British industry is undergoing a period of unprecedented regulatory reform as part of a government drive to reduce the costs and burdens on business. Over the next year, it will become clearer how effective this reform will be. Following independent recommendations from the Hampton Review and the Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF), Chancellor Gordon Brown launched the Better Regulation Action Plan in May 2005 with the aim of boosting flexibility and enterprise ...
On April 4, 2005, the Court of Appeal issued its decision in CGU v. The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company and Axa Insurance1, which sheds new light on the right of a subrogated insurer to institute legal proceedings directly against the insurer of the person allegedly responsible for the loss. The decision also contains a discussion of the concept of solidarity between insurer and insured for the purposes of the interruption of prescription ...
Consultation Paper on Conditional Fees On 14 September 2005, the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong Conditional Fees Sub-Committee (the “Sub-Committee”) published a consultation paper on conditional fees (the “Consultation Paper”) recommending, among other things, that the existing prohibitions against the use of conditional fees in certain types of civil litigation by legal practitioners be lifted, so that legal practitioners may choose to charge conditional fees in appropriate cases ...
BC Labour Board Further Clarifies an Employer’s Right to Communicate with its Employees In a decision issued on July 8, 2005 - RMH Teleservices International Inc.-a Reconsideration Panel of the BC Labour Relations Board further clarified an employer’s expanded right to communicate with its employees during a unionization campaign. This right was expanded as part of the 2002 amendments to the Labour Relations Code, which we outlined in our Summer 2002 Newsletter ...
The Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 has come into effect today, 1 September 2005. Important issues raised by the Act include: 1. A competent person must be employed to manage safety in the workplace; 2. Hazards must be identified and risk assessments carried out which are thorough and reviewed on a regular basis, and this must be communicated to employees regularly; 3. Training has to be relevant and understood ...
After a prolonged period of development, the announcement in August of the Board of Directors for Scotland's Futures Forum has finally seen this body come to fruition. The development of the Forum has included a substantial period of investigating overseas models, canvassing MSPs and running a conference involving 140 representatives from a number of sectors ...
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed Amendment (5) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Amendment") on 28 February 2005. The Amendment was promulgated by President Hu Jintao and became effective on the same date. The Amendment introduces detailed penal provisions on credit card abuse and fraud and on damaging military equipment. We discuss the new sections regarding credit card abuse and fraud below ...
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 was signed into law by the President on the 1 July. It will not come into force, however, until the 1 September. The new Act makes it easier to impose criminal liability on directors, managers, and other similar officers who control the operations of employers. It increases the penalties in the District Court and the maximum fine in the Circuit Court is €3,000,000 ...
This Bill (as initiated), which will transpose the EU Information and Consultation Directive, has just been published. It does not give workers an automatic right to information and consultation. Instead negotiations to set up an information and consultation structure will have to be “triggered” by workers themselves in the form of a written request from 10% of the workforce, subject to a minimum of 15 employees and a maximum of a 100 ...
On February 2, 2005, the Court of Appeal rendered judgement in L’Union-vie, compagnie mutuelle d’assurance v. Laflamme1, and allowed the appeal of Union-Vie, the defendant in the case. In the court of first instance, Union-Vie had been ordered to pay insurance proceeds of $200,000 further to the death, on September 27, 2001, of the Plaintiff’s spouse, pursuant to a life insurance policy issued on the basis of an insurance application dated October 23, 1998 ...
On March 18, 2005, the Quebec Court of Appeal handed down an important decision confirming that the evidence relating to the behaviour and practices of a “reasonable insurer” need not be provided by an expert witness. In CGU Compagnie d’assurances du Canada v. Sylvain Paul et al., (J.E. 2005-705), Justices Louise Mailhot, René Dussault and Marie-France Bich dealt with this issue in connection with an objection to evidence made by the attorney representing the insured, Mr ...
In Hong Kong, it is common practice that there is a written employment contract between the employer and the employee which sets out the terms and conditions of an employment. The following case indicates that unless clearly provided in the employment contract, an employer cannot unilaterally vary the terms of the employment contract and such variation may be a breach of contract and the employer could be liable for damages ...
Under the Employment Ordinance, an employer has the right to terminate an employee’s employment summarily without notice or payment in lieu of notice in certain situations, one of which is employee misconducting himself, such conduct being inconsistent with the due and faithful discharge of his duties ...
In the United States, a federal judge approved on 10 May 2005 of the plan of United Airlines (“UA”) to terminate four employees’ defined-benefit pension plans and the pension responsibility are shifted to and assumed by the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”). The decision will have a great impact on pension obligations to 120,000 current and former employees of UA and could have far-reaching implications for the pensions industry worldwide ...
The Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Labour Law”) is applicable to all employment relationships between individuals and enterprises in China. However, local governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities may, and most of them do, issue detailed measures and rules for the implementation of the Labour Law. Such detailed measures are promulgated based on the Labour Law, with changes and specific details made in light of the local conditions ...
China presents enormous opportunities for the wealth management industry, as the domestic financial market and players develop increasing sophistication. The financial regulators in China are pushing ahead with financial market reforms and regulations, across the equity and bond markets, over banks, insurance companies, securities companies, securities investment fund management companies, trust investment companies and other financial institutions ...
Central Portal for Public Procurement has been recently launched at www.cvpp.lt. The portal publishes information on the public procurement conducted in Lithuania; the main purpose of the portal is to materialize the electronic procurement methods currently lawful under the Law on Public Procurement of the Republic of Lithuania. The main novelty introduced is the possibility to conduct electronic procurement under the normal commercial practice ...
Armando Aznar J. of the Court of Québec recently rendered a harsh judgment against an insurance company.1 Although the amounts at stake were minimal, the decision may have a significant impact on insurers. This is one of the rare judgments where an insurer was ordered to pay exemplary and moral damages for having made allegations in the pleadings based on unjustified suspicions resulting in damages to the integrity and honesty of its insured ...
On April 12, 2005, grievance arbitrator Denis Tremblay issued a major ruling on the validity of a policy on alcohol consumption and drug use implemented by the Goodyear tire plant in Valleyfield during the summer of 2004. The policy was widely attacked by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, local 143, representing all of the plant’s production employees (close to 1,000 employees) ...
It is just six months on from the introduction of the freedom of information regime, and there is already a wealth of advice and guidance available to public bodies on FOI. Private businesses however, are not as lucky. This article helps redress this imbalance ...
In this edition: - Fire Legislation Changes - Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations Amended - Accounting for Risk - Workplace Stress - Lock up Your Ladders - Corporate Manslaughter Act Moves Closer to Reality - Vibration Regulations are Imminent
Proposal for Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short stay-visas This regulation will enter into force from on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Official Journal of the European Union, C 052 of 2 March 2005 ...
The judgment of the European Court of Justice in Denuit and Cordenier (C-125/04) of 27 January 2005 The case developed out of a dispute between tourists and a travel agency regarding the price of tourist package services. Under the arbitration clause of the initial agreement between the parties, the tourists brought their claims before a Belgian arbitration court ...
What's your Freedom of Information forecast? Reasonably sunny, distinctly rainy or altogether a bit hazy? Whatever your response, it is possible to brighten your outlook and weather those FOI storms. If you’re an in-house lawyer in a public body in Scotland you'll no doubt be more than familiar with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Five months on from the Act's full implementation date of 1 January 2005, it's time to take stock of your public body's progress so far ...
