If you are in the oil and gas industry and you’ve experienced the recent onslaught of enforcement actions, particularly in the Appalachian basin, by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) you may take comfort in the aphorism: “You’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you!” A simple Google search of “EPA III Enforcement” and a click on the “Natural Gas Extraction/Marcellus Shale” link at the EPA Region III website should cause any company concern ...
Employers and employees in B.C. will soon benefit from a long-awaited and wide-ranging overhaul to the Pensions Benefits Standards Act (PBSA). Significant changes to how pensions are structured and administered in B.C. have followed the passing of Bill 38 on May 31, 2012. The Bill repeals and replaces the PBSA, which has remained largely unchanged since it was first introduced in 1993 ...
In a recent decision, Jean C. Omegachem Inc.1. The Court of Appeal answered that question by ruling that an employee's refusal to sign a non-competition agreement during employment, which had been discussed when the employee was hired but presented to him three years after commencement of employment, is not a just and sufficient cause for dismissal ...
Employers preparing for the phasing in of the new pensions auto-enrolment regime should not overlook their data protection obligationsBackground: the new pension regimeFrom October 2012 a new pensions regime will start to be phased in which will eventually require all employers in the UK to automatically enrol eligible staff into some sort of pension scheme and, importantly, for the first time, to pay minimum contributions ...
The European Convention on Human Rights applies also to legal entities.As a result, businesses and organisations can address the European Court of Human Rights if they consider that their human rights, guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights, have been violated. Although not rare in Europe, this option is still new and not widely used by companies in the Baltics ...
On February 29, 2012, the Quebec Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of the Quebec Superior Court that had dismissed the motion to authorize the bringing of A Class Action filed by Mr. Michel Dell'Aniello ("Dell'Aniello") in connection with changes made unilaterally by Vivendi Canada Inc. ("Vivendi") to the extended medical insurance benefits plan for retirees. THE FACTS In 1977, The Seagram Company Ltd ...
Agreements to compel the resolution of most employment related disputes are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have mandated the enforcement of arbitration agreements in employment cases under the FAA provided the agreements are fair, provide due process, and enable employees to preserve all the rights and remedies that they would have been entitled to in a court of law. See Circuit City Stores Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S ...
A religious organization has a constitutional right to make decisions about the hiring and firing of its “ministers” under the First Amendment. In a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church and School v. E.E.O.C., 132 S.Ct. 694, 2012 WL 75047 (2012), the Supreme Court ruled that religious organizations can assert the “ministerial exception” under the First Amended to bar employment discrimination suits by those who can be considered “ministers” of the organization ...
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has long contended that when employers use criminal histories to make employment decisions, they run the risk of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by basing their decision on information that has an unfair impact on minorities. The EEOC recently stepped up its enforcement efforts and publicly settled with Pepsi for $3.13 million over the beverage company’s use of a blanket exclusion policy of people with criminal records ...
On May 26, 2011, in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America et al. v. Michael B. Whiting et al., 131 S.Ct. 1968 (2011), the Supreme Court of the United States upheld states’ rights to mandate use of the employment verification program (E-Verify) organized by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) ...
On May 15, 2012, a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia struck down recent changes to the National Labor Relations Board’s representation election procedures, which were intended to streamline the Board’s representation election process. In response, the Board has halted implementation of these changes, which took effect on April 30, 2012 ...
Employers, imagine that your employees’ use of Facebook and Twitter is akin to being at the controls of a forklift. Consider the employee who is angry because he has not been adequately trained and is tired of having to be on call 24/7, or the employee who is upset because she believes overtime is being unfairly distributed among company personnel ...
On 23 February 2012, Government Regulation No. 27 of 2012 on Environmental Licenses (“GR 27/2012”) was issued to regulate AMDAL, UPL & UKL, and the contamination and destruction of the environment. GR 27/2012 is the implementing regulation for Articles 33, 41, and 56 of Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management which replaced Government Regulation No. 27 of 1999 on Environmental Impact Analysis ...
The Minister of Manpower and Transmigration (MOM) recently issued Regulation No. 40 of 2012 on Certain Positions which are Closed to Foreign Manpower (“MOMR 40/2012”). MOMR 40/2012 lists 19 different positions, most related to human resources, which are closed to foreigners. However, MOMR 40/2012 applies to wholly owned local companies only and does not apply to foreign-owned companies (ie foreign investment companies/PMAs) ...
The Constitutional Court in Decision No. 27/PUU-IX/2011 (“Decision”) declared articles 65(7) and 66(2)(b) of Law No. 13 of 2003 (“Manpower Law“) conditionally unconstitutional where fixed-term employment contracts used in outsourcing arrangements do not provide a clause protecting the rights of existing workers when the principal company (work provider) switches outsourcing company or labour provider but the same work continues ...
Bill 33,1 whose very title announced the elimination of Union Placement of employees to improve the operations of the construction industry, was assented to on December 2, 2011, and it has raised a lot of comments. The media has made a great deal of the changes proposed in this bill regarding union placement of employees in the construction industry ...
For the past two years so-called 'monster rain' has hit Copenhagen in summer. The rain has flooded large areas in Copenhagen and neighbouring towns, and caused substantial damage to properties in the flooded areas, as well as closing major radial routes into Copenhagen. This update examines the ways in which the authorities intend to prevent damage caused by monster rain in future ...
Energy security is ability of the State to choose how and under what conditions local consumers are to be provided with energy and energy resources. This ability is mainly determined by alternatives for usage of local energy sources, diversified imports, integrity of energy systems, and market-based formation of energy prices ...
The Government of Guangdong Province has recently put forward and is currently seeking public opinions on a series of draft labour law related regulations, namely, the Provisions of the Implementation of the Labour Contract Law of the People's Republic of China in Guangdong Province ( 《广东省实施 〈中华人民共和国劳动合同法〉若干规定》)
On April 17, 2012 the federal government announced its Plan For Responsible Resource Development, setting out further details on steps to implement proposals for streamlining the federal environmental assessment (“EA”) process. This Plan follows on the heels of the federal budget and the Statutory Review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,[1] which both suggested that these streamlining reforms would be forthcoming ...
On April 17, 2012, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision enjoining the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) from implementing a controversial rule requiring employers to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The rule’s effective date was slated for April 30, 2012. In response to the D.C ...
In order to comply with a court-ordered schedule, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on April 17, signed final rules that subject additional oil and gas operations, including hydraulic fracturing, to air quality regulation under the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) programs, and impose new and amended requirements under both programs ...
THE FACTS In January 2001, Synertech established two individual pension plans for two of its executives, that is the individual pension plan for Mr. François Bérard (the “Bérard Plan”) and the individual pension plan for Mr. Michael Pons (the “Pons Plan”). In November 2008, Synertech amended these two pension plans, effective as of January 1, 2001 ...
On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”) ...
In response to a court order, EPA has announced proposed rules that would establish new source performance standards (“NSPS”) applicable to greenhouse gas emissions from new, fossil fuel-fired power plants (“power plants”). The proposal is a highly controversial one, which will effectively prohibit the construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture carbon ...
