary across jurisdictions. Some countries set out detailed requirements. Others, especially those based on common law systems, instead rely on concepts such as “reasonable steps” and “adequate procedures” to define their legal effect. In addition, the rules for developing, updating and implementing policies can differ – including whether employee consultation is needed, whether trade unions or employee representatives must be involved, and how policies should be communicated and take effect.
In this environment, simply replicating domestic policies or adopting a single-jurisdiction template is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the demands of global operations and may, in some cases, increase employment-related risks.
Below, we review the main issues and compliance considerations relating to workplace policies across jurisdictions.
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