The West Virginia Ethics Commission issued a new Advisory Opinion on March 7, 2019, which is going to impact the way some teachers arrange for substitutes. The opinion sought was whether it is a violation of the Ethics Act for teachers to prearrange a relative to substitute teach in their absence or place relatives on a preferred list of substitutes for their classrooms ...
Texas LawyerMarch 14, 2019By Rodrigo Figueroa According to ERCOT, the entity that oversees 90 percent of the State’s grid, as of January 2019 there was nearly 1,500 megawatts of installed utility-scale solar capacity in the ERCOT region, with that number expected to almost triple to 4,300 megawatts by the end of 2020 (one megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes in Texas during times of high-peak demand) ...
Sponsored wellness plans that include incentives to employees who voluntarily disclose personal health information as part of disability-related inquiries or medical examinations are in legal limbo after the EEOC removed the underlying rules from the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) ...
In the recent matter ofVodacom & others v the National Association of South African Workers and 1 other, which was handed down on 4 March 2019, the South African Labour Court grappled with the issue of its jurisdiction to grant interdictory relief against a trade union where the entity seeking the relief is not the employer of the trade union’s members. The Labour Court also dealt with the rights of unregistered trade unions ...
If an employer suspects an employee of committing an act of misconduct, it is possible that the employer will want to place that employee on what is usually referred to as a “precautionary suspension”. The question that arises is whether the employer must give the employee a chance to make representations on why he or she should not to be suspended, prior to a decision being taken in this regard ...
On March 4, 2019, the California Supreme Court ruled in Cal Fire Local 2881 et. al. v. California Public Employees' Retirement System that public retirement system members do not have a vested right to purchase "airtime" – nonqualified service credit unrelated to public service ...
On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a rule that would significantly change the pay standards for overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Since 2004, the minimum salary necessary to qualify for an administrative, executive, or professional exemption under the FLSA has been $455 per week ($23,660 per year). Under the proposed rule, this minimum would increase to $679 per week ($35,308 per year) ...
The much awaited revised new regulations governing who qualifies for the FLSA white collar exemption has finally been revealed by the Department of Labor. It did so on March 8 by publishing anNPRM(“Notice of Proposed Rule Making”). In December of 2016, a Texas federal court entered a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of new regulations which would have dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempting most white collar employees from overtime ...
One of the few things that is becoming clearer amidst the Brexit fog is that a ‘no-deal’ is no longer a fanciful possibility. The UK Government, in itsWhite Paper on Immigration Reformpublished at the end of last year, claimed the changes it proposed would lead to the most significant changes to immigration control in 45 years. However, that historic change, scheduled for December 2021, may come sooner than anticipated ...
Since the EU referendum, ourImmigration Team has been advisingEU nationals and their familiesimpacted by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The result has thrown up a whole host of issues for EU nationals in the UK, not least how it affects their rights as a family unit. Our earlier post,British passports for EU children, looked at the position for EU children in the UK and how their parents can obtain a British passport on their behalf ...
USCIS recently announced that beginning March 11, 2019 it will require use of a new version of Form I-539 Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, a form commonly used to extend or change the status of H-4 and L-2 dependents. USCIS stated it will also require use of a new Form I-539A, Supplemental Information for Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status ...
On December 29, 2018, Government Emergency Ordinance No. 114/2018 on the establishment of measures in the field of public investments and of fiscal – budgetary measures, the amendment and completion of certain normative acts and the extension of certain deadlines (“GEO 114/2018”) was published in the Official Gazette ...
An unfortunate by-product of strike action in South Africa is the common occurrence of unlawful and sometimes violent conduct on the part of certain members of the trade union embroiled in the strike. It then frequently becomes relevant whether individual employees should be held accountable for the “actions of the masses” on the basis of the doctrine of common purpose ...
It is becoming increasingly easy for employees in the workplace to record conversations, meetings and disciplinary enquiries without the consent of the employer to do so. The advancement of cell phone technology makes it easy for employees to do so without anyone knowing simply by placing their cell phone in their jacket or trouser pocket or on a table in a meeting ...
Employers in industries with fluctuating daily labor needs, such as retail services, often require employees to call in ahead of a scheduled shift to find out whether they are needed to work. According to a recently-published California Court of Appeal decision, employees who are required to use such a call-in procedure may be entitled to "reporting time pay" if they are told not to come to work that day—even if the employees do not physically report to work ...
The public rights of access on and over land, enshrined in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, have now been around for almost 14 years. They allow all members of the public a responsible right of access on and across land and inland water throughout the country, often informally referred to as the right to roam. Certain parts of land may be excluded from the rights of access under the Act: restrictions may be allowed, for example, due to planned forestry operations ...
As the date draws closer for implementation of the Senior Manager and Certification Regime (SMCR) across asset management firms, HR’s attention is turning to the impact of the new regime on regulatory references ...
Israeli and international organizations seeking to employ foreign workers in Israel, who are not residents or citizens of the country, in management positions or in positions requiring special expertise or training, are required to apply for a work permit. The work permit will then be issued for a “foreign expert” (B/1 permit) from the Population and Immigration Authority in Israel ...
Whether you are a start-up looking to hire your first recruit or an established multi-national business, navigating the world of employment law can be tricky. WithBrexitstill firmly at the top of the bill, we take a look at some of the challenges ahead for employers large and small. As businesses struggle with significant skill shortages, expect difficulties around international recruitment and gender pay disparities to be key issues in the year ahead ...
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has passed an executive order whereby he proposed the creation of the “Logistic Center for the Distribution and Transportation of Petroleum Products” (the “Center”), as a decentralized administrative entity separate from the Ministry of Energy, with technical, operational and management autonomy ...
On January 25, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) returned to the common-law agency test for determining whether workers qualified as independent contractors. SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., 367 NLRB No. 75 (2019) The decision expressly overrules the Board’s decision in FedEx Home Delivery, 361 NLRB 610 (2014), enf. denied 849 F.3d 1123 (D.C. Cir. 2017) ...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced it will issue a new Final Rule on January 31, 2019, reversing the order by which the USCIS will select H-1B applications submitted under the statutory/numerical cap and introducing an electronic registration requirement for employers filing H-1B cap-subject petitions. The reverse-selection provisions of the rule will go into effect on April 1, 2019 ...
