by Peter R. RichCompanies seeking business in the heart of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves will find a skilled and experienced workforce. However, as any business owner knows, mistakes made in the hiring process can be costly. With that in mind, we offer the following comments on five specific aspects of Pennsylvania and West Virginia law that are applicable to hiring ...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 established the popular Opportunity Zone (OZ) program to encourage investment in economically distressed communities while allowing taxpayers to defer and potentially exclude some of their capital gains from federal income taxes. The proceeds of the sale must be timely reinvested in qualifying businesses or property located in census tracts that have been designated as OZs within the approved state ...
Stanford Economist Nick Bloom Shares WFH Trends and Predictions View Webinar More than two years into the pandemic, businesses are still wrestling with how to best navigate return to office (RTO). Firms that do it right stand to increase retention, equity, and business performance and forge a new culture of collaboration. But widely varying and evolving business and employee needs make it difficult to unravel the best course of action ...
Section 23(1)(d) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) enables an employer and a trade union (or trade unions acting jointly), that enjoy majority support in the employer’s workplace, to conclude a collective agreement and to extend the collective agreement to employees who are not members of the trade union that concluded the collective agreement ...
This question was addressed by the Danish Board of Equal Treatment in its decision of 3 March 2016. The Board found that a provision in the staff manual - stipulating the termination of the employment relationship when the employee had reached the age of 70 - could not, as a matter of course, be considered to form part of the specific employment relationship ...
Last summer, North Carolina adopted into law "An Act to Require Counties, Cities and Employers to Use the Federal E-Verify Program to Verify the Work Authorization of Newly Hired Employees" (the "Act"). What this means to private employers is that depending on the size of your workforce, you may be required to use the E-Verify program for all hiring. Effective October 1, 2012, all North Carolina employers with more than 500 employees must use the E-Verify program ...
The Supreme Court of Appeals' recent decision in McComas v. ACF Indus., Inc. could have significant implications for employer liability under West Virginia's deliberate intention statute. In McComas, the plaintiff was a welder who was injured by an arc blast emanating from an electrical box ...
The ongoing global outbreak and spread of Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), commonly known as coronavirus, is a dramatic event of global proportions, with far-reaching implications in a wide range of areas. The spread of coronavirus directly affects capital markets, global supply chains, worldwide transportation, large-scale events and conferences, and many other aspects of commerce and business, domestic and international ...
Five years after the enactment of Decree 330/2009 that regulated Law No 18.360 referred to the obligation of providing, on both public spaces and private spaces with influx of people, with Automatic External Defibrillators (AED), we remind you that the general obligation of instructing personnel about Basic Cardiac Resuscitation (BCR) technics is now effective ...
From among the special forms of contracting employment, special reference should be made, as it is an innovation, to the possibility of an employee being bound simultaneously to several employers provided there are corporate or organisation relations between them, by way of a contract in writing stating which of the employers represents the others in the performance thereof. Where these requirements are not met, the employee will be free to choose to which employer he/she wishes to be bound ...
IRS provides Retirement Plan Loan and Hardship Distribution Relief for Harvey Victims The IRS has released Announcement 2017-11 providing relief from some of the loan and hardship distribution requirements under qualified retirement plans (including Code Section 401(a) and 403(b) plans) for the period of August 23, 2017 through January 31, 2018. The relief applies to employees or former employees either (i) whose principal residence on Aug ...
Starting April 6, 2011 the Social Security Administration (SSA) resumed sending its “no-match” letters (or “decentralized correspondence (DECOR) letters”) to advise employers of reported social security numbers that do not coincide with SSA’s records. In 2007, SSA stopped sending DECOR letters due to federal litigation focused on an insert that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) wanted to include with the letters ...
In general, individuals admitted into Hong Kong under various types of visa may apply for extension of stay within four weeks before the date of expiry, and they must be physically present in Hong Kong at the time of submitting the application and the collection of visa label upon approval. Due to the ongoing pandemic across the globe, this restriction has brought extra hurdles to a lot of applicants who are employees of companies and/or members of families ...
Kudun Sukhumananda, partner and co-head of corporate and M&A Practice, Supatra Kerinsaguna, senior associate, Koraphot Jirachocksubsin, lead associate of digital law practice and Suchaya Tangsiri, lead associate of startup practice were invited to speak at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University on the topic “Legal Accelerator for Innovation Commercialization” which focuses on digital law, digital asset, corporate law and regulations including M&A transaction ...
Peerasanti Somritutai, partner was invited to be a speaker at the Legal Vision Asia Pacific on the topic of Thailand During the Pandemic: Employers’ Consideration, a vlog series organized by the World Services Group (WSG). He provides insight on measures employers have implemented to protect employees and minimize redundancy in Thailand. And, address procedures for remote and in-office work arrangements based on latest government and legislative changes ...
In the decision in Rustenburg Platinum Mine and SAEWA obo Meyer Bester and Others, the Constitutional Court dealt with the question of whether an employee referring to a colleague as a “swart man” (“black man”), within the facts set out below, constituted misconduct justifying dismissal.The adjacent large 4x4 vehiclesThe employee in this matter, Mr Bester, was employed by the Rustenburg Platinum Mine (the “employer”) ...
The South African Human Rights Commission (the “Commission”) is mandated by section 184 of the Constitution to promote respect for human rights and a culture of human rights; to promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights; and to monitor and assess the observance of human rights in South Africa. The Commission publishes annual reports in which it highlights what it regards as problematic issues and makes recommendations in this regard ...
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 ...
Section 198A of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (the “LRA”) provides that a person assigned to a client by a temporary employment service (“TES”) for a period of more than three months, and who earns less than the threshold amount set in section 6(3) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997, is deemed to be the employee of the client for the purposes of the LRA. There are two exceptions to this deeming provision ...
In light of President Ramaphosa’s announcement of a phased approach to the end of lockdown, many businesses will still be required to remain closed (or partially closed) after 30 April 2020. With this in mind, many employers will still require assistance from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Temporary Relief Scheme (“C19TERS”) ...
On 25 March 2020, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“CCMA”) published a statement on its website, in which it provided some much-needed clarity on the options available to employees, employers and CCMA users in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This clarity has been augmented by a Directive published today and the updated Guide for Employers released by the Department of Labour ...
On 15 March 2020, the South African President declared a national state of disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 2002. A number of measures have since been implemented by the government to counteract the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and several regulations, directives and guidelines have consequently been published ...
In light of the first Coronavirus case being confirmed in South Africa yesterday, employers will need to be more stringent in their approach to managing what the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) has declared to be “a global health emergency” in their workplaces. It has been said that false information about COVID-19 (otherwise known as the Coronavirus) is spreading faster than the virus itself ...
On 6 April 2020, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“ICASA”) published the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) COVID-19 National Disaster Regulations (the "Regulations"). The stated purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe the minimum standards to which all licensee (electronic communication services and broadcasting services) must adhere for the duration of the National State of Disaster ...
Following the issuing of what has colloquially been called the “Lockdown Regulations” to reduce the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Africa, there has been a hasty scramble for essential services to comply with the provisions of the Regulations and to register on the Essential Services Portal ...
