- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Neil Hodge2023-10-16T14:00:00
Spain’s labor ministry fined the Big Four accountancy firms at least 1.4 million euros (U.S. $1.5 million) total for overworking and underpaying their respective employees.
Despite no complaint being lodged by any employee, the Big Four offices were each raided in November after the Spanish Ministry of Labor opened an investigation into the firms’ working practices regarding concerns employees were working longer hours than their employers’ records showed.
In January, Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz warned, “The excesses and abuses of overtime hours are being investigated and the mandate is clear. … No big company, no matter how big, is beyond the law.”
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KPMG accepted the conclusions and record penalties levied against it by the U.K. Financial Reporting Council for the “exceptional” level of deficiencies found to have taken place during the Big Four audit firm’s work at collapsed construction company Carillion.
Recent enforcement cases against food delivery company Glovo and online retailer Amazon in Spain have shone a spotlight on the compliance difficulties associated with engaging workers as freelancers rather than full-time employees.
Big Four audit firm PwC is being sued by one of its employees for more than £200,000 (U.S. $234,000) after he injured himself at a post-work drink event in 2019. The incident is not the first where “team-bonding” efforts have proven problematic.
USAA Federal Savings Bank has been hit with its third cease and desist order from the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the past five years for failing to correct unsafe and unsound banking practices.
Becton Dickinson medical device company will pay $175 million for “repeatedly” misleading investors about its Alaris infusion pump, a product the company knew was flawed and was sold without the required patient-safety approvals, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged bankrupt fashion retailer Express with failing to disclose nearly $1 million in perks to a former chief executive, but did not levy a financial penalty thanks to its cooperation, the SEC said.
