On November 16, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) issued Special Fraud Alert: Speaker Programs (Fraud Alert) to “highlight the fraud and abuse risks associated with the offer, payment, solicitation, or receipt of remuneration relating to speaker programs by pharmaceutical and medical device companies ...
On November 15, 2020, Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) issued a new Gatherings and Face Mask Order that further limits in-person gatherings and employer operations, but does not meaningfully change requirements for most businesses. With limited exceptions, this Order prohibits all indoor gatherings at “non-residential venues” of “two or more persons from more than one household… in a shared space ...
In this report, you will find a summary of two important decrees published yesterday in the Official Gazette. Regulatory Decree of Law No. 27,350 of medical and scientific research on the medicinal use of the cannabis plant and its derivatives By means of Executive Branch’s Decree No ...
Introduction The rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in demand for medical devices (MDs) and personal protective equipment (PPE), masks for social use (textile articles) and other products destined to prevent the spread of the disease. As a result, it became clear that there was insufficient supply to meet existing needs during the state of emergency and the subsequent period ...
In response to COVID-19, the federal government and the provinces have introduced various measures to mitigate the financial impact across the country. One of these measures is the introduction of a new type of type of unpaid, job-protected leave related to COVID-19. As of the date of this bulletin, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and the federal government have introduced these new leaves ...
IP landscape While the world is in the grip of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the patenting of pharmaceutical and biological compositions and the launch of generic products is even more hotly debated than before, particularly in the world's developing and least-developed countries ...
On November 9, 2020, the federal government announced a further temporary extension to permitted layoff periods for federally regulated private-sector employees. Background In June of 2020, the federal government extended the time periods for layoffs under the Canada Labour Standards Regulations to allow federally regulated private-sector employers more time to recall laid-off employees ...
Bradley attorneys have partnered with Lexology to draft the Getting the Deal Through Employment chapter for Alabama. This guide covers a state snapshot, the employment relationship, hiring, wage and hour, discrimination, harassment and family leave, privacy in the workplace, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, labor relations and discipline and termination. With a premium Lexology account uses can use the interactive tool to create a cross border comparative report ...
Bradley attorneys have partnered with Lexology to draft the Getting the Deal Through Employment chapter for Mississippi. This guide covers a state snapshot, the employment relationship, hiring, wage and hour, discrimination, harassment and family leave, privacy in the workplace, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, labor relations and discipline and termination. With a premium Lexology account uses can use the interactive tool to create a cross border comparative report ...
On November 5, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court altered a 60-year provision of Washington’s Minimum Wage Statute when it issued its decision in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The court held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g), which exempted agricultural employers from paying overtime at a rate of 1.5 times the regularly hourly rate, violated article I, section 12 of the Washington State Constitution as applied to dairy workers ...
Changes to the Chilean Labor Code require employers to adopt measures that facilitate the inclusion of disabled employees Law No.21,275 was added to the Labor Code and published in the Official Gazette on October 21, 2020. The new law is intended to facilitate the inclusion of disabled employees in the labor force. Companies to which the law applies The Law is applicable to those companies that, in accordance with article 157 bis of the Labor Code, have 100 or more employees ...
A temporary work agency had, over a period of four years, hired out workers to an oil company that had a bonus scheme at company level for its employees. The Supreme Court found that the bonus scheme was a form of performance-related pay and thus covered by the term «pay» in section 14-12 a subsection 1 (f) of the Working Environment Act. The temporary work agency was thus obliged to pay a bonus to the two workers as if they had been permanently employed in the oil company ...
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 Israel imposed significant restrictions on foreign nationals' entry into Israel. As a general rule, the entry of foreigners into Israel is prohibited, except for a limited list of exceptional cases (for further details please see "COVID-19: exceptional cases in which Population and Immigration Authority will allow foreigners to enter Israel") ...
Decree-Law 94-A/2020 of 3 November amends, among others, Decree-Law 79-A/2020 of 30 September, which established “exceptional, transitional arrangements for reorganisation of work”. Its aim was to minimise the spread of COVID-19. The Decree-Law makes remote working mandatory for all workers whose place of work is located in a geographical area where the epidemiological situation justifies it ...
If a branded medicine and its generic version are put on the EEA market by economically linked undertakings, is a parallel importer then allowed to rebrand and repackage the imported generic version as the branded reference medicine? This has been a hotly debated issue in recent years and recently led the Brussels Court of Appeal (CoA) to refer three questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) (Cases C-253/20 and C-254/20) ...
In Brown v. Morehouse College, a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the case’s dismissal, agreeing with the district court that while the plaintiff’s ethics complaints may have led to retaliation against him by the College, the complaints did not allege FCA fraud and therefore were not protected by the statute. No. 19-13773, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 33444 (11th Cir. Oct. 23, 2020) ...
On 30 September 2020, the Royal Government of Cambodia (“RGC”) issued a press release and rolled out ‘Round 6’ of measures aimed at mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on businesses and workers in Cambodia. These represent a combination of new and existing measures (that have been extended) ...
On October 20, 2020, San Francisco County was upgraded to the “minimal” tier within the California COVID-19 tracking system, meaning it has the fewest restrictions on reopening all businesses as promulgated by the State of California. In order to qualify for the “minimal” tier, a county must have an infection rate of less than one daily new positive COVID case per 100,000 residents and have a positive test rate of less than 2% for two consecutive weeks ...
Belgium is, for the second time, in lockdown. The new Ministerial Decree of 1 November 2020 stipulates that, as from today until 13 December 2020, all workers are obliged to telework. However, an exception applies when either the employee’s role or the continuity of business operations, activities and services does not allow for teleworking ...
As Election Day quickly approaches in the highly anticipated presidential and congressional elections, employers are faced with a slew of questions about their employees’ rights on November 3 and beyond. Election Day is not a national holiday; therefore, federal law doesnotmandate employers provide employees with time off to vote ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on October 29, 2020 it reached a more than $9.2 million settlement with Medtronic USA Inc. to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and Open Payment Program.[1] Specifically, Medtronic agreed to pay $8.1 million to resolve FCA allegations it paid kickbacks to induce a South Dakota neurosurgeon to use its SynchroMed II intrathecal infusion pumps ...
Most employers are familiar with the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in enforcing standards to ensure that the working men and women in the United States have a safe and healthy workplace. The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges to OSHA for reviewing how employers are protecting their employees ...
Introduction On 16 October 2020 the government reinforced the urgent measures to limit the further spread of COVID-19. Teleworking is no longer highly recommended, but has become the standard for all employees whose roles allow for telework. Yet, the new rule is less far-reaching than that in place during the first lockdown in March 2020, as an exception now applies when the continuity of business operations, activities and services does not allow for teleworking ...
