An employee was fired after several sick leave periods, the last one of more than seven months. Her dismissal was based on the disturbance of the running of the prospecting and customer retention department that had resulted from her frequent and prolonged absences.She sued her employer before the labor court, seeking to have her dismissal declared unfair.The Court of Appeals rejected her claim ...
Under California law, employees are entitled to “one day’s rest therefrom in seven,” unless certain statutory exceptions apply. In Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc., 2 Cal. 5th 1074 (2017), the California Supreme Court addressed several ambiguities in the statutory language, giving employers much needed guidance on how to comply with California’s day of rest requirements ...
A successful appeal against a remediation notice has highlighted the difficulties faced by local authorities when trying to secure the remediation of contaminated land. The appeal is only the second appeal to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (SoS) since the contaminated land regime in Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 was implemented in 2000 ...
Trade union opposition to the use of temporary employment services (“TESs”) – commonly referred to as labour brokers – and concerns that TES employees were not being accorded rights granted to them in terms of South African labour legislation, led to the introduction of amendments to the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) that came into force in January 2015 ...
A number of local California cities and counties have passed their own minimum wage ordinances with a more aggressive schedule of minimum wage increases. While some cities and counties already implemented incremental increases in January, others increased on July 1, 2017, as follows: Locality Minimum Wage Eff. 7/1/17 Emeryville $15.20 (56 or more employees) $14 ...
2017 is a year of opportunity and challenge for the Australian food and agribusiness sector. We anticipate an uplift in food and agribusiness M&A activity, and have identified 6 key themes that are likely to play out in the remainder of 2017. Opportunities and Challenges – 6 key themes Three Key Opportunities 1 ...
Congress approved Supreme Decree Nº 2954, on Integral Waste Management (the “Regulation”) within the framework of article 344 of the Constitution, which provides that the State shall regulate the internment, production, commercialization and use of techniques, methods, input materials and substances that affect health and the environment ...
Act 27 was published in the Official Gazette No. 28285-B earlier this year, establishes the Paternity Leave, applicable both to employees of private sector, as well as to public servants, effective since May 25th, 2017.This Act, whose initiative was promoted by the Ministry of Labor, is based on the duty of the Panamanian state to protect the family, sacred in our Constitution ...
The Federal Environmental Agency (“IBAMA”) published Ordinance No. 01/2017, which provides for the improvement and unification of the procedures of suspension and/or blocking of the access to the Forest Origin Document (“FOD”) module. FOD is an instrument of the National Control System of the Origin of Forest Products (“SINAFLOR”) for the control of transportation and storage of forest products. In this sense, Ordinance No ...
Brazil has a very small Muslim community. In any event, this is a country which, despite economic and/or political crises, foreign investors are always looking at. At this moment, one can see foreign investors acquiring assets in Brazil because of their low prices ...
Following an industrial arbitration award in 2012, a teacher in an educational institution became aware that, for a long time, he had been subject to a wrong collective agreement and had therefore not received enough salary. Against this background, a dispute arose regarding, inter alia, adjustment of salary, overtime pay, holiday pay and pension contribution for the period 1 October 2007 - February 2009. Judgment of 30 May 2017 from the Danish Eastern High Court ...
On June 27, 2017, the US EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers took the first of two steps to narrow the Clean Water Act’s scope. The agencies proposed a rule rescinding the Obama Administration’s 2015 Clean Water Rule defining “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) and replacing it with its prior definition ...
Gender discrimination is a hot topic for California employers, with a recent California appellate court decision regarding sexual orientation discrimination and new regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) regarding transgender discrimination. In Husman v. Toyota, (Case No ...
New regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council, effective July 1, 2017, limit California employers’ use of criminal history when making employment decisions ...
New Law No 125-FZ amending regulation of overtime and part-time work was signed by the Russian President earlier this year (hereinafter – the “Law”). The Law went into force on June 29, 2017. Highlight below is the most important novelties introduced by the Law. Part-Time Work The parties of labour relations may now agree on any length and frequency of an employee’s working hours ...
The use of fixed-term employment contracts has been the subject of contention for many years. Opponents to their use have argued that because these contracts terminate automatically after the period of time for which they have been entered into, they can be used to avoid liability for unfair dismissal ...
In its recent decision in TFD Network Africa (Pty) Ltd v Singh NO & Others, the Labour Appeal Court (the “LAC”) considered the interpretation of section 17 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (“the “BCEA”); in particular, subsections 17(1) and (2), which regulate night work. Subsections 17(1) and (2) read as follows: “(1) In this section, 'night work' means work performed after 18:00 and before 06:00 the next day ...
Under Israeli law, the employment of a foreign employee who is not a citizen or resident of Israel is a criminal offense, except if the person requesting to employ the foreign employee received a special permit from the Population and Immigration Authority (the "Authority") pursuant to the Foreign Workers Law, 5751-1991 ...
After several delays, the Department of Labor’s (the “DOL’s”) final “fiduciary” rule expanding the definition of who is an investment advice fiduciary became effective on June 9, 2017 ...
The 2017 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature saw several changes in laws relevant to employers. Changes of interest to employers include the West Virginia Safer Workplace Act, Second Chance for Employment Act, West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act, West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, striking employees and unemployment benefits, Physicians Freedom of Practice Act, and bonds for wages and benefits ...
On the morning of 26 April 2017, the usual rumble of South African Airways (“SAA”) flights taking to the skies was interrupted by a strike by cabin crew employees, organised by their trade union, the South African Cabin Crew Association (“SACCA”). Due to strict civil aviation regulations, the strike resulted in a significant number of flights being cancelled, which, in turn, caused massive inconvenience for passengers ...
A recent South African Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“CCMA”) ruling has provided clarity on issues of deemed employment in circumstances where multiple contractors are used. The matter before the CCMA involved Shoprite, one of the largest food retailers in Africa. In order to provide its approximately 2,000 stores with stock in an efficient manner, Shoprite established seven distribution centres (“DCs”) in South Africa ...
The Labour Appeal Court ("LAC") judgment in Liberty Group Limited v MM is a reminder to employers to be vigilant when dealing with allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace and to ensure that managers are equipped to deal with reports of sexual harassment. A failure to do so can be a costly mistake, as the employer in this decision learnt ...
In Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc., the California Supreme Court responded to questions posed by the Ninth Circuit concerning the interpretation of California’s day-of-rest statutes, which are found in Labor Code Sections 550-558.1. Initially, former Nordstrom employees filed a Private Attorneys General Act action, alleging that Nordstrom had failed to provide guaranteed days of rest to its nonexempt employees in California ...
