On 11 June 2020, the Discrimination Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2018 (Bill) was passed at the Legislative Council. The Bill introduced amendments to Hong Kong’s four anti-discrimination legislations, namely the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO), the Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO), the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance (FSDO), and the Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) (Amendments) ...
Unexpectedly siding with the liberal wing of the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a 6-3 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, holding that Title VII’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination also covers sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. The Court’s decision dealt a historic victory for proponents of expanding gay and trans protections for workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...
Following the Chancellor’s announcement on 29 May 2020 regarding further changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, we now have more detailed guidance about how the new flexibility under the scheme will work from 1 July. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) Flexibility As we know, from 1 July 2020, employers will be able to bring furloughed workers back to work on a part time basis if appropriate while still being able to claim under the CJRS for hours not worked ...
The General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") came into force a little over two years ago, on 25 May 2018 and the first administrative fines were imposed in Finland in late May 2020. What is noteworthy is that in two out of the four decisions, the fines concerned violations of processing of personal data of employees and job applicants ...
Up until now, there has been no suspension of a notice period served upon an employee who has been made temporarily unemployed under the ‘corona’ regime. Such a notice period started during the corona temporary unemployment and continued to run during this period. Given, as a consequence, employers would be able to dismiss employees 'cheaply', a draft bill was submitted in Parliament to have the notice period suspended in the event of corona temporary unemployment ...
In a landmark decision issued today, the Supreme Court of the Unites States ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgender people. The case involved consolidated lawsuits filed by two gay persons fired due to their sexual orientation and a transgender woman fired after revealing plans to transition from male to female ...
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) established the COVID-19 Telehealth Program (the “Telehealth Program”) on April 2, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Telehealth Program provides $200 million in funding, appropriated by Congress as part of the CARES Act,[1] to assist certain non-profit and public healthcare providers in making telehealth services available to patients who cannot be seen in person ...
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidance for the health care industry, titled “Temporary Policy on Prescription Drug Marketing Act Requirements for Distribution of Drug Samples During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency ...
With COVID-19 taking its toll on some businesses, employees may find themselves placed at risk of redundancy. This article looks at the practical steps an employer should take when carrying out an individual redundancy consultation. Individual consultation is fundamental to the fairness of any dismissal for redundancy ...
On May 27, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-41 (“Notice”) providing COVID-19 relief for businesses seeking to qualify for the production tax credit for renewable energy facilities under Section 45 (“PTC”) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) and investment tax credit for energy property under Section 48 (“ITC”) of the Code ...
The difficulties in international transport caused by the pandemic may have a major impact on VAT settlements of Polish exporters. These complications may carry over to the possibility of applying the 0% VAT rate, thus affecting taxpayers’ cash flows. Restrictions caused by the state of epidemic may affect the possibility for businesses to apply the 0% VAT rate ...
One of the consequences of the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis may be the need for some taxpayers to discontinue projects ...
On June 10, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released new guidance, in the form of frequently asked questions and answers, regarding the use of masks in the workplace.[1] The new guidance serves to help employers ensure employees know how to properly wear masks and which type of mask is appropriate. OSHA explains the difference between cloth face coverings, surgical masks, and respirators ...
Key Points IRS releases new COVID-19 relief for Qualified Opportunity Funds Taxpayers granted significant postponement of various timing requirements to ensure compliance with IRC section 1400Z-2 The IRS released Notice 2020-39 on June 4, 2020, providing significant relief for investors in qualified opportunity funds (QOFs) ...
Key Points New legislation allows longer 24-week period for payroll costs that will be forgiven under Paycheck Protection Program loans Maximum forgiveness of loan can be achieved if 60% of the proceeds are used on payroll costs New broader safe harbor to avoid FTE-based reduction in forgiveness amount New legislation signed into effect on June 5, 2020, received bi-partisan support to address complaints about the current Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") loans for small busines
On May 27, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a further extension of certain deadlines that were about to expire on May 31. The latest order provides until July 1, 2020 for certain actions delayed due to COVID-19. For small and micro entities only, filings that would have been accepted if filed by June 1, 2020, will now be deemed timely if filed by July 1, 2020 ...
ALRUD’s Labor experts have prepared the material that is useful for each employer in the current situation: Checklist: Reopening of business after lifting restrictions. The checklist includes the main steps that must be taken to return the company and employees usual work activities after lifting the restrictions. Most interesting for company managers, HR directors, Compliance officers, heads of legal departments ...
Special Report "COVID-19 in Central America" on special measures taken in each country of our region prepared by the multidisciplinary team of Consortium Legal. The information contained in this publication is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information is constantly updated and is subject to change ...
Preparation of financial statements and corporate income tax, recommencement of time periods, remote trials, gradual return to workplaces, insolvency proceedings and compliance with criminal law In a new edition of our COVID-19 Special Newsletter, we examine the key new legislation approved over the past two weeks in all areas of business law ...
As the saying goes “when the wind blows, some people build walls, while others build windmills". We know that we’re facing a crisis unlike any other, but what’s been illustrated clearly is that a lot of our old assumptions on how we work can be challenged. We can be working smarter, faster, better. We want to emerge from lockdown with something positive to show for it: a new normal better than the old one. We need a new how ...
It is astonishing that in the same week that we’ve read about astronauts going into space in a reusable rocket, we have also experienced the horrors of humanity reading about the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor ...
In our earlier two blog posts, Returning the Workplace to Safe Operation: Part 1, Part 2, we addressed the occupational health and safety issues surrounding returning the workplace to safe operation. This blog post addresses the employment issues related to managing the return of employees to the workplace from temporary layoff or working from home ...
The most general reason for setting up a trust is to ensure the effective and professional legal protection of assets. Contrary to a private foundation, there is no legal requirement to set forth a specific objective for the trust ...
Even though OSHA has advised that no specific standard covers the novel coronavirus, human resource and safety personnel must be mindful of the generally-applicable standards that might apply. OSHA has issued several guidelines that, while not the rule of law, do offer guidance on addressing COVID-19 issues, including recordkeeping and 300 log reporting obligations. On April 10, OSHA issued guidance that appeared to limit what cases would be required to be reported on OSHA 300 logs ...
The Ministry of Public Health has published changes in the strategy to be followed for the eventual de-escalation of the confinement measures to be followed, repealing agreement 144-2020 ...
