The Government of Malta reaffirmed its commitment to establishing Malta as a go-to jurisdiction for start-ups in its Budget for 2023. During the budget speech that was delivered on 24th October 2022, the Minister for Finance and Employment, Hon. Clyde Caruana announced that a one-stop shop for start-ups is set to be launched within the “Start in Malta” programme currently run by the Malta Enterprise ...
Three bills are being read in Parliament proposing new insolvency-related legislation and amendments: The Pre-Insolvency Bill; The Insolvency Practitioners Bill; and The Commercial Code (Amendment) Bill ...
In February of 2022, during his State of the Union Address, President Biden announced an action plan to improve the safety and quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes.[i] On October 21, 2022, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new requirements to help with oversight of facilities selected to the Special Focus Facilities (SFF) Program ...
All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal working which is done by undertaking simple right to work checks before an employee commences employment. 1. Why do employers need to know what IDSPs are? All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal working which is done by undertaking simple right to work checks before an employee commences employment ...
A recent Supreme Court decision has clarified the position on how holiday pay for irregular workers on permanent contracts should be calculated. But practically, where does this leave employers and what options are available to them? Background Under the Working Time Regulations, workers are entitled to be paid a minimum of 5 ...
Republic Act No. 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, is a landmark environmental legislation designed to meet the country’s waste management problems. It requires local government units to achieve 25% waste reduction through re-using, recycling, and composting activities and other resource recovery activities. However, two decades after its enactment, solid waste management remains to be a major challenge ...
Please be informed that new Federal Law No. 332-FZ (“Law”) was passed on 14 July 2022 allowing the landlords to claim from the tenant the average monthly rent or to terminate the lease if the tenant's commercial activities are suspended. The Law establishes specific conditions under which the average rent could be claimed, imposes restrictions on landlord's right to terminate the lease agreement if foreign control over the lessee is terminated ...
Recently, President Biden announced an executive order to pardon all federal marijuana possession charges. The President also urged governors to do the same at the state level saying, “Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.” While President Biden’s pardons signal a step toward overhauling U.S ...
International Business Machines Corp. v. Zillow Group, Inc. et al., Appeal No. 2021-2350 (Fed. Cir. 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Rule 12(c) judgment on the pleadings that IBM’s U.S. Patent Nos. 9,158,789 (the ’789 patent) and 7,187,389 (the ’389 patent) are drawn to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 ...
We are pleased to issue our second edition of the Regulatory Compliance Quarterly Updates. These updates are intended to keep Maltese regulated entities informed of regulatory changes and developments taking place in the local financial services space ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has played an important role in shaping labour markets by accelerating the growth of digital labour platforms which have in turn brought a number of challenges ...
The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations came into force last Friday, the 21st October 2022, implementing the Transparent and Predictable Workings Conditions Directive (2019/1152). The Regulations lay down minimum requirements on the working conditions applicable to every worker in the European Union who has an employment contract or relationship ...
On October 19, 2022, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released the “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster, replacing the “EEO is the Law” poster. The “Know Your Rights” poster provides updated guidance on federal anti-discrimination laws to applicants, employees, and employers. Covered employers are required to prominently display the “Know Your Rights” poster at their worksites ...
In the recent case of R v Andrewes [2022] UKSC 24, the Supreme Court considered whether stripping the Defendant of their earnings would be disproportionate when considering the financial benefit obtained by CV Fraud. This article takes us through the facts of the case and Lauren Bowkett, a Principal Associate in the Business Crime and Compliance team, comments on the recent Supreme Court Judgement ...
The European Council of the EU gave formal approval to the Digital Services Act (DSA) on 4 October 2022, which is the most significant update to the legal framework on digital services since the adoption of the E-Commerce Directive in 2000. The focus of the DSA is to improve user safety online by regulating online content, advertising and product sales ...
In another helpful judgment for defendant organisations handling large amounts of personal data, Driver v CPS provides guidance on the quantum of data breach claims where the claimant has suffered distress but not provided medical evidence. The court awarded £250 as the data breach was at "the lowest end of the spectrum", which may indicate where the de minimis threshold for such cases lies and is often a hotly contested point in data breach claims ...
It is generally accepted that hybrid working is here to stay, along with all the challenges that managing a remote workforce presents. Here we focus on how an employer can effectively manage absence when employees are working remotely. As we discussed in our previous article, The Future of Work: Performance management in a hybrid working world (shoosmiths.co ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on Immigration in Scotland: How do the current rules help fill Scottish labour shortages? The event was hosted by Pavan Sumal and Samantha Mackie and a summary of key takeaways can be found below. General Overview Scotland is subject to the same immigration rules as the rest of the UK. Whilst this carries many benefits, it doesn’t recognise the fact that each of the home nations is unique and has different needs ...
On October 17, 2022, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division 3, issued a decision in Golf & Tennis Pro Shop, Inc. v. Superior Court holding that interrogatory responses containing a combination of unverified factual responses and objections only trigger the 45-day clock to bring a motion to compel when the responding party serves its subsequent verifications ...
Female attorneys are leaving the practice of law. Although this isn’t a new problem, it’s a problem that has plagued the legal profession for decades. Many departures go unexplained and leave legal employers reeling. While answers may be hard to come by, I suggest that legal employers look to an unlikely source for information: TikTok. TikTok is a social media networking platform that allows users to post short-form videos ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes ...
The Supreme Court's judgment is a landmark decision of significant importance in the arena of company law and directors' duties ...
On December 7, 2021, in Georgia v. Biden, Case No. 1:21-cv-163, a federal district court judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered contracts in any state or territory of the United States. This injunction was nationwide applied to all federal contractors ...
