COVID-19 has undoubtedly occupied the minds of employment lawyers and businesses over the past 12 months; however, what else has happened in the world of employment law that we might have missed? In our webinar, we looked at the changes that have taken place in the employment context over the past year and we looked ahead at the changes we can expect to see in 2021. Looking back... Section 1 changes A number of key changes took place in April 2020 ...
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to COVID-19. We discussed the original guidance in this prior article ...
If you are responsible for handling data subject requests made pursuant to the EU General Data Protection Regulation or verified consumer requests made pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act, chances are you have come across one or more of the myriad companies that purport to be advocating for consumers in making requests on their behalf. These companies include Mine, Privacy Bee, DeleteMe and Revoke ...
On March 22, 2021, through a televised address, the President of the Republic announced the strengthening and extension of the Social Protection Network, destined to mitigate the adverse effects caused by the restrictions due to the COVID-19. These measures are based on 5 pillars: • Greater protection to the families’ incomes. • Strengthening of the middle-class support. • Greater job protection ...
Beginning of Stage 2 of the National Vaccination Plan The Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection (Minsiterio de Salud y Protección Social) declared the initiation of stage 2 of the National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 for the population between 60 and 79 years of age. This does not mean that vaccination for those over 80 years of age will be stopped; these people will continue to be vaccinated without any interruption ...
Following the extension of the state of emergency until April 30, 2021 and the issuance of further pieces of legislation in connection with the COVID-19 emergency, including the recent Decree of March 13, 2021, no. 30 (that introduced, among others, new parental leaves and baby-sitting vouchers), the so-called “Sostegni Decree” has been just issued (Decree of March 22, 2021, no. 41, in force from March 23, 2021) ...
Key Points California employers with more than 25 employees must provide an additional 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave to full-time employees for qualified reasons COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave is retroactive to January 1, 2021, and must be paid out on an employee's oral or written request made on or after March 29 The amount of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave available must be listed as a separate line item on employees' wage statements, no later tha
Over the past month, the SEC has signaled the primacy of ESG in its mission for 2021 and beyond. Seemingly daily, there have been updates regarding ESG initiatives, whether from the Division of Enforcement or the Division of Corporation Finance. This week, it was the Division of Investment Management’s turn ...
In February 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (Subchapter V) took effect.[1] Subchapter V amends Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to allow certain individuals and businesses with debts of less than $2,725,625 to file a streamlined Chapter 11 case with the goal to make small business bankruptcies faster and cheaper ...
It has been said that, sooner or later, everything old is new again. In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) sweeping the globe in 2020, a heretofore largely overlooked and even less understood nineteenth century legal term has come to the forefront of American jurisprudence: force majeure ...
Now that we have persevered through one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been written about pandemic fatigue and associated social isolation, mental stress, and anxiety. Employers may be seeing an increase in the incidence of mental illness claims in their workplaces ...
New law provides up to four hours of paid leave for vaccination: On March 12, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation entitling New York employees to up to four hours of paid leave to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, effective immediately ...
As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available, more employers are considering bringing their employees back to the office. In doing so, many employers have questions about whether or not they can require their employees to receive the vaccine before returning. Preliminary guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) suggests that employers can mandate vaccination ...
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) which is another coronavirus stimulus package aimed at speeding up the United States’ recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one that attracts its fair share of attention, not all of it good, and too much of it from organizations named with that part of the alphabet — SEC and DOJ — that can strike fear in the heart of a business person. And Texas is often the center of the investigators’ focus ...
U.S. capital markets are beginning to experience the effects of the passage of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA). Amid continuing tensions between the United States and China, then-President Trump signed the HFCAA into law on December 18, 2020. The HFCAA was introduced in the United States Senate on March 28, 2019 by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). The HFCAA passed the Senate by unanimous consent on May 20, 2020 ...
On 14 March 2021, the law of 5 March 2021 on certain rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (the “P2B Regulation”) (hereinafter the “Law”) entered into force ...
Competition & Antitrust Resolution No. 237/2021 of the Secretariat of Commerce: New prices information regime for companies (SIPRE) By Agustín Waisman and Mercedes Pando Through Resolution No ...
A new version of the Instructions for the obtention of permits for movement within zones under quarantines or restrictive measures is in force as of March 15. The most relevant amendments to the former version are the following: Regarding the “Temporary Individual Permit for traveling to polling stations”, a new “permit for voting in the national, regional or local elections” is created ...
Hanson Bridgett has long been a visionary in promoting social and environmental change. That innovative spirit is what led them to become the first law firm certified as a B Corporation and a leading advocate for what has now become a global social movement. The California law firm is one of the founding members of B Corporation, a business model created in 2006 that enables companies to include a social as well as financial agenda in their legal structure ...
Last week upon final passage by Congress, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA or Act) into law.[1] The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill provides a comprehensive package of available funds to qualifying individuals and businesses in the form of direct payments, industry-specific grants, and tax credits ...
Deciding what happens to employees in a TUPE transfer where there is more than one transferee is never straightforward. However, developments in this area continue to add complexity to the situation, adding cost and uncertainty to employers. Recent developments In the recent case of McTear Contracts Ltd v Bennett & ors the EAT looked at a situation where there were two transferees in the context of a service provision change ...
