THE HOT STORY

Dutch businesses struggle with long-term employee absences

Long-term employee absences are creating significant challenges for Dutch businesses, particularly smaller firms, according to a survey by RTL Nieuwspanel and RTL Z. Over half of companies reported long-term sick leave in the past five years, with 71% of larger firms affected. Entrepreneurs face stress and financial risks due to legal obligations to pay sick employees for up to two years, including at least 70% of gross salary, sometimes topped up to the minimum wage in the first year.

NL Times

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REGULATION

EU tells TikTok to change its 'addictive design'

The EU has told TikTok it must change its "addictive design" or face heavy fines. The warning follows an investigation which began in February 2024 into the Chinese-owned video sharing platform by the European Commission. In preliminary findings, the Commission said TikTok did not "adequately assess" how features such as autoplay could harm the wellbeing of its users, including children, and said it failed to implement measures to mitigate the risks. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told reporters that if TikTok wanted to avoid being fined, it would have to "change the design of their service in Europe." A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC the findings presented a "categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform" and it planned to challenge them.

BBC News

REMOTE WORKING

‘They want their pound of flesh’: why bank bosses are pushing strict return-to-office mandates

Companies in sectors from tech to manufacturing are stepping up their return-to-office policies: culture, pay and expensive offices are cited as among the reasons for ending remote work.

Financial Times

WORKFORCE

More Finns aim to delay retirement

According to a new survey by the Finnish Centre for Pensions, older workers in Finland are planning to retire later. In 2023, those over 50 indicated an average retirement age of 65 years and five months, which is 10 months later than in 2018. Satu Nivalainen, an economist at the centre, said: "People who are approaching retirement age are increasingly healthier. They're also more educated than before." The survey also revealed that many workers would consider postponing retirement if their employers were more supportive.

YLE Uutiset

STRATEGY

Barclays cuts London jobs

Barclays plans to cut up to 50 jobs in London by relocating roles to India and using artificial intelligence tools. The move is part of chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan's strategy to reduce costs by £2bn. The bank will eliminate its nearly 20-member copywriting team in London, replacing it with a larger team in India. A Barclays spokesman clarified: "It is incorrect to report the copywriting roles in one of our marketing teams are being replaced by AI. These specific roles are being relocated to India."

The Sunday Telegraph

Uber to expand its robotaxi services

Uber is to launch its robotaxi services in Hong Kong, Madrid, Houston and Zurich. Hong Kong will be Uber’s first robotaxi market in Asia. The company didn’t disclose specific details on when the services would launch or the technology providers with which it will partner. The company's partners include China’s Baidu, which has a license to run small-scale driverless trials in Hong Kong, and WeRide, which has an autonomous-driving license in parts of Switzerland.

Bloomberg

Nordea lays off hundreds of employees

A restructuring at Danish lender Nordea will result in the elimination of 271 positions within the bank's IT division, Group Technology. The planned reductions affect several countries in the Nordic region as well as Poland, but the number of positions affected in Denmark was not disclosed.

Copenhagen Post

INTERNATIONAL

Google staff call for firm to cut ties with ICE

Nearly 900 Google employees have demanded more transparency over what the company's technology is being used for inside the US government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Google has contracts to provide federal agencies with cloud services and also has links to work being done on federal immigration enforcement. The open letter from Google employees follows a separate letter published two weeks ago and signed by hundreds of workers at various companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, calling for all tech companies to stop their work supporting the federal immigration crackdown.

BBC News

Alphabet plans big expansion in India

Alphabet plans to dramatically expand its presence in India, and could take millions of square feet in new office space in Bengaluru, the country's tech hub. The company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the city's Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet. If Alphabet takes all of the space, the complex could accommodate as many as 20,000 additional staff - more than doubling the company’s footprint in India. Alphabet currently employs around 14,000 people in India. Bloomberg notes that US President Donald Trump’s visa restrictions have made it harder to bring foreign talent to America; as such, some companies are recruiting more staff overseas

Bloomberg

Mass exodus from Cambodian scam compounds

Cambodia has seen a "mass exodus" from the country's online scam operations in recent weeks amid growing international pressure and the recent extradition of Chen Zhi, the chairman of Cambodia's Prince Group, who the US Department of Justice had accused in an indictment of masterminding a multi-billion-dollar "cyber fraud empire." Reports indicate that many workers, some of whom are trafficking victims, have fled scamming compounds, leaving behind their belongings. Amnesty International said many of those who had left the compounds had no passports, money, medical care or any pathway to safety. "This mass exodus from scamming compounds has created a humanitarian crisis on the streets that is being ignored by the Cambodian government," said regional research director Montse Ferrer.

ABC Online

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