Torque Takes The Platform On Work Rights For Expatriate Spouses

On the 10th anniversary symposium of Permits Foundation on Tuesday 22nd November at the BT Tower, London, Torque was a part of a panel discussion on the Challenges and Successes of the efforts of the Foundation.

Excerpts from a report in Re:Locate: This highly commendably not-for-profit organisation has been fighting the corner for expatriate spouses and partners to work since 2001. At Re:locate, we have been following its progress since the early days, and Fiona Murchie was delighted to take the opportunity to catch up on developments by attending a celebratory symposium, held at the BT Tower, in London, on 22 November.

There were some heavyweight speakers, including Andrew Gould, chairman of Schlumberger, and Doug Baillie, chief HR Officer of Unilever, putting the business case.

Government challenges were highlighted by Professor David Metcalf, Chair of the UK Migration Advisory Committee, Kristina Lindahl von Sydow,  Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Malstrom, representing the European Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs, and David Wilden, Minister-Counsellor (immigration), Australian High Commission, and Anne Arnott, Minister (immigration), Canadian High Commission.


According to major surveys from organisations such as Brookfield, ECA, Mercer and PwC, concern about partner employment is one of the main reasons for an employee to turn down an international assignment.

The Permits Foundation’s 2008 global survey of 3,300 partners revealed that 25% of international staff had turned down or terminated because of concerns about the partner’s employment or career. 70% of partners said that their own employment was important in the decision to relocate, with almost 60% stating they would be unlikely to relocate to a country where it was difficult to get a work permit.

A powerful case study given at the conference by Supriyo Gupta, adviser to the India steering committee, of how the Permits Foundation had worked within India with local partners clearly illustrated the effectiveness of this approach. 

The Permits Foundation is currently working via local sponsor networks in Brazil, India, Japan, Indonesia and Russia to bring about visa changes. Contact them via contacts@permitsfoundation.com to lend your support.

Recent achievements
India – Representation to the Government of India resulted in a change of regulation, permitting spouses of intra-company transferees to apply for an employment visa in India.

UK – Successfully argued against a tightening of regulations for dependants of intra-company transferees.

European Union – Provisions for non-European family members to work were included in the Blue Card Directive due for adoption by Member States in December 2011.

USA – Supports an extension of employment authorisation to all skilled work-permit holders, as well as recognition of unmarried partners

The legal expertise behind the Permits Foundation is of the highest calibre. Julia Onslow-Cole, Partner and Head of Global Immigration at PwC, is a founding board member. Answering questions at the event, she emphasised the importance of focusing on the right countries where the Permits Foundation could have most success.

Sponsors obviously want to see the organisation getting to more countries more quickly. The way forward is possibly developing the notion of a global immigration treaty – apparently, project work is afoot in the immigration world over the next 12 months. As Ms Onslow-Cole pointed out, once you get to a global level and attach to human rights, this makes everything much easier.

Happy Diwali

The digital ‘Wings of Icarus’

By Supriyo Gupta writing in Exchange4Media

Very many years ago, my M.Phil dissertation on the Middle Eastern oil economies, which subsisted on ‘unearned’ bounty of oil that nature had graciously provided, opened with a chapter titled ‘The Wings of Icarus’. Greek mythology has it that Daedalus and his son, Icarus, fled from the wrath of King Minos by attaching wings to their bodies with wax and taking flight. As they were escaping, Icarus flew too near the sun. The wax melted and the boy fell into the sea.

Today, the digital world looks like a merry conglomeration of Daedalus hastily fastening ‘digital’ wings to ‘fly’ in the digital space. Let’s face it. Until Facebook came along, most companies and brands were at their wits end, apportioning minute spends on experimental banners and search engine and browser trackers.

For all the lip service (and podium stomping!) that brands provide to digital efforts, the much lamented truths remain: no one is willing to put real money into it; much of the effort is dovetailed to ride print and television campaigns; the ‘like’ buttons often mean no more than “seen it once”; less than 5 per cent of the much touted ‘number of likes’ or followers engage on any series of posts; brands continue to struggle to ‘fit’ in the medium and oscillate wildly between phenomenal creativity and crippling conservatism; companies struggle to fit the play between marketing and corporate communications…

Damage Control

Sayantani Kar, Mumbai
BUSINESS STANDARD

India Inc is learning the ropes of corporate reputation management the hard way.

Earlier this month, media baron Rupert Murdoch drew the shutters on the 168-year-old News of The World after the News Corp-owned tabloid was hit by a phone-hacking scandal that saw the media group’s shares drop in the market. Closer home, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met five editors of different print publications last month in what was largely seen as part of an image makeover exercise.
In today’s formidably competitive marketplace, reputation management has become important more than ever before. While India is not new to political scandals, a series of corporate crises has brought the issue of corporate reputation management under the spotlight. Whether you are a public relations representative or a marketing manager of a corporation, the big question today is: What can one do to deal with a PR crisis effectively? The short answer comes from an old saying in journalism: “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.” On a serious note, how one emerges from the crisis is determined by the way one goes through it.

Why Fedex Is Like A Physical Internet

An excellent piece on Fedex in The Economic Times Corporate Dossier

Teeing Off At The Classic Golf Resort

 

If this looks like a lot of fun in action, its the usual grueling offsite!

Aero India: The Torque Top Guns!

The photo says it all! Meet The Leader! Aero India 2011 was a celebration of the awesome might of air power.

But it was much, much more for Saab and Gripen with the Gripen Top Guns setting the aero fans agog with an unprecedented contest that saw a young student from Bangalore fly in the Gripen.

But before that came all the excitement of a contest in which over 4000 contestants from 81 Indian towns and cities participated and people from over 75 countries came to look at the Gripen Top Guns.

Even while Digilogue Communications put together the site, it was serious work afoot as the entire Saab leadership reached Bangalore to make a serious statement of intent.

For Torque, the Aero Show ended with an offsite for the finance team.

At the end, an awesome experience, an awesome effort!