For those experiencing infertility, the impact on their mental and emotional well-being can be extremely detrimental. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and we consider what employers can do to provide additional support. Recent years have seen an increased focus on mental health and well-being within the workplace - particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The government is pushing ahead with the establishment of a Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) provided for under s.126 and 129 of the Building Safety Act 2022. The Scheme is initially aimed at major housebuilders and other large developers that have developed or refurbished multiple residential buildings that are known to have life-critical fire safety defects ...
After just over a week of waiting, the Government yesterday confirmed that the plan to throw some 4,800 pieces of Retained EU Legislation (“REUL”) onto the bonfire at the end of this year has now been scaled back. Instead we will only lose in the region of 500-600 pieces of legislation, with all remaining REUL becoming English Law ...
On February 23, 2023, the Parliament adopted a new Law of Ukraine "On Collective Agreements and Contracts" (hereinafter - the " Law" ). Most of the provisions of the Law enter into force 6 months after the termination or cancellation of martial law, but we can understand what new this act offers now ...
By imposing the obligations, the regulation aims to end unfair practices and conduct which is harmful to competition and end users by the companies acting as gatekeepers in the online platform economy. Under the DMA, a firm will be considered as a designated gatekeeper if three criteria are met. First, the company must have a significant impact on the European market which is determined by the company’s turnover ...
It would be a surprise to many, but it has been common knowledge to criminal practitioners for years, that a criminal defendant’s sentence for a crime which they have been convicted can be increased based on consideration of conduct that the jury acquitted ...
Brian O'Shaughnessy is an intellectual property partner at Dinsmore and board chair of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. He wrote this article for InsideSources.com. The American inventor is under attack, and it’s coming from our government ...
The Home Office recently updated the ‘reporting duties’ section of its guidance for sponsor licence holders. In particular, the Home Office has added new detail to the ‘change of work location’ section and clarified (to some extent) when a report needs to be made where a sponsored worker undertakes their work either remotely or through a hybrid working pattern ...
On May 7th, 2023, it was held the election of the members of the Constitutional Council, the body in charge of preparing the Proposal for a New Constitution based on a preliminary draft that is currently being prepared by the Expert Commission. According to the election results, the Constitutional Council will be composed of 51 members, politically distributed as follows: 23 elected members representing the Partido Republicano (right-wing political party) ...
On 28 April 2023, a new law was adopted on additional restrictions on devices for the consumption of nicotine-containing products (the “Law” and “Devices”, respectively). The Law introduces special new aspects on the retail, advertising and manufacturing of Devices as well as further restrictions on turnover of nicotine-containing products ...
The SEC Division of Examinations (“Examinations”) issued a Risk Alert on April 26, 2023 to highlight the importance of establishing written policies and procedures for safeguarding customer records and information at branch offices. Examinations provides that a branch office includes any location other than a firm’s main office, including offices of any independent contractors through which a firm may offer investment products and services ...
Recently published government guidance on reporting ethnicity pay data will assist those employers who voluntarily choose to report their data. We highlight the key messages from the guidance and the challenges employers need to address when reporting. It is a statutory requirement for employers with 250 or more employees to measure and report gender pay gaps ...
Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) are increasing in popularity with many entrepreneurs and business owners now looking at this alternative structure of exit. EOTs were introduced through the Finance Act of 2014 to encourage founders and other shareholders to pass ownership of their company on for the benefit of its employees. The John Lewis Partnership, a long-established brand, is well recognised for employee engagement, however EOTs were relatively slow to take off in the UK ...
We highlight the most significant employment law cases since January 2023 and the lessons that employers should take from them. Without prejudice correspondence It is common for employers to use ‘without prejudice’ correspondence when negotiating with an employee on the termination of their employment ...
Prejudgment interest may not come to mind when drafting a settlement agreement. But it can become a crucial issue if one settling party later sues another for misrepresentation related to the agreement and the parties disagree over which state’s prejudgment interest rules apply. States vary widely in the amount of prejudgment interest available. In some cases—as in Conway v. Planet Fitness Holdings, LLC, 101 Mass. App. Ct ...
On March 11, 2023, the West Virginia State Legislature enacted the Student Journalist Press Freedom Protection Act (the “Act”), Senate Bill 121. The Act requires “public high schools, colleges, and universities [to] allow for the free expression of student journalists in school sponsored media ...
Rodney Keister was challenging the University of Alabama’s grounds use policy, which requires individuals to obtain a permit before speaking publicly on campus. In his arguments, Keister asserted that the space he was using to preach and distribute religious literature is a “traditional public forum” protected by the First Amendment ...
On April 24, 2023, the Chamber of Representatives received bulletin No. 15864-13, containing the bill that proposes the adjustment of the minimum monthly income (i.e. minimum salary), which immediately passed to the Labor and Social Security and the Finance Committees of said Chamber. Currently, the bill of law has an urgency status for immediate discussion ...
The right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union official at disciplinary and grievance hearings is likely to be a familiar concept to employers. Here we discuss the nuances of that right and what could happen if there is a breach. What are the worker’s rights? The statutory right to be accompanied is set out in the Employment Relations Act 1999. The right is not limited to employees and applies irrespective of length of service ...
Last month we saw Endometriosis Awareness Month come and go and with it, the question of whether endometriosis is fully recognised in the workplace yet. Last year, in February 2022, support for individuals who suffer from endometriosis was debated in the House of Commons. The key takeaway was that endometriosis affects so many women, yet is still largely unrecognised within the workplace ...
