8:00 – 8:50 – Registration and breakfast 

8:50 – 9:00 – Welcome remarks from International Employment Lawyer 

9:00 – 9:45 – Plenary Session 1: In conversation with the DOL’s Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling 

The Deputy Secretary will sit down with IEL for a special fireside chat to discuss how global labour and employment issues, including the gig economy, workplace technologies, and AI, will affect workers both at home and abroad.

9:45 – 10:45 – Plenary Session 2: Geopolitical uncertainty and the global employer

Amid heightened geopolitical tensions and cultural conflicts, US-headquartered multinationals are facing a growing set of legal, operational, and reputational risks that directly impact workforce strategy, mobility, compliance, and corporate responsibility. This panel of global experts will examine how geopolitical developments are reshaping the employment landscape, offering insights into how legal and HR teams can anticipate change, manage disruption, respond effectively to crises, and safeguard both people and corporate reputation.

10:45 – 11:30 – Coffee break 

11:30 – 12:30 – Breakout Session 1: How to respond to cross-border regulatory probes

Whether it’s a surprise workplace inspection, a whistleblower-triggered investigation, or a routine audit that turns contentious, regulatory scrutiny can have significant legal, financial, and reputational consequences for employers. The stakes are even higher for multinationals, which must navigate different enforcement cultures, procedural rules, and expectations from workplace watchdogs around the world. This panel will explore how employers can prepare for and respond to regulatory inquiries across key jurisdictions and examine how to build proactive compliance programmes, manage cross-border coordination, engage with authorities constructively, and mitigate enforcement risks while protecting employee rights and corporate integrity.

11:30 – 12:30 – Breakout Session 2: Clawing it back: Designing and enforcing executive provisions

As regulatory scrutiny and shareholder activism intensify, clawback provisions have become an essential component of executive compensation frameworks. But designing and enforcing these contractual provisions presents significant legal and practical challenges for employers, especially in a cross-border context where laws vary widely. This expert panel will discuss the strategic design, legal enforceability, and best practices for implementing clawback policies that hold up across key jurisdictions worldwide.

12:30 – 2:00 – Networking lunch 

2:00 – 3:00 – Breakout Session 3: Workforce flexibility in an era of uncertainty

As global economic volatility, regulatory shifts, and workforce expectations reshape the modern employment landscape, businesses are seeking new strategies to remain agile and competitive. This panel will explore practical and legal dimensions of workforce flexibility including: the increased role of Employers of Record arrangements for purposes of international expansion and workforce agility; the cultural evolution of work from anywhere policies; and how businesses can identify red flags and best practices to mitigate contractor misclassification risk.

2:00 – 3:00 – Breakout Session 4: Mind the gap: global momentum on pay transparency and equity

From mandatory salary disclosures in job ads to comprehensive gender pay reporting, lawmakers around the world are ramping up efforts to close pay gaps and advance workplace equity. But while approaches may vary, employers everywhere are being pushed toward greater openness and accountability. This session will explore the global landscape of pay transparency and equity initiatives, analyse the operational and legal challenges for employers, and consider how recent and upcoming changes can improve employers’ compliance efforts and broader ESG goals.

3:00 – 3:30 – Coffee break 

3:30 – 4:30 – Plenary Session 3: A question of trust? Protecting business interests from employee mobility 

In a competitive labour market, businesses face increasing challenges from high value employees who may seek opportunities with competitors or launch rival ventures. But multinationals also face significant hurdles to using traditional trade secret protections due to a global patchwork of conflicting legal standards and greater scrutiny of restrictive covenants that regulators argue have a chilling effect on employee mobility and innovation. This panel explores the legal tools, emerging alternatives to traditional post-employment restraints, litigation trends, and risk mitigation strategies to protect proprietary business information and trade secrets from wantaway employees.

4:30 – 5:30 – Plenary Session 4: Free to speak? Navigating employee expression in a divided world

In an era marked by social justice movements, political polarisation, and global crises, questions about employee speech in the workplace are more pressing and complex than ever. Across jurisdictions, the law and norms differ widely on how much freedom workers have to express their personal views, especially when those views clash with company values, spark workplace tensions, or involve criticism of the employer. It raises the question: what speech should employers protect, tolerate, or prohibit at work? This session explores how various countries regulate employee expression, both in and out of work, and how multinationals can navigate this terrain while upholding inclusion, limiting workplace disruption, and managing reputational risks.

5:30 onwards – Closing remarks and networking drinks reception