With the spotlight on the new laws combating sexual harassment in New York, employers may have missed a significant new modification to New York City law mandating a “cooperative dialogue” in response to workplace requests for reasonable accommodations ...
The Abu Dhabi Global Market (the ADGM) recently announced the launch of a commercial license specifically catered towards tech start-ups that allows entrepreneurs to obtain an operational license in the ADGM and access to a Professional Services Support Program aimed at allowing entrepreneurs entry to a community of businesses, financial services and professional advisors ...
Brick and mortar retailers are rapidly diversifying checkout and payment methods to combat the erosion of sales to online channels and provide an improved shopping experience for consumers. From self-checkout kiosks, to store-specific mobile applications for payment, scan-as-you-go devices, and even ‘just walk out’ models, retailers are reinventing consumer’s notions of the traditional checkout line by going cashierless ...
When negotiating a settlement agreement in an employment dispute, “no rehire” language is often a standard term. This language typically bars the litigating employee from seeking re-employment with the former employer. However, in California, at least one “no rehire” provision was invalidated because it was not narrowly tailored to the employer at issue. In Golden v. California Emergency Physicians Medical Group (“CEP”), CEP terminated Dr ...
At the beginning of September, the Israeli Innovation Authority, a division of the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry and the successor to the Office of Chief Scientist “IIA”, issued new rules “New Rules”. The “New Rules” regarded the licensing of know-how developed and obtained by Israeli companies that received grants from the IIA “Funded Companies”, to multinational corporations ...
Recent amendments to Mauritius’ Employment Rights Act (“ERA”) have brought about regulation into an area of employment law that many foreign jurisdictions have struggled to deal with: the gig economy, which has so far been characterised by short term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent contracts and the accompanying benefits ...
Under newly enacted Section 1400Z of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), beginning on December 22, 2017, taxpayers may defer, and in some cases partially eliminate, capital gains by making certain investments in “qualified opportunity zones.” A qualified opportunity zone is a “population census tract” in a state designated low-income community ...
Due to recent federal regulation, employers must follow new disclosure procedures before performing background checks. Effective September 21, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued updated model disclosure forms mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The new forms may be accessed here. The last time the CFPB provided a model disclosure form for use by employers performing background checks was 2012 ...
Many South Africans, I suspect, find Brexit both boring and incomprehensible. All that endless talk of customs unions, free trade agreements, hard borders, borders in the Irish Sea..!But one really interesting thing that has emerged from the endless news stories is just how important intellectual property (“IP”) is in all of this ...
Striking is a fundamental right enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution. However, section 36 of the Constitution accepts that a fundamental right can be limited. Sections 64 and 65 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (the “LRA”) contain these limitations for strikes. Section 64 requires certain procedures to be followed prior to a strike taking place for it to be “protected” ...
Is the singing of offensive songs a dismissible offence? The South African Constitutional Court recently handed down judgment inDuncanmec Proprietary Limited v Gaylard N.O & Othersin which it considered whether the singing of struggle songs, containing words that could be construed as offensive, warranted dismissal ...
Patent landscaping: the road to success Patent landscaping analysis, or patent mapping, involves the electronic search and analysis of the vast amount of available online published patent data in order to extract meaningful and valuable technical, business and legal information ...
Who’s interested in Primark? Is it simply those South Africans who can afford to travel to the UK, only to find that, thanks to the weakness of the rand, the only shop they can afford is ... Primark? The recent Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) decision in the matterTruworths Ltd v Primark Holdingspertaining to well-known trade marks is of significance ...
Punitive proposed amendment to South Africa’s transfer pricing provisions Transfer pricing is a self-assessment mechanism that aims to ensure that taxpayers identify all potential cross-border transactions, operations, schemes, agreements or understandings that have been entered into between connected persons (referred to as “potentially affected transactions”), to ensure that all such potentially affected transactions have been concluded and implemented on an arm&rsqu
The Companies Amendment Bill, 2018 (the "Bill") was released for public comment by the Minister of Trade and Industry on 21 September 2018. The Bill, if introduced in its current form, proposes a number of changes to the Companies Act, 2008. This snapshot review deals with only our “big five” amendments. 1 ...
The decriminalisation of private cannabis possession and use and the workplace In the recent decision in the consolidated matter ofMinister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others v Prince; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Rubin; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Acton and Others(the “cannabis judgment”), the Constitutional Court considered whether it should confirm the decision of the High Court which declared various pr
The New Rwandan Labour Code: a mixed bag of pro-employer and pro-employee changes Effective from 6 September 2018, Rwanda’s New Labour Code (law n° 66/2018 of 30/08/2018 regulating labour in Rwanda) repealedlaw n° 13/2009 of 27/05/2009 regulating labour in Rwanda(the “Repealed Labour Code”), which has been in force for over nine years. This article gives an overview of the key changes introduced by the New Labour Code ...
WTF®: a trade mark perspective on millennial gibberish bySamera Naidoo ICYMI, Proctor & Gamble ("P&G") recently applied to register a whole lot of text/SMS talk abbreviations as trade marks. It caused a real storm and the mainstream press absolutely loved it! FOMOalert! DWAI, I’ll bring you up to speed...what happened here was that P&G applied to register some really unlikely trade marks including WTF, LOL, FML, NBD ...
The rise of e-commerce and the struggle many brick-and-mortar retail stores face is nothing new. Customers are increasingly choosing to shop for clothes, furniture and even groceries from the convenience of their own homes. More recently, however, this shift in the way consumers shop has given rise to new types of retail stores – small showrooms and “pop-up shops ...
A key quality for a successful attorney, leader of an organization, claims professional or human resource professional requires effective negotiation skills to resolve conflict and disputes. Negotiating over 1,000 such disputes as an attorney and mediator has been a tremendous education on how to successfully resolve disputes and conflict ...
Not all matters will be appropriate for mediation. There are situations in which mediation is likely to fail: When parties let their egos control. When there is a misunderstanding of the facts. When there is a misunderstanding of the law. There is no incentive for settlement. When parties do not respect the process ...
Help your Mediator to help you and your client The relationship between the mediator and the parties must be clearly defined and be based in trust. Before a mediator is selected to host mediation, the parties should agree on what type of mediation they would like to engage in and who is the best mediator for that goal ...
Define the terms of fair Approaching mediation or negotiations requires that the parties agree on what criteria to use to determine what is a fair agreement. Determining these criteria before engaging in negotiations will help parties to articulate the basis for their positions. It can also help to ease tensions and rationalize the process. The criteria must be objective, legitimate and practical. Complicated formulas or unreasonable positions will complicate the discussion ...
Work with the People to Solve the Problem When approaching mediation, parties need to work together to tackle the problem, not each other. The goal is to be soft on the people and hard on the problem. Failing to interact with the other party sensitively, can be catastrophic to building or maintaining a working relationship. Knowing the other side personally helps to build cordiality. Find ways to meet them informally before the negotiation, arrive early to chat or linger afterwards ...
Stay focused on the interest, not on your position. Define the problem; you decide on your position. For every interest there usually exist several possible satisfying solutions to adequately address those interests. Remember that behind opposed positions lie shared and often compatible interests ...
