On September 23, 2019, the IRS published final regulations that amend the rules for hardship distributions from 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The regulations finalize the proposed regulations issued in November 2018 to implement statutory changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 intended to make it easier for plan participants to take hardship distributions ...
In the False Claims Act (FCA) case of Feinwachs v. Minnesota Hospital Association, the district court recently upheld relator David Feinwachs’ claim of work-product privilege over emails sent to his work email account. No. 11-cv-0008, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155027 (D. Minn. Sept. 11, 2019). Feinwachs was formerly general counsel of the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), a trade association of Minnesota hospitals and health care systems ...
Cincinnati, Ohio has joined a small but growing list of states and municipalities that ban discrimination on the basis of natural hair styles. On Oct. 9, 2019, the Cincinnati City Council voted 7-1 to add a hair-bias ban to the city’s existing non-discrimination law ...
The labour and employment sector has once again seen many changes – both in terms of the initiatives of the legislator as well as changes in the way the sector works. One important change has been the implementation of the Law on Protection of Business Secrets (Gesetz zum Schutz von Geschäftsgeheimnissen – GeschGehG). The economic relevance of business secrets is very high ...
1. TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT 1.1 STATUS OF EMPLOYEE In Germany, an employee (Arbeitnehmer) enjoys a special status that is described as the personal obligation to perform work upon the employer’s instructions, without entrepreneurial risks and in a situation of economic dependence (to a certain degree) on the employer ...
Many employers use background checks to guarantee it hires the best candidates—and to minimize legal liability for claims like negligent hiring. Unfortunately, this attempt to prevent one type of liability may actually create another type liability under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"), which governs employment background checks ...
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) to limit the classification of workers as independent contractors in the state. The new law, effective January 1, 2020, will increase payroll tax responsibilities for California companies that must reclassify workers as employees ...
CFIUS inbound investment national security review expanding to certain non-controlling foreign investments in critical technology, critical infrastructure, and sensitive personal data, as well as to certain real estate transactions. The U.S. Treasury Department published proposed rules in the Federal Register on Sept. 24, 2019, concerning changes to the review process for foreign investment conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) ...
In its July 24, 2019 judgment (Case: 5 Sa 676/19), Hamm State Labor Court issued a ruling as to whether employers are obligated to also notify employees who are out of work due to long-term illnesses that their vacation entitlement will expire by December 31 of the calendar year or by March 31 of the subsequent year if those employees fail to take their vacation days. The court denied this on convincing grounds. The final verdict, however, will come from the Federal Labor Court ...
The works council may demand access to the employees’ payroll. Considerations under data protection law do not require anonymization or pseudonymization. Federal Labor Court, May 7, 2019 – 1 ABR 53/17 FACTS OF THE CASE A company granted the works council access to its electronic employee salary file – the payroll showing gross salaries, while stripping employees’ names from the list, thus in anonymized (more correctly: pseudonymized) form ...
Federal Labor Court, June 12, 2019 - 1 AZR 154/17. There is no general prohibition of deterioration that applies to retirement benefits in the case of one or several transfers of businesses pursuant to Section 613a German Civil Code. This has now been confirmed by the Federal Labor Court in a recent decision ...
Half days of leave granted by the employer may be claimed again by the employee due to inadmissible fulfillment of the vacation entitlement. Baden-Württemberg State Labor Court, March 6, 2019, 4 Sa 73/18 Employees may not demand half days of leave from employers as part of their statutory minimum leave. If employers nevertheless grant half days of leave, this does not comply with their obligation to grant proper leave, at least as far as the minimum leave is concerned ...
Stuttgart Labor Court, April 30, 2019 – 4 BV 251/18 Warnings by which employers are reprimanding the exercise of office by works council members and threatening sanctions in accordance with Section 23 Works Constitution Act (warnings under works constitution law) may not be entered in the personnel files of works council members irrespective of their lawfulness ...
After Brexit has already been postponed several times, the next deadline will now expire on October 31, 2019. With the new Prime Minister at the helm, it is becoming more likely every day that the UK will leave the EU without a withdrawal agreement entering into force. Obviously, UK citizens who live and work in Germany are particularly affected. The same also applies to employers in Germany employing UK citizens ...
The Ministry of Manpower recently issued Decree of the Minister of Manpower No ...
A recent court ruling from Gulating lagmannsrett (Court of Appeal) states that bonus payments are not covered by the principle of equal treatment for temporary agency workers, cf. LG-2018-162656. The ruling has been appealed, and the result of the appeal to the Supreme Court will be of great importance to many companies and employees of temporary work agencies ...
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released the long-anticipated final rule for overtime exemptions, which alters the salary thresholds for several of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemptions. Under the final rule, the salary threshold levels for the white-collar exemptions and the highly compensated employee exemption were increased, making it more difficult for an employee to be classified as exempt under the FLSA. As a result, an estimated additional 1 ...
A recent ruling of the Finnish Supreme Court is a great reminder for employers what is to be taken into consideration when entering into termination agreements with employees. In general, the employer and the employee may, at any time during the employment relationship, mutually agree to terminate the employment relationship. Freedom of contract applies and a mutual termination agreement is, per se, a valid and legally binding agreement, if the agreement in concluded appropriately ...
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced its Final Rule increasing the minimum salary level employees need to be paid in order to be deemed an exempt white collar employee, provided the employees otherwise meet the applicable duties and salary basis tests. The rule has been long-awaited since the predecessor Obama administration-era rule was enjoined by a Texas federal court in 2016 ...
In the lead up to the Expo 2020, the UAE government has taken a number of measures to promote economic diversification, foster growth, and stimulate the region’s innovation environment. The government’s push to develop the private equity, venture capital, and start-up eco-system is a central component of this agenda ...
An Update in the World of Workplace Safety MSHA Civil Penalties On August 16, 2019, the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a report on MSHA’s civil monetary penalties (“CMP”) program ...
On Sept. 10, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued the MV Transportation decision and adopted the contract coverage standard in evaluating whether an employer’s unilateral action concerning terms and conditions of employment violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) duty to bargain ...
As seen on BankDirector.com: Even with a lack of legal clarity, banks can take steps to prepare for work-from-home accommodation requests from employees with disabilities. Technology now allows banks’ employees to be connected with coworkers and customers nearly anywhere in the world via email, chat, calls or video conferencing. Many banks use work from home, or telecommuting, as a perk to attract and retain talent ...
On Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its decision in The Boeing Company and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, adopting a three part test for determining whether a bargaining unit is appropriate under the analysis set forth in PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NLRB 160 (2017) ...
On August 16, 2019, the Ninth Circuit ruled in O'Rourke v. Northern California Electrical Workers Pension Plan, et al. that the board of trustees for an ERISA-covered multiemployer pension plan did not abuse its discretion by broadly interpreting the plan's ambiguous trade-based suspension of benefits provision to preclude a participant’s claim for early retirement benefits ...
