On March 21, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), which President Obama signed into law on March 23, 2010. The health care reform law will make far-reaching changes to the United States health care system over the next several years. The House and Senate also passed a separate bill, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (“HCERA”), which President Obama signed into law on March 30, 2010 ...
USCIS has issued a notice to assist those non-immigrants stranded in the U.S. due to European airport closures resulting from the Icelandic volcano eruption. The notice addresses those who are about to exceed their authorized stay in the U.S., which is noted on their I-94 or I-94W arrival/departure record. Those who have entered the U.S. under a visa are directed to contact their local USCIS office and to file an extension of status application before their authorized stay expires ...
1. The Concepts of “Trust” and “Security Trustee” It would be difficult to identify a universally accepted definition of “trust” and “security trustee” although these legal concepts appear to be well-developed in common law systems and are also acknowledged in a few civil law jurisdictions ...
Under the new system, GPs will indicate whether the patient is "unfit for work" or "may be fit for work". In the latter case, he will advise of any adjustments to the employee's role or work environment from which the employee may benefit. These might include a phased return, restricted duties, altered hours or even physical adaptations to the workplace ...
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) is finally moving towards its full complement of five members. On March 27, 2010, President Barack Obama made two recess appointments (a procedure not requiring legislative approval), increasing the NLRB’s membership from the two that have been serving the past couple of years to four members. The appointments still leave the NLRB one member short; however, three members constitute a quorum that can unquestionably decide cases before the Board ...
In Brazil the payment of profit sharing is regulated by Law # 10101/2000 (“Profit Sharing Law”), which sets the terms and conditions that the company’s plans have to meet in order to have such payments excluded from the basis of calculation of the mandatory labor benefits (vacation bonus, 13th salary, etc.) and the social security contributions ...
Academics are often called to give evidence as expert witnesses and use the name of their employer institution in doing so. Indeed, an association with a well-known tertiary institution is often a drawcard when selecting an expert witness. As the discussion below demonstrates, an expert's role is not necessarily straightforward ...
From 2010 until 2013, approximately $1.4 trillion1 of commercial real estate loans will mature. Notably, it has been estimated that nearly 50 percent2 of the loans are under water and that a wave of defaults and bankruptcies may occur. Because many of the commercial real estate loans are secured by a single parcel of real estate, it is critical that lenders and debtors be aware of the rules governing Single Asset Real Estate (SARE) Chapter 11 cases ...
Contents* Quebec Modernizes its Corporate Law * Choosing a Name you Intend to Keep * Deemed Year-End on Loss of CCPC Status: One Possible Solution * Renewal Option or Privilege QUEBEC MODERNIZES ITS CORPORATE LAWValérie [email protected] Bill 63 – The Business Corporations Act was tabled before the National Assembly on October 7, 2009 and assented to on December 4, 2009 ...
The decision by an employer to off er a pension plan to its employees is an important one. Various types of pension plans may be off ered, and the financial risk of the employer depends on the type of plan chosen.While unions and employees generally prefer defined benefit pension plans,(1) employers are now very reluctant to implement such plans because of the financial liability they entail ...
A landmark High Court decision handed down yesterday will have a significant impact on how regulators approach prosecutions of employers for breaches of occupational health and safety laws (OHS laws) across Australia ...
Bigger fines predicted for organisations guilty of corporate manslaughter The long awaited definitive guidelines for sentencing organisations guilty of either corporate manslaughter or a health and safety breach which causes death have been published ...
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (the "Act") received Royal Assent on 12 November 2009. Among other things it introduces a new statutory right for employees to request time off from work to study or train. From 6 April 2010 the new right only applies to employers with 250 or more employees. It is expected to apply to all other employers from 6 April 2011 ...
The Pay Equity Act (hereinafter the “Act”) celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. To mark the occasion, the Commission de l’équité salariale took stock of what had been achieved. After completing this analysis, on May 27, 2009, the National Assembly passed Bill 25, which made several amendments to the Act. These amendments came into force on May 28, 2009 ...
In light of recent case law on who properly qualifies as the employer of employees hired through an employment agency, it is essential for every organization to review its operating procedures to be sure of their legal and financial implications. This review, which we perform on behalf of managers of facilities in the heath-care industry, is effective in ensuring the sound management of the organization and preventing litigation ...
Some unexpected changes have highlighted the introduction of new employee share scheme legislation, which received Royal Assent on 14 December 2009. Companies will need to give the legislation close consideration given the impact it will have on employee equity plans, particularly the drafting of plan rules and offer documents ...
Following the public discussions which took place after the approval of the Decree-Law no. 317/2009 of 30 October (Decree-Law 317/2009)[1], Decree-Law no. 3/2010 of 5 January (Decree-Law 3/2010) was published in the Official Gazette, imposing a prohibition on credit institutions to charge on automated teller machines[2] (ATM) transactions, as well as, a prohibition on beneficiaries to charge payment transactions in automatic payment terminals and devices[3] ...
Interest rates have remained at an all time low of 0.5% for 10 months in a row and the Bank of England is continuing with its quantitative easing programme. It has been upped to a £200bn asset purchase programme to increase the money in the UK’s financial system and boost bank lending. Meanwhile, total government debt is projected to rise to £1.4 trillion, nearly doubling to 80% of GDP ...
On January 1, 2010 the Federal law “On amendment the Federal Law “On the employment of the population in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter – the “Law”) came into force. The Law provides for the equal rights to the dismissed citizens, who worked under employment contract with individual entrepreneurs and to those who were dismissed from legal entities ...
The fifth anniversary has just passed of the Constitutional Court’s 2004 ruling which declared that Article 158 and certain other articles of the Manpower Law in relation to serious misconduct were against the Indonesian Constitution. Effectively, an employer could not immediately terminate an employee for serious misconduct but had to wait for a court judgment of guilt before initiating termination ...
With the current recessionary climate there has been a significant increase in redundancies and other dismissals. This has led to an inevitable increase in the use of compromise agreements whereby an employee signs a document agreeing not to bring particular employment or contractual claims in exchange for a financial settlement.Here we look at some of the key issues in considering how termination payments could be structured ...
Over the last ten years, Quebec soc iety has frequently been called on to establ ish means for integrating human rights in the workplace, particularly with respect to accommodation matters ...
As an initiative to develop Islamic finance and Islamic fund management in Hong Kong, the SFC signed a Declaration on Mutual Cooperation on Development of Islamic Capital Market and Islamic Collective Investment Schemes (Declaration) with the Securities Commission of Malaysia (MSC) on 9 November 2009, which provides a framework for the mutual recognition of Islamic funds (excluding hedge funds, wholesale funds and real estate investment trusts as defined in the
Chapter 10.2 of the SFC's Code on Unit Trusts and Mutual Funds (Code) requires that pricing errors for SFC authorised funds should be corrected as soon as possible and all necessary action should be taken to avoid errors occurring in the future. If the pricing error results in an incorrect price of 0 ...
As a consequence of the recent wave of successful SFC insider dealing criminal prosecutions, responsible officers (ROs) are asking what they need to do to protect their companies and themselves. ROs are obliged to take all reasonable measures to ensure that proper safeguards exist to prevent the licensed corporation and its employees from insider dealing ...
