Insights: Employment | Benefits | Mobility – Q2 2024

Welcome to the latest edition of Insights, our regular publication highlighting key employment, benefits, and mobility developments.

In this edition, we cover a range of critical topics for businesses. We examine the framework governing restrictive covenants in select jurisdictions. We also look at the substantial operational and legal risk often created by team moves, with our Spotlight Q&A highlighting the different legal actions and strategies available to protect businesses.

We review the rapid rise of employment investigations, highlighting some golden rules for employers when navigating these often complex and sensitive processes. We also examine the role of UK employers in relation to the diversity of pension trustees and our Top 10 FAQs provide guidance on the UK rollout of eVisas.

Finally, in case you missed them, we also highlight key recent global employment, benefits and mobility updates.

We are delighted to share this edition of Insights with you and hope you find it helpful. If you have any questions, please contact any member of the global Employment & Benefits team.

Post-termination restrictive covenants remain as topical as ever, particularly for employers operating internationally. The legal framework for restrictive covenants can vary significantly between jurisdictions and having an understanding of the general principles, alongside an insight into future developments, is vital for employers considering how best to protect their business, clients and contacts. We provide a high-level review of restrictive covenants in a range of jurisdictions.

In recent years, internal investigations into employee complaints and employee conduct have been on the rise across a variety of industry sectors. With many employers operating internationally, the need for investigations to cross borders has also increased, adding a further layer of complexity to an already sensitive process.

Hostile and frequent employee team moves can create substantial operational and legal risk for the “raided” business. But it is possible to protect confidential information, existing business relationships, and data and build a case for financial redress from the competitor. Miriam Bruce and Francesca Ingham highlight how quick and decisive action can protect businesses.

A recent survey by the Pensions Regulator (TPR) confirmed that trustee boards of occupational pension schemes in the United Kingdom are less diverse than the overall population. However, the results also highlight industry recognition of the importance of inclusive and diverse boards. Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a key area of focus for TPR and employers have a key role to play in improving EDI in trustee boards.

With the UK Government looking to phase out all physical immigration documents by the end of the year and transition all immigration status holders onto digital immigration permission (an “eVisa”), many employers are receiving queries from their workforce about the forthcoming change.