The COVID-19 pandemic hit employers hard and fast, causing employers to deal with loss of revenue, tough decisions in regard to workforce and pay issues, and new laws and other guidelines that had to be analyzed and implemented quickly, with little time for planning or preparation ...
On Monday, 4 May 2020, the government submitted an amendment to the Compensation Bonus Act to the Chamber of Deputies. The amendment should support, in addition to self-employed individuals (sole proprietors), certain shareholders in limited liability companies. This article provides details on the requirements, forms of application, and the amount of compensation ...
At its meeting on April 30, 2020, the government approved the abolition of the 4% real estate acquisition tax and related changes in the Income Tax Act. The content of the proposal of the Ministry of Finance is described below. However, there are likely to be some adjustments to this wording as a result of the coalition agreement. According to the media, the change should concern the maintenance of the tax deduction of interest on real estate acquired until the end of 2021 ...
The government has started to announce the dismantling of certain Covid19 measures and from Monday, April 27, 2020, it now allows business trips for foreigners to the Czech Republic, in respect of which business people were mounting pressure therefore. However, it set out a number of conditions and rules, which are further modified. The original Government Crisis Measure No. 443 was repealed on 1 May 2020 and replaced by Government Crisis Measure No. 495 ...
The European Commission recently issued guidelines on mobile applications supporting the fight against COVID-19 in relation to data protection. Mobile applications commonly installed on smartphones can act as a support mechanism for health authorities at the national and EU level in monitoring and managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and are particularly important in easing measures to reduce the spread of the disease ...
Price moratorium on rent from apartments - rents cannot be increased! On 24 April 2020, a moratorium on rental prices of apartments, issued by the Ministry of Finance (“MF”) came into force, which was adopted in the form of Government Decree No. 202/2020 Coll. This is a protective measure for tenants, which stipulates that the rent for an apartment cannot be increased for a limited period of time. This price moratorium is related also to Act No. 209/2020 Coll ...
The state of emergency in the Czech Republic was extended until May 17, 2020. What does this mean? At its meeting held on 28 April 2020, the Chamber of Deputies decided to extend the state of emergency until 17 May 2020. By Resolution No. 194 (published in the Collection of Laws under No ...
With much fanfare, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has rolled out a series of headlines detailing its enforcement efforts in the wake of COVID-19. At the end of March, the government announced a kickback case against a marketer who allegedly steered patients towards COVID-19 and genetic cancer testing ...
All banks rely upon their critical vendors, including law firms that handle sensitive, complicated, and high-risk matters. And yet vendor oversight of law firms has been awkward for all parties involved – fitting square pegs into round holes. We believe opportunities exist to ameliorate this awkwardness and enhance law firm oversight ...
If there is anything to be learned from the FAA’s distribution of the $10 billion in funds allocated to airports in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, it is that allocating billions of dollars in just a few weeks is more difficult than it sounds. On March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law as Public Law No. 116-136 ...
On 8 April 2020, the Government announced a HK$137 billion package of anti-epidemic measures to be rolled out, including the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) with a proposed budget of HK$81 billion. The ESS aims to provide financial subsidies to employers in two tranches against their undertaking to spend all the wage subsidies on paying wages to their employees and keep them in employment during the COVID-19 epidemic ...
On May 13, 2020, the Small Business Administration ("SBA") issued FAQ # 46 dealing with its plan to review certain PPP loans (in response to COVID-19) to determine if the “necessity” certification was made in good faith by the borrower at the time of application ...
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the social partners have decided to suspend the current social election procedure and postpone the continuation of this procedure until after the summer. On 24 March 2020 the National Labour Council (NLC) issued an opinion that highlighted the implications of this postponement for companies. This NLC opinion has been transposed into a law which was voted in Parliament on 23 April 2020. This article outlines the most important consequences for employers ...
“We continue to work closely with Member States to ensure that European businesses have access to urgently needed liquidity”, said the vice-president of the European Commission (“Commission”) Margrethe Vestager in connection with the amendment to the Temporary Framework on State aid adopted on 8 May 2020 ...
The Act to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Civil, Insolvency and Criminal Procedure Law (“COVID-19 Act”) provides for the option of online general meetings (“virtual general meetings”) for AGs [stock corporations], which numerous small and large stock corporations, including DAX-listed corporations, are already frequently using ...
This sixth edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19 litigation, sees us reporting on many of the same types of cases. Consumers continue to seek refunds for goods and services that have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with colleges and universities being a particular target. Consumers also have targeted retailers for alleged price-gouging behavior ...
This is a briefing on the following issuances as of May 10, 2020 in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic: A. Suspension of Periods to File Applications and Other Documents with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) B. Issuances Supplementing the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF) Omnibus Guidelines on Community Quarantine (Omnibus Guidelines) C ...
Phased reopening of the economy is beginning all over the country. Unfortunately, there is no consistent or uniform way in which reopening is being handled. Every business should closely review not only state-level restrictions as they reopen but also local-level restrictions and federal guidance as well. Compliance with these requirements is not only important from a regulatory standpoint but also may help limit liability ...
As the White House and state and local governments begin to assess business re-opening measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are evaluating how to transition employees back to the physical workplace. As a threshold matter, employers must assess applicable state and local governmental orders for restrictions, timing, and guidelines regarding business re-opening, as the lifting of shelter-in-place orders and re-opening measures will vary by region and industry ...
What is the Public Service Obligation (PSO)? Whose obligation is it? What is the realization of the PSO? Some of us may not be familiar with the PSO and what actually means for a country. This article provides a general understanding of the PSO and particularly, how the PSO can affect us directly. First things first, what is the PSO? The PSO is a concept commonly adopted by all nations and as you might guess, it is the obligation of the government to serve the public ...
Effective March 27, 2020, the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 197 as a direct response to Governor Mike DeWine’s executive order earlier that month. How has HB 197 changed Ohio workers’ compensation? Two main ways: permitting public meetings and “tolling” deadlines. PUBLIC MEETINGS Section 12 of HB 197 permits government agencies to convene via video conference through Dec. 1, 2020 (unless the COVID-19 emergency ends prior to that date) ...
Amendments to the Operating License Framework Act and the General Administrative Procedure Act are approved Today, May 10, Legislative Decree No. 1497 has been published, a standard that approves measures to promote and facilitate regulatory conditions that contribute to reduce the impact on the economy due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19, for which the Operating License Framework Act and the General Administrative Procedure Act have been amended accordingly ...
The Ministry of Production (Produce), through the National Fisheries Health Agency (Sanipes), issued a guide with preventive measures to be implemented by operators of fishing and aquaculture infrastructures during the exercise of their activities against the expansion of COVID -19 ...
On 30 April 2020, the European Commission adopted three implementing regulations allowing temporary derogations from the strict cartel prohibition provided for by EU competition law in three specific agricultural sectors: dairy, potato and live plants and flowers. The latter sector is said to broadly cover “live trees and other plants, bulbs, roots and the like, cut flowers and ornamental foliage” ...
