On January 25, the State of California lifted its previously enacted emergency stay-at-home order for all 58 counties. The stay-at-home orders were put in place at the beginning of December and were designed to help ease the burden on ICUs throughout the state, which were becoming increasingly inundated with new COVID-19 patients ...
Dr Michael Psaila, Managing Partner of Mamo TCV Advocates, underlined the firm’s commitment to the visually impaired and the Malta Guide Dogs Foundation (MGDF) in particular when he not only presented a donation but committed the firm to assisting the foundation in its legal affairs in the coming years. It was the wish of the firm, which has a staff complement of over 70 people, to select the MGDF as one of the beneficiaries of their annual charity donation ...
Aron Beezley of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP enumerates the key impacts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council's final rule adopting mandates of the executive order Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently issued a final rule1 that implements the requirements of the Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials Executive Order ...
On Jan. 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released updated guidance regarding mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. Important highlights are as follows. First, the guidance emphasizes that employers should implement a COVID-19 prevention program for the workplace ...
1. Background to the case The case concerned a young, female employee in a mechanical workshop, who felt she had been sexually harassed by two of the enterprise’s customers. Customer No 1 had on one occasion, while the female employee was sitting on the floor in a forward-leaning position, performing work, put his hands on her lower back, under her top ...
On 30 December 2020, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 152/2020/ND-CP (“Decree 152”) which will take effect on 15 February 2021 and replace Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP of the Government of Vietnam dated 3 February 2016 (“Decree 11”), Decree No. 75/2014/ND-CP of the Government of Vietnam dated 28 July 2014 (“Decree 75”) and its corresponding amendments and supplemental decrees ...
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has published its determination for the levy year 2021 to 2022, following its autumn consultation. Ordinarily, the PPF considers matters across the levy triennium with a view to keeping the rules relatively stable on a triennial basis. However, in considering the impact of COVID-19 on schemes, the PPF wishes to take a more flexible approach with the aim of switching back to a multi-year approach in 2023/24 ...
Bank Negara Malaysia issues Licensing Framework for Digital Banks Bank Negara Malaysia issued its policy document on Licensing Framework for Digital Banks on 31 December 2020. It has indicated in its press release that up to five licences may be issued to qualified applicants and notification of the grant of licence will only be made by the first quarter of 2022 ...
Introduction In the recent Industrial Court Award of Azffanizam bin Abd v Prince Court Medical Centre Sdn Bhd [Award No.11 of 2021] dated 4 January 2021, the Industrial Court accepted evidence taken from social media in dismissing a claim of forced resignation ...
On 26 January 2021, the Central Bank of Myanmar (the “CBM”) issued Notification1/2021 (the “Notification”) outlining the requirements and specifications for the establishment, operation and business activities of non-bank financial institutions (“NBFIs”). This Notification is effective from 26 January 2021. 1 ...
Domestic extremism is not new, but heightened law enforcement scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol riots has added yet another layer of complexity to the jobs of already challenged AML compliance professionals and investigators ...
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has proposed sweeping changes to the popular “short-form” Proposition 65 warning. On January 8, 2021, OEHHA issued a proposal to amend Article 6 “Clear and Reasonable Warnings” Section 25601. This Article sets forth “safe harbor” warning methods, including warnings for consumer product exposures ...
Current State of Shopping Centers Our legacy shopping centers are often well-located, near transportation routes, population centers and employment hubs. Post-recession enthusiasm for shopping encouraged the expansion of many retail stores and product lines, and rental rates for prime shopping locations continues to grow ...
Traditionally, Belgian labour law distinguishes between two forms of telework, namely structural telework, regulated by the Collective Labour Agreement n° 85, and occasional telework, regulated by the Act on Workable and Agile Work. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a third category has been added, namely 'Covid telework', which was, at a certain point, recommended but has now been made compulsory again by the government ...
Introduction In the recent Industrial Court Award of Harry Wong Wei Chen v Petroliam Nasional Berhad [Award No.11 of 2021] dated 4 January 2021, the Industrial Court upheld the dismissal of an employee (“the Claimant”) on account of several allegations of sexual and workplace harassment. An interesting point in the instant case was the absence of corroborative witnesses in respect of several of the complaints against the Claimant ...
Notwithstanding the pandemic, February marks LGBT History Month; an annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history. It is important that the progress we have made to date is not only recognised but celebrated ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. If somebody asked me at the start of 2020 whether I could join a meeting by video, my immediate thought would have been: “no, that sounds far too difficult and I don’t think we really have the technology to do that” ...
Changes to the off-payroll working rules for private sector organisations originally planned for April 2020 will now come into force from 6 April 2021. As a result, large and medium sized organisations engaging contractors through an intermediary will have various responsibilities and potential liabilities ...
i. To extend until December 31st, 2021, the occupational emergency declared by the Necessity and Urgency Decree No. 34/2019. ii. To extend the prohibition of dismissals without just cause and for the causes of lack or reduction of work and force majeure for a period of 90 days as of the expiration of the term established by Decree No ...
A new Royal Decree published on 21 January 2021 in the Belgian Official Gazette has temporarily extended the occupational doctor's role in combatting the Covid-19 virus ...
Imagine you instruct an employee to get tested for the Covid-19 virus infection. The employee refuses the test, claiming that the employer is not authorized to instruct him to take such a test. Moreover, the employee claims he had been vaccinated against Covid-19. What is the legal situation? 1 ...
Labor Court Siegburg 11/11/2020 - 4 Ca 1240/20 Short-time work continues to be omnipresent in many sectors of the economy due to the Covid 19 pandemic. A recent decision by the Labor Court Siegburg once again emphasizes that the ordering and implementation of short-time work requires careful preparation on the part of the company in terms of labor law in order to avoid unpleasant surprises ...
The government’s recent announcement of its plan to roll-out the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine nationwide has triggered many questions and concerns, highlighting a collision of seemingly conflicting rights and obligations in various spheres of life. With the first vaccines arriving on our shores on 1 February 2021, there are likely some employees out there who are not as excited about the arrival of the vaccine as their employers are ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
