Global legislative changes to look out for in 2025

Published: 17 January 2025 | Ronelle Barreto, International Legal Editor

This promises to be a busy year for HR teams in the UK as they prepare for the changes contained in the Employment Rights Bill, albeit most are unlikely to come into force before 2026. Likewise for global employers, 2025 will be a dynamic year in the HR compliance sphere.

Different jurisdictions have their own unique political and legal systems. Keeping up to date with laws and regulations as they evolve can therefore be a challenging task, but it is nonetheless a crucial one in order to ensure that organisations with employees in multiple countries are compliant, mitigate risks and maintain good relationships across borders. To help with this, the table below lists some legislative changes expected to come into force in different jurisdictions across the year.

Legislative processes differ considerably depending on the specific country, so it is not always possible to predict the “expected date” (i.e. when the legislation may come into effect) with the same degree of accuracy in all jurisdictions. Further details may be found in each country guide.

Information correct as of 17 December 2024.

Country	Proposed change to legislation	Expected date
Australia	The maximum entitlement to parental leave pay will gradually increase by two weeks each year from 1 July 2024 to 1 July 2026, up to a maximum of 26 weeks.	Next increase on 1 July 2025.
Austria	The statutory home office provisions that apply for home working will also apply to teleworking, i.e. where an employee regularly works at home and in other locations that do not belong to the company, such as coworking spaces and internet cafés.	Expected in early 2025.
Brazil	New measures aim to regulate and define minimum working conditions for self-employed workers operating through a platform, e.g. car drivers. By defining the employment relationship for these workers, these measures will potentially create a new category of worker.	Not known.
Bulgaria	Employees are required to have an official work book providing details of their employment history. Under new rules, work books will be known as unified electronic employment records and will form part of a digital employment register.	1 June 2025.
Canada	There are changes impacting the federally regulated sectors. These include new protections for gig workers, new employer policies limiting work-related communications after hours, and clarified entitlements to notice of termination or severance pay.	Expected in 2025.
Chile	Decree No. 44 outlines employer obligations for managing professional and workplace risks and establishes the rules for creating and operating joint health and safety committees.	1 February 2025.
China	There are changes to the statutory retirement ages for men and women (eg, for male employees and female employees whose original statutory retirement age was 60 and 55 years old, the retirement age will be delayed by one month every four months until it reaches the ages of 63 and 58, respectively), a gradual increase of the minimum contribution period for employees to receive their basic pension monthly (from 2030) and flexible early retirement options for qualifying individuals.	1 January 2025.
Czech Republic	Employees can self-schedule their working hours if there is a written agreement setting out the conditions and limits for the employee. Further measures will be introduced for cases of sickness and for entitlements to salary compensation.	1 January 2025.
Denmark	The Act on Accommodation of Employees will introduce new minimum requirements for the accommodation that employers provide to their employees	1 July 2025.
Finland	Local agreements allow for the derogation from some legal provisions with a collective agreement between national employers’ and employees’ associations. The changes extend similar possibilities to company-specific agreements.	1 January 2025.
Germany	There are plans to introduce two weeks of paid partner leave for the second, non-birthing parent after the birth of a child. It is planned that the second parent should receive “partnership pay” from the employer.	Expected in 2025.
Hong Kong	There will be changes to the definition of a continuous contract. The definition will be relaxed by using the aggregate working hours of four weeks and setting the four-week working hours threshold at 68 hours.	Not known.
India	New codes dealing with wages, health and safety, industrial relations and social security legislation will consolidate and replace existing labour statutes.	Not known.
Ireland	The requirement to publish gender pay gap information will be extended to employers with 50 to 149 employees in 2025.	Expected in 2025.
Luxembourg	A new Bill amending the provisions in the Labour Code regulating Sunday work will result in changes to work patterns, eg the working hours on a Sunday will be extended for retail employees, while maintaining the current salary premiums for all hours worked on Sundays.	Not known.
Mexico	A Bill reforming the Federal Labour Law proposes that in work centres with 50+ employees at least 5% of employees must be people with disabilities.	Not known.
Netherlands	A new Bill proposes providing flexible workers with greater certainty in terms of their income, work schedules and working conditions.	Not known.
Norway	Currently employees no longer enjoy employment protection once they reach the age of 72, except where a company-specific age limit of 70 years applies. A proposal to remove this company-specific option will make the statutory age limit of 72 the standard.	Not known.
Philippines	As an alternative to a 40-hour working week, either at the request of employees or on a voluntary basis, private-sector employers will be able to implement a 35-hour working week arrangement. The terms will need to be mutually agreed.	Not known.
Romania	Employees with children who are under 18 years old and who have disabilities will receive an eight-day working from home or teleworking allowance per month. Those with multiple children with disabilities will receive two extra days per month per child.	Not known.
Singapore	Eligible fathers will be entitled to four weeks of government-paid paternity leave when the additional two weeks of government-paid paternity leave that are currently available on a voluntary basis are made mandatory.	1 April 2025.
South Africa	A remote working visa will be introduced, allowing foreign employees to make South Africa their remote working destination of choice.	Not known.
Spain	There is a proposal to abolish automatic contract terminations due to total permanent disability when a worker is permanently disabled.	Expected early 2025.
Switzerland	The retirement age for women will increase by three months per year from 1 January 2025 until it reaches 65 in 2028. In 2025, it is 64 and three months.	1 January 2025.
UAE	Currently, only Dubai and Abu Dhabi employers have an obligation to provide employees with health insurance coverage. This duty will now be extended to employers in the other Emirates, ie Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.	Expected in early 2025.
UK	The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act will provide parents whose babies need neonatal care with up to 12 weeks’ neonatal care leave. This will be paid if the parent meets certain requirements.	The previous Government indicated that the new right would come into force in April 2025.