On the 9th of August 2024, the Health and Safety at Work Act, Act XXXIII of 2024 (Chapter 646 of the Laws of Malta) (hereinafter referred to as the ”Act”) was published by Parliament. Upon coming into force, the Act shall repeal the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (“OHSA” or “Authority”) Act (Chapter 424 of the Laws of Malta) and its subsidiary legislation ...
The primary purpose of the trial period is to assess whether the employee meets the employer’s reasonable performance expectations. Conversely, it gives the employee a chance to determine if the job aligns with their needs and preferences, benefiting from a shorter notice period during this phase. Once the trial period is over, the employee automatically gains full job protection ...
On August 20, 2024, a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered an order prohibiting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from implementing a new rule that would have prohibited employers from enforcing non-compete agreements for the vast majority of employees in the United States as of September 4, 2024 (see our prior analysis of that rule here ...
Banks of all sizes should take note of these changes and update policies and procedures to avoid running afoul of new rules and regulations. Here is an overview of some notable changes that have taken place in recent months. The Expansion of Federal Overtime Eligibility A U.S ...
Marriage and civil partnership discrimination occurs when someone is treated unfairly or differently because of their marital status. We explore the causes, effects, and legal implications for employers of this form of discrimination in the workplace ...
On July 30, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it will conduct a second round of the H-1B Cap Lottery to supplement the registrants from the April 2024 selection. This means that foreign nationals who previously registered, but were not selected in this year’s H-1B lottery, have an additional chance. If selected from this supplemental second round, winners will be allowed to submit H-1B petitions for FY 2025 ...
Bill C-58, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Industrial Relations Board Regulations, 2012, was passed on June 20, 2024, introducing anti-replacement-worker provisions to the Canada Labour Code. While anti-replacement-worker legislation has existed in Quebec since 1977, nothing of the sort existed for federal jurisdiction employers ...
After a two-and-a-half-year legislative process, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD or CS3D) was published in the EU Official Journal on 5th July 2024, marking a paradigm shift in corporate sustainability. In recent years, companies have increasingly faced societal and legal pressures to adopt more sustainable business practices, typically centered around environmental protection ...
You did not get paid for your labor and material, so you ask, what can I do? Alabama’s lien law provides you an opportunity to place a lien on the property for certain unpaid amounts for labor and materials. If you follow the proper procedures to perfect the lien and obtain a judgment in your favor, you may force the sale of the property to collect on your judgment (see Ala. Code § 35-11-226). This article focuses on the procedural basics of Alabama’s lien law ...
July 31, 2024 By: Thomas O'Connell “It’s Monday, April 7, 2014. It is a cool, mostly cloudy morning at an independently owned and operated McDonald’s in Los Angeles, California. That day, two employees allegedly “engaged in concerted activities with other employees for the purposes of mutual aid and protection, by discussing a disciplinary incident with co-workers ...
By: Matthew T. Drenan, Charles F. Whitman, & Alicia A. Belock As temperatures continue to rise these upcoming weeks, employers take heed of pertinent health and safety laws to ensure workplace compliance. In anticipation of further shifts in the regulatory landscape favoring additional worker protections, we take this opportunity to review existing and imminent regulations during times of extreme heat ...
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit provided a cautionary tale for trade secret owners who seek preliminary relief against a competitor who hires its former employees but do not clearly articulate the trade secrets the owner seeks to protect. In early 2023, Insulet Corp. sued EOFlow Co. in the District of Massachusetts for misappropriating trade secrets supposedly obtained from employees EOFlow hired away from Insulet years earlier ...
Three months ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a final rule to broadly ban employers from enforcing non-compete clauses against employees. In the weeks following the announcement, three lawsuits have been filed contesting the agency's authority to enact and enforce its ban on non-compete agreements. As things stand, federal courts are split and there is no nationwide injunction in place ...
Reminder It is ****illegal**** for a company to ****refuse**** to provide ****benefits**** (e.g., ****voluntary medical insurance****) due to an ****employee's failure**** to provide ****consent**** to the processing of personal data. This was the conclusion reached by the 3rd Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in ****Resolution No. 88-1047/2024 dated 15 January 2024**** ...
On May 11, 2023, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, S.C. 2023, c. 9 (the ?Act?) was passed. The purpose of this Act is to implement Canada?s international commitment to contribute to the fight against forced labour and child labour, and to require certain entities to report on the measures they have taken to reduce the use of forced labour and child labour ...
Quebec is currently facing a major shortage of physicians. To remedy the situation, several ministers in the CAQ government announced in early 2024 that significant changes would be implemented to reduce physicians? administrative burden. And so, on May 31, 2024, Minister of Labour Jean Boulet introduced Bill 68, An Act mainly to reduce the administrative burden of physicians ...
Texas recently enacted a new Workplace Violence Prevention law to protect healthcare employees from violence in Texas healthcare facilities. Texas also implemented a complementary notice requirement applicable to all Texas employers to encourage reporting incidents of workplace violence. Texas implements statutory protec- tions to prevent workplace violence against healthcare workers ...
Nearly two years following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), Treasury and the IRS released the unpublished version of the final rule (Final Rule) for compliance with the IRA’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements (PWA requirements). Taxpayers seeking to claim the highest available investment and/or production tax credits for renewable energy projects must comply with the PWA requirements ...
Introduction In 2020, faced with statistics showing that nearly one in two women and three in ten men believed they had suffered sexual harassment or assault in the workplace,1 the Minister of Labour expressed its intention to help prevent and address this issue. The government began by setting up a committee to examine cases of sexual harassment and assault (the ?Committee?). Its mandate was to analyze how such cases are handled in workplaces across the province ...
July 15, 2024 By: Roger L. Scott In September of 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 553, which amended Labor Code section 6401.7 and created new section 6401.9 to require employers (with few exceptions) to develop and implement a detailed workplace violence prevention plan and to train their employees in addressing workplace violence. Employers were required to comply by July 1, 2024 ...
A recent appeal case upheld a breach of contract claim over a lifetime rail travel benefit delivered by a third-party provider. We examine the case and how employers can avoid such disputes through clear terms and conditions for employee benefit schemes ...
Continuing the series on protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 we focus on gender reassignment and the need for employers to understand the legal protections and the potential consequences of failing to comply with them. What is gender reassignment? A somewhat misunderstood protected characteristic, gender reassignment protects those who are either proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process designed to change their sex ...
As previously reported, on April 24, the Federal Trade Commission passed a Final Rule that would render almost all non-compete agreements with workers unlawful, effective September 4, 2024. However, a recent decision from the Northern District of Texas blocked enforcement of that Rule for a short list of litigants and casts doubt on the Rule’s enforcement in the future ...
On August 1st, 2024, Law No.21,643 which amends the Labor Code regarding the prevention, investigation and sanctioning of labor, sexual harassment and workplace violence (the “Law”), will enter into force. General Ruling No.3813 (“General Ruling”), issued by the Superintendence of Social Security ("SUSESO") on June 7th, 2024, provides technical assistance in all matters covered by the new Article 211-A of the Labor Code ...
On August 1st, Law No.21,643, which amends the Labor Code regarding the prevention, investigation and sanctioning of labor, sexual harassment and workplace violence (the “Law”), will enter into force. In this context, on June 7th, 2024, the Labor Board issued ruling No. 362/19, which establishes the meaning and scope of the amendments introduced by the Law (the “Ruling”). The most relevant aspects of the Ruling are the following: 1 ...
