Australia – Labour hire company fined following worker death

A labour hire company in Australia has been fined AUD 50,000 (USD 37,520) following the death of a worker at a timber mill in 2018.

Recruitment Select Pty Ltd, a labour hire firm based in the state of Victoria, pleaded guilty in the Wangaratta Magistrates' Court on Monday to a single charge of failing...

Australia – Delivery company Menulog is first major gig economy firm to directly employ delivery workers (Sydney Morning Herald)

Menulog, an Australian and New Zealand online food ordering app and work services platform, has reportedly become the first major gig economy delivery company to directly employ workers, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. It comes two months after the platform announced it would trial a move away from...

Malaysia – Prime Minister $36 billion aid package amid extended lockdown (Reuters)

Malaysia Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin this week announced a MYR 150 billion (USD 36.1 billion) aid package, including cash aid and wage subsidies, a day after extending a nationwide lockdown indefinitely to tackle a Covid-19 outbreak, reports Reuters. The latest aid package includes a fiscal injection...

Japan – Temporary agency work up 0.7% in May

The number of non-regular employees in Japan, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, stood at 20.61 million in May 2021, up 0.8% over the year according to data from Statistics Japan.

The number of ‘dispatched workers from temporary labour agencies’...

Singapore – Job recovery continues in May as job postings up 30% higher than pre-pandemic levels

Singapore’s job market recovery continued throughout May despite the re-introduction of Covid-19 restrictions, with job postings across every occupation category recording growth above pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Indeed Singapore.

The data showed job postings for May 2021 were 28.6%...

Australia – Employers increasingly value soft skills: Hays

Nearly all, or 96%, of employers in Australia consider soft skills to be either more important or equally important to a candidate’s hard or technical skills, according to research from Hays Australia.

Based on findings from Hays, 81% of the nearly 3,500 employers surveyed say teamwork is the most important...

India – Majority of formal jobs sector believe labour reform initiatives will boost industrialisation (LiveMint)

At least 90% of India’s formal sector believe that the labour reform initiatives via the four broad labour codes are going to be helpful and push industrialisation, reports LiveMint citing a survey from staffing firm Genius Consulting. While the labour codes are yet to be introduced, over 90% of representatives...

Philippines – President signs executive order adopting national employment recovery plan (CNN)

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order for the adoption of the recovery strategy for the country’s labour market, reports CNN. The Department of Labour and Employment said in a statement that Executive Order No. 140, or the PHP 1.14 trillion (USD 23.4 billion) National...

Australia – Gig economy conditions and arrangements not acceptable, Senate committee finds

The current arrangements, conditions and pay rates for gig economy workers in Australia are not acceptable, a Senate Select Committee on Job Security said in an inquiry into work services platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo.

The ‘First interim report: on-demand platform work in Australia’ said arrangements,...

Australia – Contract watch: Freelancer awarded NASA contract

Australia-based Freelancer Ltd. (ASX: FLN) announced it secured a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US.

Freelancer secured a USD 510,000 task order for the US Bureau of Reclamation to improve the Speed of the US Bureau of Reclamation’s Sedimentation and River...