TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Recent and Proposed Governance Changes III. Institutional Scrutiny and Accountability IV. Inherent Governance Tensions V. Governance Regulation I. Introduction Corporate governance continues to be a hot topic. In Canada, we are at the stage of implementing a number of initiatives that have been enacted to follow the US lead in the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation ...
Employment Law Update In This Issue... Change to Win Coalition Focuses on Certain Industries to Revitalize Labor Movement ...... 1 Boss’s Workplace Fling May Be Everybody’s Business ............. 2 Employers Must Recognize the “Duty to Act” ........................... 4 Work Eligibility and Citizenship — It May Be Time To Dust Off Those I-9s ................................... ...
On October 13, 2005, the Court of Appeal rendered judgment in two cases involving The Maritime Life Assurance Company and its insured, Madeleine Houle. In the first case, the Court of Appeal stated that the insurer is entitled to obtain a counter expertise by summoning its insured by writ of subpoena (art. 399 C.C.P.) even if it had its insured examined previously. In the second case, the Court ruled on the right of an insurer to have the insured examined by the expert of its choice (art ...
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China which is governed by the Basic Law which forms a mini constitution for Hong Kong. Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy except in relation to matters such as defence or foreign affairs. It has its own executive, legislative and independent judicial power including that of final adjudication ...
The judgement of the European Court of Justice in case C-191/03 – North Western Health Board v ...
In Nicaragua, we did not have a Tributary Code as a unique legal body, the attributions of the Tributary Administration and the regulation of the different tributary procedures, the rights and duties of the contributor, were dispersed in our legislation existing in several cases, inapplicable norms, conflicts of application of the same, lack of adaptation to the actual technological recourses, among others ...
Overview On November 1, 2005, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that there is no legal requirement to disclose pension plan changes under consideration, as opposed to changes that are finalized. In so holding, it reversed the March 2004 trial decision in Hembruff v. Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, which decided that a plan admini¬strator negligently, and in breach of its fiduciary duty, failed to tell members of potential enhance¬ments to a plan’s early retire¬ment provisions ...
EC (Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency)) Regulations 2005, SI No. 630 of 2005 The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency )Act 1984 established rights to certain payments for employees of insolvent companies. New Regulations from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment provide additional protections to employees of insolvent companies, amending and updating the 1984 Act ...
The treatment of women who feel they are being sexually harassed at work has changed significantly as a result of new regulations forcing employers to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their staff. The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 were implemented in October , overhauling the previous regime ...
You’ve probably heard about the dangers of second-hand smoke. But what about the employment-related danger of “second-hand” harassment? Consider this scenario: Mr. Jerk, a bank manager in the credit department, repeatedly harasses his administrative assistant, Gina. He invites Gina to have drinks with him, repeatedly touches her shoulders, and brushes up against her. Gina never complains to anyone in bank management about Jerk’s conduct ...
1.INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court of Canada last considered the issue of mandatory retirement in 1990. Since that time, the demographics of the workforce have changed such that the proportion of retired workers to employed workers is rapidly increasing. This change is due partially to the aging of the baby boom generation and partially due to longer life expectancies of people after retirement ...
The European Court of Justice has issued an important ruling which could have significant consequences for employers who operate occupational sick pay schemes. In the decision of McKenna v ...
Disciplinary investigations are becoming a minefield for employers, particularly where dismissal is a real likelihood ...
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 COLUMBIA LEGAL UPDATE Prepared for 39th Annual Canadian Property Tax Association National Workshop Cross Canada Legal Panel September 25 – 28, 2005 INTRODUCTION The following is an overview of legislative changes and caselaw developments in British Columbia property assessment and taxation since last September’s session. The review is not intended to be exhaustive, but instead to provide a cross-section of topical cases which may be of interest both to the B.C ...
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 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 ...
The Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued the Notice on the Issue of the Levy of Individual Income Tax on Income Derived by Individuals from Stock Options on 31 March 2005 ("Notice"). The Notice, which entered into effect on 1 July 2005, provides a number of guidelines regarding the taxability of such schemes. Taxable event The Notice applies to stock options granted to employees of listed companies or their holding companies ...
The State Administration of Taxation ("SAT") issued the Notice on Relevant Issues in Adjusting the Method for Calculation of Individual Income Tax Annual Lump Sum Bonus Etc. Received by Individuals on 21 January 2005. The Notice, which took effect on 1 January 2005, repeals two SAT Notices issued in 1996 and addresses the issue of the calculation of individual income tax ("IIT") on annual bonuses ...
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 ...
As mentioned in our information bulletin of June 8, on June 7, 2005 the Federal Official Gazette published an “Executive Order to Amend the Value Added Tax Law” which altered the procedure for calculating the crediting of valued added tax by removing operations not taxable ...
