Lawyers International Network for Employees and Executives (LINEE)

Discrimination

Reopening the Workplace: A Gender Perspective on the Economic Fallout of COVID-19

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The COVID-19 coronavirus doesn’t discriminate between men and women, but the same can’t be said of the pandemic’s impact on the U.S. workforce.

Traditional support for women at work has been drastically reduced, if not eliminated, during the crisis. Women have had to reorient to working from home while balancing family responsibilities, including childcare and home schooling. Admittedly, both male and female parents have had to face these challenges, but women have shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden.

Over the past 25 years, legislators and employers have implemented measures to assist the growing percentage of working women. By exploring early childhood programs, daycare, flexible hours, and job sharing these efforts have encouraged co-parenting, offered assistance to single parents, and created greater work-life balance. The COVID-19 outbreak eliminated these supports, and it’s anyone’s guess when these efforts will resume. Read more.

Job Interview 4.0: Legal Considerations for Automated Face and Speech Recognition

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Finally, you are invited to a job interview. You expect a staff member from human resources, but instead you sit opposite a robot. During the 30-minute interview, robots like “Matilda” or “Sophia” ask the candidate dozens of questions about motivation, career goals, or strengths and weaknesses. Cameras not only record the spoken word, but also the candidate’s facial expressions and gestures. The robot recognizes emotions in the candidate’s face and can react spontaneously. The combination of the generated responses and emotions results in a personality profile that is compared with existing data of successful employees and assigned to a category “suitable for the job” or “unsuitable for the job.”

AI in Recruiting

This scenario is not fiction, but reality nowadays. The U.S. American company “HireVue” and others advertise and sell their sophisticated video interview software towards large companies. While the applicant is interviewed comfortably from within his or her own four walls, up to 20,000 pieces of data can be collected from this interview and analyzed in record time, using algorithms to find the right employee.

And larger companies already use artificial intelligence in their global HR recruitment process. In Switzerland, companies like Credit Suisse utilize software to review applications and categorize applicants according to their suitability or unsuitability for the advertised position. Read more.

Fair Bonus Treatment for International Executives: Making Sure Everybody Gets Equal Treatment

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Bonuses have become a very important element of how many international executives are paid. Some are guaranteed and paid across the board to all staff; others are discretionary and based on individual performance.

Problems can arise when the criteria for payment of UK bonuses lack transparency or are discriminatory. For international executives who have a sufficient connection with the UK, the UK discrimination laws are there to protect you from detrimental treatment by your employer.

How Can Discrimination Occur?

If your bonus is based on individual performance, it can be directly related to the amount of profit or business that you create. However, you could be prevented from earning that profit or business because of discriminatory treatment by your employer. This could involve being excluded from marketing events with clients or important meetings; being excluded from communications; not being passed new opportunities etc. Read more.