Employers preparing for the phasing in of the new pensions auto-enrolment regime should not overlook their data protection obligationsBackground: the new pension regimeFrom October 2012 a new pensions regime will start to be phased in which will eventually require all employers in the UK to automatically enrol eligible staff into some sort of pension scheme and, importantly, for the first time, to pay minimum contributions ...
After several delays, ICANN has published the list of generic top level domain (“gTLD” or “string”) applicants and the gTLDs they have applied for. This new initiative from ICANN will allow a wide variety of entities to act as registrars for gTLDs of their choosing. Once these systems are up and running, consumers will be able to access websites not only ending with .com or .net, but also ending with .NETFLIX, .AOL, and .PIZZA. The list can be found at:http://newgtlds.icann ...
The European Convention on Human Rights applies also to legal entities.As a result, businesses and organisations can address the European Court of Human Rights if they consider that their human rights, guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights, have been violated. Although not rare in Europe, this option is still new and not widely used by companies in the Baltics ...
On February 29, 2012, the Quebec Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of the Quebec Superior Court that had dismissed the motion to authorize the bringing of A Class Action filed by Mr. Michel Dell'Aniello ("Dell'Aniello") in connection with changes made unilaterally by Vivendi Canada Inc. ("Vivendi") to the extended medical insurance benefits plan for retirees. THE FACTS In 1977, The Seagram Company Ltd ...
Agreements to compel the resolution of most employment related disputes are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have mandated the enforcement of arbitration agreements in employment cases under the FAA provided the agreements are fair, provide due process, and enable employees to preserve all the rights and remedies that they would have been entitled to in a court of law. See Circuit City Stores Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S ...
A religious organization has a constitutional right to make decisions about the hiring and firing of its “ministers” under the First Amendment. In a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church and School v. E.E.O.C., 132 S.Ct. 694, 2012 WL 75047 (2012), the Supreme Court ruled that religious organizations can assert the “ministerial exception” under the First Amended to bar employment discrimination suits by those who can be considered “ministers” of the organization ...
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has long contended that when employers use criminal histories to make employment decisions, they run the risk of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by basing their decision on information that has an unfair impact on minorities. The EEOC recently stepped up its enforcement efforts and publicly settled with Pepsi for $3.13 million over the beverage company’s use of a blanket exclusion policy of people with criminal records ...
On May 26, 2011, in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America et al. v. Michael B. Whiting et al., 131 S.Ct. 1968 (2011), the Supreme Court of the United States upheld states’ rights to mandate use of the employment verification program (E-Verify) organized by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) ...
In the great George Orwell novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the Ministry of Truth is a vast bureaucracy that ironically exists to falsify historical events in the service of political ideology. Its headquarters is an 80-story building of 3,000 rooms, and its outside walls bear the words “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength ...
Employers, imagine that your employees’ use of Facebook and Twitter is akin to being at the controls of a forklift. Consider the employee who is angry because he has not been adequately trained and is tired of having to be on call 24/7, or the employee who is upset because she believes overtime is being unfairly distributed among company personnel ...
On May 15, 2012, a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia struck down recent changes to the National Labor Relations Board’s representation election procedures, which were intended to streamline the Board’s representation election process. In response, the Board has halted implementation of these changes, which took effect on April 30, 2012 ...
On January 3, 2012, the Ontario Superior Court ordered that Solid Gold Resources Corp. ("Solid Gold"), a junior mining exploration company, be enjoined from carrying on any further mineral exploration activity for 120 days on a parcel of land claimed by the Wahgoshig First Nation ("Wahgoshig") as its traditional territory ...
The Minister of Manpower and Transmigration (MOM) recently issued Regulation No. 40 of 2012 on Certain Positions which are Closed to Foreign Manpower (“MOMR 40/2012”). MOMR 40/2012 lists 19 different positions, most related to human resources, which are closed to foreigners. However, MOMR 40/2012 applies to wholly owned local companies only and does not apply to foreign-owned companies (ie foreign investment companies/PMAs) ...
The Constitutional Court in Decision No. 27/PUU-IX/2011 (“Decision”) declared articles 65(7) and 66(2)(b) of Law No. 13 of 2003 (“Manpower Law“) conditionally unconstitutional where fixed-term employment contracts used in outsourcing arrangements do not provide a clause protecting the rights of existing workers when the principal company (work provider) switches outsourcing company or labour provider but the same work continues ...
New law regarding the use of cookies on websites was introduced in the UK in May last year. Broadly speaking, the new law requires a website owner/operator to: - tell users that cookies are used on its website; - explain to users what the cookies are doing; and - obtain users’ explicit consent to store cookies on their device. The Information Commissioner is responsible for enforcing this new law ...
Earlier this month the new Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), Rosemary Agnew, took up her position. Since Kevin Dunion finished his second term at the end of February his Head of Enforcement, Margaret Keyse, was Acting Commissioner until Ms Agnew was able to take up her new post. As you would expect the SIC’s team has carried on the work that Mr Dunion set in place but only time will tell what Ms Agnew’s approach to the role will be ...
Bill 33,1 whose very title announced the elimination of Union Placement of employees to improve the operations of the construction industry, was assented to on December 2, 2011, and it has raised a lot of comments. The media has made a great deal of the changes proposed in this bill regarding union placement of employees in the construction industry ...
On 1 March 2012, Google launched a new privacy policy by consolidating over 60 of its global privacy policies into one document. The new privacy policy does not indicate that Google will collect any new or additional data about users. What it does do, however, is inform people that Google will merge data which it already collects from services such as YouTube and Web History (which records all searches performed on Google ...
The Government of Guangdong Province has recently put forward and is currently seeking public opinions on a series of draft labour law related regulations, namely, the Provisions of the Implementation of the Labour Contract Law of the People's Republic of China in Guangdong Province ( 《广东省实施 〈中华人民共和国劳动合同法〉若干规定》)
With the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) grace period for enforcing the new cookies rules almost at an end, companies should work with their website developers at an early stage to ensure compliance. The ICO will soon be confirming that its 12 month ‘lead in’ implementation period has come to an end. Website operators then run the risk of enforcement action and fines if they fail to comply with the new cookies regime ...
A trubunal has ruled that an employee was fairly dismissed for makng vulgar comment to female colleague on his facebook page while at home. A recent decision from a tribunal in Northern Ireland held that an employee was fairly dismissed because comments which he posted on his Facebook page amounted to harassment of a female colleague and was in breach of the employer’s Dignity at Work Policy ...
On April 17, 2012, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision enjoining the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) from implementing a controversial rule requiring employers to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The rule’s effective date was slated for April 30, 2012. In response to the D.C ...
On 29 March,the Ministerial Order No. 84/2012 that declared the Tribunal for Competition,Regulation and Supervision (“TCRS” or “Tribunal”) operational was finally published in the Official Journal. Said Ministerial Order constitutes the final phase of the legislative procedure initiated with Law No. 46/2011, of 24.6.2011, and further developed by Decree-Law No. 67/2012, of 20.3.2012 ...
THE FACTS In January 2001, Synertech established two individual pension plans for two of its executives, that is the individual pension plan for Mr. François Bérard (the “Bérard Plan”) and the individual pension plan for Mr. Michael Pons (the “Pons Plan”). In November 2008, Synertech amended these two pension plans, effective as of January 1, 2001 ...
The Fourth Circuit has just released its highly anticipated keyword advertising decision in Rosetta Stone Ltd. v. Google Inc., No. 10-2007 (4th Cir. Apr. 9, 2012), vacating much of a district court order favorable to Google ...
