By judgment of 6 January 2014, the Danish Eastern High Court found that a sales consultant did not have status as a salaried employee. The case involved a woman who for a period of 2 months had acted as a sales consultant for a company. Thereafter, the company decided to end the cooperation. The sales consultant made a claim for salary, holiday allowance, mileage allowance and compensation for lack of employment contract ...
The Sound Commercial Practices Guideline (the “Guideline”) published by the Autorité des marchés financiers (the “AMF”) in June 2013 and intended for insurers of persons or damages, holding companies controlled by an insurer, trust and savings companies or financial services cooperatives that are authorized by the AMF to conduct business in Quebec, including in particular those financial institutions governed by the statues of another province or country (collectively referred to hereaft
New regulations that ban businesses from imposing excessive fees on consumers making payments will extend to small businesses from 12 June 2014. The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 (the 'regulations') - the first of many legislative changes that form part of the major ongoing overhaul of consumer protection legislation - came into force for most businesses on 6 April 2013 ...
A. Legal Framework. In the Republic of Panama, the operation of investment funds and the securities market in general is regulated by Decree-Law No. 1 of 8 of July of 1999 (as amended to date, the “Securities Act”) and the regulations issued by the SSM (the “Regulations”). The government entity that is in charge of the regulation and supervision of the securities market in Panama is the Superintendency of the Securities Market (the “SSM”) ...
1 - What employment issues must companies consider in deciding whether to switch to the BYOD model? If companies are considering switching to the BYOD model, it can be worth considering implementing a clear IT policy regulating which devices the employee is allowed to bring and how to use them with the company's IT system ...
With international marketers readying for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA) has released Ambush Marketing: A Global Legal Perspective, which summarizes laws and other rules governing ambush marketing in 52 countries around the world ...
The High Court recently issued 2 important judgments on the topic of bullying in the workplace. In the first case the plaintiff was successful and in the second case the plaintiff's claim failed. In the case of Una Ruffley v. the Board of Management of St. Anne's School (May 2014) a special needs assistant was awarded the sum of €255,276 in compensation and loss of earnings as a result of bullying which she suffered in the work place ...
The prolific growth in the use of social media has resulted in an increasing tension between employers and employees over social media account ownership. The crux of the issue is that employers are encouraging their employees to use social networking websites, whilst trying to claim that the contacts should remain confidential at the end of their employment ...
The European Commission published its proposal for a revised EU Pensions Directive on 27 March 2014. The revised Directive on the “activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (recast)” (known as“IORP II”) hopes to make those institutions “better governed, more transparent and increasing their cross-border activity, thereby strengthening the internal market” ...
The Court of Appeal recently reviewed the scope of the duty of employees to mitigate their damages for lost salary pursuant to section 128(2) of the Act respecting labour standards (ARLS).1In this case, the Court of Appeal allowed in part the appeal of an employee following a decision of the Superior Court which had dismissed his motion for judicial review of two decisions of the Commission des relations du travail (CRT) ...
Our clients from outside the province of Quebec often ask us the following questions: what are the linguistic labelling requirements in Canada, and particularly Quebec? There are several statutes and regulations governing labelling in Quebec and Canada. The following is a summary of some of the major points relating to the use of the French language ...
The Supreme Court of Canada has provided some important guidance regarding who qualifies as an “employee” under the British Columbia Human Rights Code in the case of McCormick v. Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP 014 SCC 39). Mr. McCormick was an equity partner at Fasken. The Fasken Partnership Agreement required Mr. McCormick to divest his ownership in the partnership and retire at the end of the year in which he turned 65. Mr ...
An employer faces a difficult situation when a temporarily disabled employee who cannot perform his or her essential job functions requests an accommodation. This situation becomes significantly more complicated when the employee receives the “accommodation,” but never recovers enough to resume performing the essential job functions ...
THE FACTS The complainant, a non-unionized employee, was hired by McGill University (hereinafter the “University”) in 1987 to be a member of the administrative staff. After working as an administrative assistant since 1994, she was dismissed by the University on June 30, 2009 for fraud. The University’s administrative staff is subject to a Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”), which also covers their employment conditions ...
In a surprise announcement on 21 March 2014, the Zambian government with immediate effect abolished exchange control regulations introduced in 2012 and 2013 in an attempt to halt the rapid devaluation of the Kwacha. When the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) came to power in Zambia in 1991, the new government’s priorities were the restoration of economic future growth and employment through liberalising the economy and allowing market forces a greater role ...
On 14 February 2014 the South African Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) gave notice of its intention to prohibit the use of a large number of European food and drinks names in terms of section 15 of the Merchandise Marks Act (MMA) - confusingly the notice also makes reference to section 13 of the MMA, a section that no longer exists ...
New Regulations Governing Consumer Claims and Language Use in Consumer Information The Croatian Consumer Protection Act has recently updated how customer claims are to be handled. The receipt of complaints must now be confirmed in writing without delay ...
The High Court considered whether amendments were valid despite the fact that the deeds of amendment had not been effectively executed. Background The Gleeds Retirement Benefits Scheme was established as a final salary scheme by a partnership in the Gleeds group in 1974. Over the years many amendments were made to the scheme, including amendments relating to equalisation, the introduction of two money purchase sections and closure to final salary benefit accrual ...
Following the deportation by the Sri Lankan authorities of a British tourist because she had a Buddha tattoo on her arm, we look at the issue of tattoos in the workplace, and whether employers should, or indeed must, allow employees to have tattoos. What's the problem? The issue for the Sri Lankan authorities was the alleged insult to Buddhism caused by the tattoo ...
In a recent case, the EAT considered whether the fact that an employer had mistakenly invited an employee to a disciplinary meeting rather than a capability meeting was a material factor when considering its objective justification defence against a discrimination claim. The employee in question had been diagnosed with post-natal depression, a long-term disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, and was unable to return to work for the foreseeable future ...
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has commenced consultation on the reviewed UK Corporate Governance Code. The Code, which sets out good practice for UK listed companies across a range of issues, is routinely reviewed every two years ...
In our January 2014 bulletin, we provided an overview of the Quebec government’s action plan aimed at [Translation] “correcting and restoring the situation of pension plans”. Also in that bulletin, we noted that in February 2014, the government was planning to introduce the first bill designed to set up the restructuring process for municipal pension plans. The government made good on its promise ...
The government announced radical changes to the existing rules regarding the way in which people access and use their pension savings in the UK as part of the 2014 Budget. It is proposed that from April 2015 DC pension savers will no longer have to buy an annuity and will be able to access their full fund on retirement and invest it as they wish. In addition, the existing rules around lump sums on retirement and drawdown have been relaxed with effect from 27 March 2014 ...
In recent years, one clause of the ISDA Master Agreement has been the source of a great deal of consternation among derivatives lawyers: the condition precedent set forth in Section 2(a)(iii), which purports to suspend a party’s payment obligations in the event of a continuing default by the other party ...
