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Over the last decade, employment law in the United States has ceased to be governed solely by the right to 11 at will 11 termination on either side. As a result of a series of decisions in the civil courts of the various states, employers have become liable for damages - often very heavy - for dismissals which have been held to be unfair. A dismissal may be considered 11 unfair 11 because it violates public policy, because it breaches an implied contract or because it breaches an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The resultant restrictions on the right to fire are reminiscent of employment security laws in Europe.

Written communication has been thousands of years in the making, but in recent decades the way we write, the skills we use and the role writing plays in the world have all changed. This has important implications for education and skills.

Many chemicals are used to produce hundreds of thousands of different goods, from cars and computers to synthetic fabrics, kitchen appliances and paints. Through green procurement (GP) it is possible to reduce risks that arise from the use of chemical products by encouraging the use of chemical products which have low impact on human health and the environment throughout their life cycle, and discouraging the use of chemical products with a high impact. However, given the large number and variety of available chemical products and the differing priorities of product users, it is challenging to compare and select products for green procurement...

This paper examines the relationship between workplace organisation and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It uses data for 30 countries, drawn from the European Company Survey, the OECD Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies and the Community Innovation Survey. It contrasts SMEs adopting a “learning organisation” or “discretionary learning” form of workplace organisation with SMEs adopting more hierarchical organisational forms. Learning organisation or discretionary learning SMEs are characterised by high levels of self-planning of tasks by employees, teamwork, knowledge exchange with employees and supervisors, on-the-job training, and employee performance incentives. They account for approximately one-third of SMEs across the countries examined. SMEs with this form of work organisation are more likely than other SMEs to develop new products/services and processes. At a macro level, countries with high proportions of these SMEs have higher rates of new-to-the-market innovations among SMEs and of SME innovation collaborations with other firms and organisations. The findings point to the potential role of policies favouring organisational change in SMEs as a means of stimulating SME innovation.

As the displacement of Ukrainians in OECD countries is prolonged, additional integration support in host countries is needed for optimal outcomes, yet the nature and scope of support needed may not align with the usual integration practices as many refugees are expected to want to return to home when the situation permits. Considering the conflicting needs, adopting a dual intent approach could prepare for both indefinite stay as well as for possible return of refugees by deliberatively seeking to minimise possible return barriers.

Career and education decisions are amongst the most important young people make. Gender, ethnicity and socio-economic factors all strongly affect these choices. Career guidance is both an individual and a social good: it helps individuals to progress in their learning and work, but it also helps the effective functioning of the labour and learning markets, and contributes to a range of social policy goals, including social mobility and equity. This justifies the public investment in career guidance activities. Empirical evidence point towards career guidance services – in school and outside – having a formative influence on young people’s understanding of themselves and the world of work, and can often improve educational, social and economic outcomes. As young people stay in education and training longer and as the labour market becomes more complex, the case for career guidance grows. But what makes for effective provision? This paper looks at the features of good career guidance practice, including the need for schools to begin early and the essential role of exposure to the world of work.

Drawing on data from the Opportunities module of the 2022 wave of the OECD Risks that Matter survey, this Policy Insights looks at people’s concerns about inequality and examines their views on the role held by different actors – ranging from public and private sectors to civil society and citizens – in reducing economic divides. The analysis exposes a widespread concern about the multiple facets of inequality: on average, nearly seven-in-ten respondents think that economic resources should be distributed more equally and up to half of them believe that non-economic disparities are too high. Acknowledging the complex nature of inequality, respondents also recognise the need for a multi-stakeholder approach. National governments are seen as key but not exclusive players, and more than half of respondents believe that both public and private actors have a key role to play in addressing inequality.

In many OECD countries, low productivity growth has coincided with rising inequality. Widening wage and productivity gaps between firms may have contributed to both developments. This paper uses a new harmonised cross-country linked employer-employee dataset for 14 OECD countries to analyse the role of firms in wage inequality. The main finding is that, on average across countries, changes in the dispersion of average wages between firms explain about half of the changes in overall wage inequality. Two thirds of these changes in between-firm wage inequality are accounted for by changes in productivity-related premia that firms pay their workers above common market wages. The remaining third can be attributed to changes in workforce composition, including the sorting of high-skilled workers into high-paying firms.