Home Care Service providers may need to review how they pay many of their employees as a long-standing overtime exemption is slated to be eliminated by the Department of Labor (“DOL”). The DOL has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise the regulations pertaining to companionship and live-in domestic workers, with a 60-day public comment period set to close in the near future ...
This year promises to bring even more headlines than 2011 regarding workplace safety and the agency empowered to regulate it - OSHA. Given the increased scrutiny that regulators feel with election-year politics, the agency will have to pick its battles carefully when pursuing changes through new or updated regulations ...
Hot off the presses from our United States Supreme Court is a decision decided February 21, 2012 affirming a broad construction of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). While the decision, Marmet Healthcare Center, Inc. v. Clayton Brown, 565 U.S. – (2012) No. 11391, would appear to be a case of narrow import – it reverses a decision of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals that held arbitration provisions in nursing home contracts to be invalid – the language is far reaching ...
In this day and age it is commonplace for employers to issue communication devices such as Blackberries, iPhones and Androids (collectively “PDAs”) to employees. These devices allow employees to work and respond to emails and other communications without being tethered to their desks. They are beneficial to both the employer and employee – PDAs help the employer by increasing employee productivity and help the employee by allowing greater work flexibility ...
President Obama announced on January 4, 2012, that he would use his power of recess appointment to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). All three appointees had been formally nominated by the President for their positions but the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee had not yet acted on any of the nominations. The new members are Sharon Block (D), Terence F. Flynn (R), and Richard Griffin (D) ...
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is proposing changes to the regulations that govern the Family and Medical Leave Act (the “FMLA” or the “Act”). The proposed changes include provisions relating to an employer’s ability to opt to use different increments of FMLA under certain circumstances and clarify an employer’s responsibility to reinstate an employee after FMLA leave in situations where it may be impossible, as opposed to inconvenient, to reinstate an employee mid-shift ...
Government guidance that suggests parent companies are unlikely to be snared by anti-bribery legislation that catches a subsidiary could lull businesses into a false sense of security. While it is unlikely that a subsidiary or joint venture partner operating independently and caught by the Bribery Act would make its parent liable, there is other legislation ready to catch the owner ...
You are the general counsel of a public company, and your board and your CEO are considering the company’s strategic acquisition options. Your input is needed on the different forms that such a strategic transaction can take ...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has confirmed that lower courts may use their discretion in choosing either of two methods - the "percentage method" or "lodestar method" - to calculate attorneys' fees in class action suits. The decision, in Union Asset Mgmt Holding A.G. v. Dell, Inc., 2012 WL 35249 (5th Cir. Feb. 7, 2012), affirmed a district court's use of the percentage method to calculate a $7.2 million fee award ...
In the recent decision of Giza v. Sechelt School Bus Service Ltd., 2012 BCCA 18 (“Giza”), the Court of Appeal for British Columbia (the “Court of Appeal”) held that an employee who quit his job after being given working notice of termination of employment was nevertheless entitled to sue for damages for wrongful dismissal for the period of reasonable notice in excess of the notice given.Mr ...
In just a few years, the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 (the “CFAA,” 18 U.S.C. § 1030) - a sweeping statute that criminalizes the unauthorized access of protected computers - has evolved into a broad and powerful weapon in computer-related criminal and civil litigation. Originally enacted to target hackers, the statute now reaches almost any imaginable malfeasance that involves a computer. Two recurring categories of cases arise in an employment context ...
The National Labor Relations Board has had a busy few weeks. First, over the dissent of its sole Republican Member, Brian Hayes, it issued a final rule implementing new procedures for union elections. Second, it issued a decision in D.R. Horton, 357 NLRB No. 184 (January 3, 2012), a much-anticipated case involving class action waivers in collective bargaining agreements. Third, on the heels of the D.R ...
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced its annual revisions to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act) jurisdictional thresholds. The revised thresholds will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register and will apply to all transactions closing on or after such date. The new thresholds will remain in effect until the next annual adjustment, expected in the first quarter of 2013 ...
You’re the general counsel of a public company and your CEO calls you to tell you that he is interested in acquiring another public company. He’s already asking you how quickly this can get done and what the company needs to do. What are the first steps you should take? Board of Directors Generally, the CEO should call each of your board members individually to gauge their initial reaction toward the acquisition and schedule a special board meeting to discuss a potential transaction ...
Over the course of a few months spanning June to September 2011, a number of regulations were issued by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha – “KPPU”) as implementing guidelines to several pertinent Articles in Law No. 5 of 1999 concerning Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition (“Anti-Monopoly Law”). These guidelines are: Guidelines for Monopolistic Practices (Regulation No ...
In order to provide extensive protection, especially for the distribution of drugs in Indonesia, BPOM has issued a new regulation which sets out the criteria and procedure for drug registration, ie BPOM Regulation No. HK.03.1.23.10.11.08481 of 2011 regarding The Criteria and Procedure For Drug Registration ...
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On December 15, 2011 was published in the Official Journal of the Federation the decree by which they renovated and added various articles of the Federal law on protection to the consumer, which entered into force the day after its publication ...
Kocián Šolc Balaštík kicked off the new year by helping complete a significant transaction: the sale of UG Air, an operator of duty free and fashion shops at the international airport in Prague, to Aelia Czech Republic s.r.o. KSB has provided legal advice to UNIMEX GROUP, a.s ...
