Until recently, employers in Ireland were only obliged to consult with employees in very limited circumstances, such as collective redundancies and transfer of undertakings. Those obligations will remain intact, however the provisions of the Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Bill 2005, will provide employees in undertakings of at least 50 employees with the right to information and consultation in the workplace on a greater number of issues ...
Commentators have argued that the effect of this legislation is to force employers to recognise trade unions against their will as there appears to have been a move away from the traditional voluntarist approach to negotiations with trade unions towards a compulsory approach ...
Many employers have been in the potentially tricky and somewhat uncomfortable situation of having to withdraw an offer of employment before commencement. The ordinary principles of contract law apply here. Where an employer withdraws an offer, especially after formal acceptance, a breach of contract claim could arise, at least in theory ...
British industry is undergoing a period of unprecedented regulatory reform as part of a government drive to reduce the costs and burdens on business. Over the next year, it will become clearer how effective this reform will be. Following independent recommendations from the Hampton Review and the Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF), Chancellor Gordon Brown launched the Better Regulation Action Plan in May 2005 with the aim of boosting flexibility and enterprise ...
Consultation Paper on Conditional Fees On 14 September 2005, the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong Conditional Fees Sub-Committee (the “Sub-Committee”) published a consultation paper on conditional fees (the “Consultation Paper”) recommending, among other things, that the existing prohibitions against the use of conditional fees in certain types of civil litigation by legal practitioners be lifted, so that legal practitioners may choose to charge conditional fees in appropriate cases ...
BC Labour Board Further Clarifies an Employer’s Right to Communicate with its Employees In a decision issued on July 8, 2005 - RMH Teleservices International Inc.-a Reconsideration Panel of the BC Labour Relations Board further clarified an employer’s expanded right to communicate with its employees during a unionization campaign. This right was expanded as part of the 2002 amendments to the Labour Relations Code, which we outlined in our Summer 2002 Newsletter ...
The provisions of the Environment Quality Act (“EQA”) regarding contaminated land require a person intending to change the use of a parcel of land to perform a site characterization study1 if certain specific industrial activities have been carried on there. If this study reveals the presence of contaminants in excess of the limit values prescribed by regulation 3, a notice of contamination must be registered in the land register against the property in question ...
The Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 has come into effect today, 1 September 2005. Important issues raised by the Act include: 1. A competent person must be employed to manage safety in the workplace; 2. Hazards must be identified and risk assessments carried out which are thorough and reviewed on a regular basis, and this must be communicated to employees regularly; 3. Training has to be relevant and understood ...
After a prolonged period of development, the announcement in August of the Board of Directors for Scotland's Futures Forum has finally seen this body come to fruition. The development of the Forum has included a substantial period of investigating overseas models, canvassing MSPs and running a conference involving 140 representatives from a number of sectors ...
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed Amendment (5) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Amendment") on 28 February 2005. The Amendment was promulgated by President Hu Jintao and became effective on the same date. The Amendment introduces detailed penal provisions on credit card abuse and fraud and on damaging military equipment. We discuss the new sections regarding credit card abuse and fraud below ...
Practical Advice for Defending Toxic Tort Actions - 11/29/2001 Texas Lawyer © 2001. All rights reserved Defending a toxic tort case involving multiple plaintiffs and defendants, not surprisingly, presents multiple issues of concern. In developing a litigation strategy, thoughtful defense counsel will anticipate these issues ...
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 was signed into law by the President on the 1 July. It will not come into force, however, until the 1 September. The new Act makes it easier to impose criminal liability on directors, managers, and other similar officers who control the operations of employers. It increases the penalties in the District Court and the maximum fine in the Circuit Court is €3,000,000 ...
This Bill (as initiated), which will transpose the EU Information and Consultation Directive, has just been published. It does not give workers an automatic right to information and consultation. Instead negotiations to set up an information and consultation structure will have to be “triggered” by workers themselves in the form of a written request from 10% of the workforce, subject to a minimum of 15 employees and a maximum of a 100 ...
In a decision released Wednesday, July 20,(1) the Supreme Court of Canada has overturned Court of Appeal decisions from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia finding that Mi’kmaq people have a treaty right to harvest timber for commercial purposes. In so doing, the Court also provided guidance on how to assess aboriginal title claims ...
In Hong Kong, it is common practice that there is a written employment contract between the employer and the employee which sets out the terms and conditions of an employment. The following case indicates that unless clearly provided in the employment contract, an employer cannot unilaterally vary the terms of the employment contract and such variation may be a breach of contract and the employer could be liable for damages ...
Under the Employment Ordinance, an employer has the right to terminate an employee’s employment summarily without notice or payment in lieu of notice in certain situations, one of which is employee misconducting himself, such conduct being inconsistent with the due and faithful discharge of his duties ...
In the United States, a federal judge approved on 10 May 2005 of the plan of United Airlines (“UA”) to terminate four employees’ defined-benefit pension plans and the pension responsibility are shifted to and assumed by the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”). The decision will have a great impact on pension obligations to 120,000 current and former employees of UA and could have far-reaching implications for the pensions industry worldwide ...
The Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Labour Law”) is applicable to all employment relationships between individuals and enterprises in China. However, local governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities may, and most of them do, issue detailed measures and rules for the implementation of the Labour Law. Such detailed measures are promulgated based on the Labour Law, with changes and specific details made in light of the local conditions ...
China presents enormous opportunities for the wealth management industry, as the domestic financial market and players develop increasing sophistication. The financial regulators in China are pushing ahead with financial market reforms and regulations, across the equity and bond markets, over banks, insurance companies, securities companies, securities investment fund management companies, trust investment companies and other financial institutions ...
Central Portal for Public Procurement has been recently launched at www.cvpp.lt. The portal publishes information on the public procurement conducted in Lithuania; the main purpose of the portal is to materialize the electronic procurement methods currently lawful under the Law on Public Procurement of the Republic of Lithuania. The main novelty introduced is the possibility to conduct electronic procurement under the normal commercial practice ...
Do environmental considerations feature in your business plans? If not, then perhaps it is time they did. Minimising waste, reducing energy consumption and decreasing the environmental impact is not just good for the planet but can lead to increased profits. That is the message from the Scottish Executive in its paper 'Going for green growth: a green jobs strategy for Scotland' ...
On April 12, 2005, grievance arbitrator Denis Tremblay issued a major ruling on the validity of a policy on alcohol consumption and drug use implemented by the Goodyear tire plant in Valleyfield during the summer of 2004. The policy was widely attacked by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, local 143, representing all of the plant’s production employees (close to 1,000 employees) ...
It is just six months on from the introduction of the freedom of information regime, and there is already a wealth of advice and guidance available to public bodies on FOI. Private businesses however, are not as lucky. This article helps redress this imbalance ...
In this edition: - Fire Legislation Changes - Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations Amended - Accounting for Risk - Workplace Stress - Lock up Your Ladders - Corporate Manslaughter Act Moves Closer to Reality - Vibration Regulations are Imminent
