Demanding Workers Turn on Webcam Is a Violation, Court Rules: TOP 5 Trends From The  World  Of  Work 

What else matters this week?

Amazon is using electric vehicles for deliveries.

What is a mental health day? Not all illnesses and injuries are visible to the naked eye.

Struggling to concentrate? Try brown noise.

U.S economy added 263,000 jobs in September as labour market shows signs of cooling.

Tech sector under scrutiny for their energy use.

We’ve got a full breakdown of all the top headlines you can’t miss this week.

#1. Demanding employees turn on their webcams is a human rights violation, Dutch court rules.

A Dutch court has ruled that it is a human rights violation to force workers to turn on their webcams. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by a telemarketer employed by Florida-based Chetu. The company insisted the employee be monitored 9 hours per day, including screen sharing and streaming his webcam. When he refused, he was fired for “refusal to work” and “insubordination.”

“I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on,” the court document quotes the anonymous employee’s communication to Chetu. The employee suggests that the company was already monitoring him, “You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.”

The Dutch court found that tracking via camera for eight or nine hours a day is not permitted in the Netherlands. Read more at Tech Crunch.

When’s the last time you had an honest and open discussion with your employees – or manager – about wellbeing and mental health? This World Mental Health Day, our CHRO Gordana Landen is talking about conversations around mental health and wellbeing.

This year, it’s time to build on the conversation of mental health and wellbeing for organizations across the globe. It’s time to empower employees to take accountability for their own wellbeing -- and enable leaders to build a team where wellbeing is integrated into each and every aspect of the working day. Read more here.

This week, the U.S. Labor Department unveiled a new proposal that would make it significantly more likely for gig workers to be classified as employees – instead of independent contractors. Why does this matter? In the U.S., companies are required to provide benefits and protections to employees – but not contractors. These benefits include minimum wage, paying a portion of a worker’s Social Security taxes, and more.

The proposed rule would look a lot like a ‘test’ that the Labor Department applies. The test would consider factors like how much control workers have over their jobs and how much opportunity they have to increase their earnings. Read more at the New York Times.

The International Monetary Fund is warning “the worst is yet to come” for the global economy. The organization predicts that growth will slow to 2.7% in 2023, a slight drop from their previous forecasts. It’s going to feel a lot like a recession, for many, the IMF warns. Behind the slowing in growth? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s economic slowdown, and more. Read more at Barron’s.

 TikTok is full of great advice – but you should probably ignore this one about your resume. Misinformation about applicant tracking systems is nothing new, but it’s important to understand how the system works, first.

TikTok’s latest piece of advice recommends you copy and paste the job description into the background of your resume – and change the font to white.

But that’s not a good idea, according to one Microsoft recruiter. Most programs will process your resume in plain text. That means they will pick up every word in your resume, despite the font size or the color. Read more here.