It's been a long time coming, but the EEOC has finally published the official regulations for Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). (Title I addresses non-discrimination in the context of health insurance, and regulations for that Title will be issued by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury.) GINA was originally enacted on May 21, 2008, by, President George W. Bush, and became effective November 21, 2009 ...
The Ministerial Decree of the Italian Minister for the Economic Development dated May 11, 2011 (the “Decree”) has at long last implemented in Italy the administrative procedure for opposition against Italian and International trademark applications ...
Chinese authorities may soon make another significant step in China’s shift from being the global manufacturing hub to becoming the world’s biggest consumers market. During a press conference held in Beijing last 15 June, Yao Jian, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced the upcoming reduction of import duties on luxury goods ...
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”) was signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010. The Act was enacted to address many regulatory issues, including to promote financial stability in the United States “by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system,” “to end ‘too big to fail,’” and “to protect consumers from abusive financial services ...
On June 20, 2011, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, reversing a Court of Appeals decision that had affirmed certification of a nationwide class of 1.5 million female employees in a gender discrimination suit against Wal-Mart. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that class certification was improper because the named plaintiffs failed to satisfy the commonality requirement of Rule 23(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ...
On June 16, 2011, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Smith v. Bayer allowing a plaintiff to pursue class certification in a state court action after a federal court had denied certification in a substantially similar case. The Court held that it was improper for the federal court to enjoin the state proceeding under the “relitigation exception” of the Anti-Injunction Act because the issues were not identical and the state court plaintiff was not a party to the federal lawsuit ...
Employers are likely to let out a collective groan of exasperation over the recently launched consultation on shared, flexible parental leave and the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees ...
Employers are likely to let out a collective groan of exasperation over the recently launched consultation on shared, flexible parental leave and the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees ...
Recent cases in which employers have successfully defended their decisions to enforce dress and diversity policies against Christian employees have led to comments by Christian campaigners that there is "disproportionate animosity" towards the Christian faith in the UK courts ...
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a failure by the transferor to provide the information required by Regulation 13 of TUPE does not render the transfer ineffective (Marcroft v Heartland). The underlying dispute in this case concerned the enforcement of restrictive covenants in Mr Marcroft's contract. He had been employed by PMI in its commercial insurance business ...
In Watson v University of Strathclyde, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the inclusion of a particular member of staff on a panel to hear an appeal against a grievance amounted to a fundamental breach of contract, so that the employee who had brought the grievance was constructively dismissed ...
It is well established that an employer who provides a reference owes the employee who is the subject of the reference a duty to take reasonable care in preparing the reference ...
The Court of Appeal has ruled that career-long compensation will only be awarded in cases where an employee has little to no prospect of ever finding an equivalent job. (Wardle v Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank). Mr Wardle, aged 44, brought a race discrimination claim against his employers, the French bank Credit Agricole, when a French candidate was awarded a promotion ahead of him ...
In a welcome decision for employers, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has considered the extent to which employment tribunals should investigate the employer's marking and scoring process in a redundancy procedure and held that detailed judicial scrutiny of the scores awarded in a redundancy process is inappropriate (Dabson v David Cover & Sons Ltd). Mr Dabson argued that he had been dismissed unfairly for redundancy ...
The Empoyment Appeal Tribunal has held, in the case of Burns v Santander UK plc, that an employee who is remanded in custody for 6 months while awaiting trial was not entitled to claim wages for that period. Mr Burns was arrested and charged with various criminal offences. He remained in custody for 6 months until his trial. Santander wrote to him to say that he would not be paid while he was in custody ...
The Government launched its consultation on modern workplaces on 16 May 2011. The consultation contains proposals for a system of shared flexible parental leave, the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees, changes to the Working Time Regulations to deal with the interaction of holiday and sickness absence and proposals to require employers to carry out equal pay audits if they lose an equal pay claim ...
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has now published its final guidance on the Agency Workers Regulations, which come in to force on 1 October 2011. The final guidance makes the provisions and requirements in relation to pay between assignments clearer especially in relation to annual leave. There has also been a minor change to remove one-off non-contractual bonus payments from the definition of pay ...
Guidance to assist with determining who falls within the definition of a disabled person under the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 May 2011. It sets out the constituent parts of the statutory definition and provides examples to help to determine whether a person is disabled or not ...
The national minimum wage will increase from 1 October 2011 as follows: The adult rate (age 21 and over) will increase to £6.08 per hour. The development rate (for 18 to 20 year olds) will increase to £4.98 per hour. The rate for young workers (16 to 17 year olds) will increase to £3.68 per hour ...
The TUC and CIPD have updated their guidance on managing age to take into account good practice developments since 2006 and the phasing-out of the default retirement age from 6 April 2011. It supports the Acas guidance on managing without a retirement age and reflects the business case for extending working life and employing people of all ages ...
Recent cases in which employers have successfully defended their decisions to enforce dress and diversity policies against Christian employees have led to comments by Christian campaigners that there is "disproportionate animosity" towards the Christian faith in the UK courts ...
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a failure by the transferor to provide the information required by Regulation 13 of TUPE does not render the transfer ineffective (Marcroft v Heartland). The underlying dispute in this case concerned the enforcement of restrictive covenants in Mr Marcroft's contract. He had been employed by PMI in its commercial insurance business ...
In Watson v University of Strathclyde, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the inclusion of a particular member of staff on a panel to hear an appeal against a grievance amounted to a fundamental breach of contract, so that the employee who had brought the grievance was constructively dismissed ...
It is well established that an employer who provides a reference owes the employee who is the subject of the reference a duty to take reasonable care in preparing the reference ...
The Court of Appeal has ruled that career-long compensation will only be awarded in cases where an employee has little to no prospect of ever finding an equivalent job. (Wardle v Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank). Mr Wardle, aged 44, brought a race discrimination claim against his employers, the French bank Credit Agricole, when a French candidate was awarded a promotion ahead of him ...
