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Recent Editions
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Human Times
North America
DoorDash settles worker underpayment allegations with New York City

Food delivery company DoorDash is to pay $131.5m to settle a New York City government investigation that found it underpaid or waited too long to pay workers. DoorDash ​will provide nearly $115m of relief to about 264,000 workers; the median payout ​is about $48. The firm accepted a $16.7m civil fine. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the settlement was "part of a larger commitment to hold delivery companies accountable." Through its use of "greedy algorithms," Mamdani said DoorDash failed to comply with the 2023 city law intended to improve pay for delivery ​workers. "For years, DoorDash failed ​to count every hour ⁠worked by delivery workers," he said. "This was not a rounding error or an accidental mistake."

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Human Times
UK
Mayfield says a culture shift is needed in workplaces

Former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield has told The Times he wants to see a shift in workplace culture over sick leave. He says employees should directly inform their managers when unwell to foster open dialogue. Mayfield, lead author of the Keep Britain Working review, said: "It's very important that you're immediately establishing a contact, a dialogue, between the employer and the employee . . . So you can't just text, send a WhatsApp, or send an email. You've actually got to ring somebody up. It gives you the opportunity to have a conversation." He says workers will need to feel safe talking to their line manager, observing: "Some people worry they'll lose their job, or not get a pay rise, or be seen as someone who's not going to be as good an employee in the long term." But, he notes, employers are fearful too. "In the UK we have become very procedural and risk aware in terms of the cost of a complaint or a grievance, let alone a tribunal . . . And so you actually have quite a lot of situations where people will be advised not to contact employees when they're off sick."

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Human Times
Europe
AI forces companies to rethink entry-level hiring

AI is increasingly taking over tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees, raising concerns about career advancement and skill development for young workers. Tobias Green, founder of London-based ad agency Catalyst, notes that AI tools now enable one junior employee to manage five client accounts, reducing the need for multiple hires. The Open University’s 2026 Business Barometer report found that 51% of UK business leaders believe AI is changing hiring practices, with 19% reducing entry-level recruitment due to AI adoption. While AI is enhancing productivity, experts like Cheney Hamilton, director at UK research firm Bloor, warn that it may hinder the development of critical judgment skills in junior workers, arguing: “AI raises the floor of what a junior can produce, but it doesn't give them the judgement to know when the output is wrong.”

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Human Times
Middle East
GCC executives to lead new regional study on human-tech readiness

The Human-Tech Synergy Summit in Dubai on September 29 will explore leadership readiness for AI adoption. Organised by human-technology leadership consultancy CLD, the summit will gather 60 senior executives from the GCC to contribute to the Human-Tech Readiness Report. This research will focus on four dimensions: mindset, skillset, culture set, and system set, rather than just technological access. Omar Hayat, director at CLD BLOOM, emphasised the importance of aligning leadership with rapid technological changes, saying: "Organisations only transform as far as their people are prepared to transform with them." The study aims to provide insights specific to the GCC context.

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