You are Hired: Let’s Discuss Our Rules and Regulations
In most situations, wages perhaps raise the most dissonance between employers and employees, and any discord can escalate if employers don’t understand the laws of the land governing wages.

In Russia, for instance, it is unlawful to delay payment of wages beyond 15 days — beyond this employees may stop going to the office until all the money is paid, or sue the employer. Also, Russian employees are entitled to four weeks of holiday a year and unused vacation needs to be compensated for in the form of extra pay. Yet, employers cannot enforce two weeks vacation rather than four. Similarly, “an employee can terminate their employment voluntarily by giving two weeks notice, even if the contract states they must complete one month of work before resigning. While it may seem easy to circumvent this with a wink and a nod, government auditors do make regular inspections,” says Nick Puntikov, Chairman of the Board, Russoft, and President Eastern Europe, Exigen Services. 

China’s legislature has recently passed a new labor law to be effective from 2008, which will permit Chinese workers to negotiate higher wages, better health and pension benefits. It restricts the use of temporary laborers and helps give more employees long-term job security.

An exclusive Chinese employment law makes it compulsory for employee-employer to jointly contribute to three funds: Endowment insurance (5 percent to 1/4 of salary), unemployment insurance (1 percent to 2 percent) and hospitalization (2 percent to 8 percent). Similarly, a Brazilian employer contributes 8 percent of employee salary into Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço (FGTS). Indian labor laws authorize joint payments such as employee provident fund and gratuity.

Employment laws in India may change with the changing boundaries of states. For instance, where the national act allows women to work in night shifts (10 pm to 6 am) as long as employers provide safety measures, in the Indian state of Haryana (where most IT and BPO companies have setups) law bars companies from making women work at night, subject to certain conditions.

Many Asian countries like China, Korea and Taiwan have a full or partial ban on women working at nights. While 70 percent of Philippines’ call-center employees are women, the country’s labor code prohibits/limits night-work for women. The government is now repealing this law. Senate Bill 2071 suggests drastic changes to the Labor Code to promote Filipino working women.

India has a 48-hour working week, and any work beyond nine hours per day (up to ten hours, including rest intervals) is counted as overtime, usually paid at double the normal wage. Working on Sundays and at night does not command a premium unless it results in overtime, though working on a holiday requires double pay or an option for a substitute paid holiday. Also, overtime for blue-collar staff is limited to four hours at a stretch. Yet, despite such laws, many techies and call-center employees in India work for more than eight hours a day, but are not compensated.

But, that is not the case with all the companies. “For some reasons you may have to work longer hours in a day. In such cases HP compensates us,” says Javed M., ex-employee of HP-Bangalore. “Often we did not claim compensation for exceeding working hours because the company allowed us to take some time off [a few hours] during working hours for our personal work, without asking for any explanation.”

China’s elaborate maternity laws enforce at least 90 days leave after child birth. The Philippines allows 60 to 78 days of paid leave. Brazil mandates 16 weeks of paid leave and prohibits termination for five months after childbirth. Argentina and Mexico mandate 12 weeks and Chile as much as 18. Surprisingly, the U.S. has no such benefits — for certain larger businesses there is provision to allow a 12 week unpaid maternity leave for certain larger businesses.