With the third wave of COVID-19 in full swing in South Africa, it has never been more important for South African employers to anticipate and prepare for the various COVID-19 related disputes that may lie ahead. It is vital to learn from the challenges already confronted by employers worldwide concerning issues such as vaccination, occupational health and safety, and flexible working arrangements and their approaches to such matters ...
There are plenty of articles which set out the "hard facts" of Freeports - the locations, tax benefits etc. - but are we all missing the real point? One of the key objectives of the UK government was to "create hotbeds for innovation" ...
MP Dr Liam Fox provided his support to a draft bill recently placed before parliament focusing on individuals with Down’s Syndrome. He has been working on the bill with a Down’s Syndrome Association in Portsmouth. If the draft bill passes through parliament and receives royal assent, the Down’s Syndrome Act will come into force. Its focus is on improving provision for those with Down’s Syndrome which includes education, health, social care and employment ...
On June 23, 2021, the Department of Telecom (“DoT”) released revised regulations relating to Other Service Providers (“OSP”) replacing the previous OSP regulations that were issued last year. This client update provides a summary of key issues that have been addressed by the new regulations. SUMMARY OF NEW OSP REGULATIONS Effective Date. The regulations are stated to come into force immediately ...
Dinsmore health care partner Joseph Zielinski was published in the most recent edition of New Perspectives on Health Care Risk Management, Control and Governance, the publication of the Association of Health Care Internal Auditors. His article, "The Effectiveness of Your Compliance Program," covers how to effectively audit your organization's compliance program while gaining valuable insights. An excerpt is below ...
Starting around October 26, 2020, the Small Business Administrations (the “SBA”) asked Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) lenders to provide certain questionnaires to PPP borrowers with loans of $2 million or greater. There are two questionnaire forms on the Treasury: Form 3509 for for-profit borrowers and Form 3510 for non-profit borrowers ...
In a case concerning the validity and effect of certain deeds relating to pension increases, the High Court has handed down its judgement. The case also considers the application of scheme forfeiture clauses to arrears of underpayments. The case, concerning the Axminster pension scheme (‘Scheme’), was brought by the Scheme’s independent trustee. Many of the original issues were compromised by the parties, meaning that the court was asked to approve the compromise ...
On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., a much-anticipated decision regarding schools’ regulation of off-campus speech. The Court held that while schools may discipline students for some off-campus speech, their ability to do so is much more limited than for on-campus speech. B.L. was a student at Mahanoy Area High School and cheered on the junior varsity team during her freshman year ...
A just-passed piece of legislation crafted to bolster countercrime defenses and crack open beneficial ownership bastions, a historical haven for criminals of all stripes, has lesser-known tethers for certain segments of the investment sector – a critical pitfall that should not be lost on compliance teams. In May 2020, a leaked investigation bulletin prepared by the U.S ...
On June 21, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new rule to restrict the amount of non-tip-producing work a tipped employee can perform when an employer is taking a tip credit. The proposed rule clarifies that if an employee performs work that directly supports tip-producing work for a substantial amount of time — at least 20 percent of the hours worked in a workweek or at least 30 continuous minutes — the worker must be paid the standard minimum wage ...
Employers who are faced with employee requests for accommodation on the basis of family status may find that the response to such requests depends on the province of employment ...
On 11 June 2021, the Minister of Employment and Labour released the much-anticipated vaccination guidelines. These are included in the amended Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in certain Workplaces (the “Directive”). While some have interpreted the Directive as giving employers carte blanche to impose mandatory vaccination policies, this is not the case ...
Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, In this article, our partner, Anand Raj, and associate, Jeevitha Thurai Rathnam, discuss the Malaysia Competition Commission’s market review exercise into the transportation sector (port logistics ecosystem and motor vehicle warranty claims) ...
The Federal Tax Authority (the FTA) has started to impose penalties on businesses that have failed to submit their economic substance notifications by the set deadline of 30 June 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019, and the economic substance reports by the set deadline of 31 December 2020 for the financial period ended on 31 December 2019 ...
The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 (‘Regulations’) have been laid before parliament and are due to come into effect on 1 October this year. The Pensions Minister announced on June 8 the final version of the Regulations which are designed to regulate how trustees of certain trust-based occupational schemes must engage with, and report on, climate change risk as part of their duties ...
Deadlines loom, as changes to rules on the rights of EEA and Swiss citizens to live and work in the UK are fast approaching. With many developments to keep apace of, we have highlighted the key dates and points which employers need to mark in the diary. 1 ...
As many of us continue to work from home and/or have opportunities for travel and meeting up restricted, we are continuing to run our essential webinar series for employers to ensure that our clients and contacts remain up to date and equipped to deal with all eventualities! Our latest seminar focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace ...
The Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021 is being expedited through the legislative process. It will provide for extensions to a number of time limits, including for the passing of development plans. Importantly however it will also allow for extensions, or additional extensions, to existing planning permissions to allow projects be completed. Planning permissions have a fixed duration, usually five years ...
Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a record year for Prop. 65 filings. There was a 46% increase in Notice of Violation filings from 2019, driven by the usual filers, as well as many new law firms and noticing parties. There have been 1,346 notices filed between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 3, 2021, compared to 1,327 Notices filed in the same time-period in 2020. These Notices consist primarily of phthalates, lead, cadmium, arsenic, BPA and acrylamide ...
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Board on 11 June 2021 approved new rules prohibiting the trading on national exchange platforms of utility tokens and certain types of ‘novelty’ cryptocurrencies such as DogeCoin, SafeMoon or MonaCoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Notification No. Kor Thor. 18/2564 Re: Rules, Conditions and Procedures for Undertaking Digital Asset Businesses (No ...
New York State Lifts Restrictions. On June 7, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that the State would lift most remaining COVID-19 restrictions when 70% of adult New Yorkers had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. On June 15, 2021, Governor Cuomo held a press conference to announce that New York had reached the 70% first-dose threshold ...
In one of the most highly anticipated decisions in the employment law arena, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has found that Maya Forstater’s ‘gender-critical’ belief is a philosophical belief worthy of protection under s10 of the Equality Act 2010 (“EqA”). Ms Forstater complained to the employment tribunal that she was discriminated against because of her gender-critical belief that sex is biologically immutable and that ‘transwomen are men’ ...
