On Jan. 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released updated guidance regarding mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. Important highlights are as follows. First, the guidance emphasizes that employers should implement a COVID-19 prevention program for the workplace ...
Aron Beezley of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP enumerates the key impacts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council's final rule adopting mandates of the executive order Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently issued a final rule1 that implements the requirements of the Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials Executive Order ...
Pursuant to the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law (the “AML Law”), which transposes into national legislation the 4thEU AML Directive ((EU) 2015/849), companies and other legal entities must maintain and register, in a central public register to be created for this purpose, information on their beneficial owners ...
Introduction In the recent Industrial Court Award of Azffanizam bin Abd v Prince Court Medical Centre Sdn Bhd [Award No.11 of 2021] dated 4 January 2021, the Industrial Court accepted evidence taken from social media in dismissing a claim of forced resignation ...
In a decision that could be a game-changer for cookie and candy manufacturers, the Third Circuit has recently denied trade dress protection for the shape of the popular Pocky cookie. The Pocky is a long, thin Japanese cookie stick that is almost completely dipped in chocolate, except for the very bottom. Ezaki Glico created the Pocky in 1966 and obtained two trade dress registrations to protect the configuration of the cookie ...
When it comes to the general transfer of data to third countries, even, for example, intra-group data transfers, recourse to US providers such as Microsoft (Office 365), Amazon (AWS), Google or Salesforce has been ill-fated since the ECJ ruling of July 16, 2020 (C-311/18 “Schrems II”) ...
Notwithstanding the pandemic, February marks LGBT History Month; an annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history. It is important that the progress we have made to date is not only recognised but celebrated ...
Some facts and figures that set out the landscape of merger control, antitrust enforcement and competition litigation in Portugal in 2020. Interim Measures The PCA ordered the Portuguese Professional Football League to suspend its decision preventing teams in the First and Second Football Leagues from signing players that have unilaterally terminated their contracts due to the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Introduction In the recent Industrial Court Award of Harry Wong Wei Chen v Petroliam Nasional Berhad [Award No.11 of 2021] dated 4 January 2021, the Industrial Court upheld the dismissal of an employee (“the Claimant”) on account of several allegations of sexual and workplace harassment. An interesting point in the instant case was the absence of corroborative witnesses in respect of several of the complaints against the Claimant ...
Leases often include language that gives a tenant the option to purchase the leased property during or at the end of the lease term. The Michigan Supreme Court has held that these options to purchase, or “options” as they are commonly referred, are “simply a contract by which the owner of the property agrees with another that he shall have a right to buy the property at a fixed price within a specified time ...
Traditionally, Belgian labour law distinguishes between two forms of telework, namely structural telework, regulated by the Collective Labour Agreement n° 85, and occasional telework, regulated by the Act on Workable and Agile Work. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a third category has been added, namely 'Covid telework', which was, at a certain point, recommended but has now been made compulsory again by the government ...
Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group is pleased to present the False Claims Act: 2020 Year in Review, our annual review of significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases, developments and trends. Despite the pandemic and the smallest recoveries for the Department of Justice in over a decade, FCA enforcement remains robust. As always, the healthcare industry remains the most frequent subject of FCA cases and investigation ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. If somebody asked me at the start of 2020 whether I could join a meeting by video, my immediate thought would have been: “no, that sounds far too difficult and I don’t think we really have the technology to do that” ...
Changes to the off-payroll working rules for private sector organisations originally planned for April 2020 will now come into force from 6 April 2021. As a result, large and medium sized organisations engaging contractors through an intermediary will have various responsibilities and potential liabilities ...
When Alabama’s Legislature convenes for its annual session on February 2, lawmakers will once again be asked to consider a bill that would provide certain Alabamians with access to medical cannabis ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
The government’s recent announcement of its plan to roll-out the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine nationwide has triggered many questions and concerns, highlighting a collision of seemingly conflicting rights and obligations in various spheres of life. With the first vaccines arriving on our shores on 1 February 2021, there are likely some employees out there who are not as excited about the arrival of the vaccine as their employers are ...
A new Royal Decree published on 21 January 2021 in the Belgian Official Gazette has temporarily extended the occupational doctor's role in combatting the Covid-19 virus ...
It is common knowledge among many human resources professionals that religious organizations generally are protected from religious discrimination lawsuits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and most state anti-discrimination laws. For example, a Baptist organization may apply a preference for members of the Baptist Church in its hiring decisions ...
i. To extend until December 31st, 2021, the occupational emergency declared by the Necessity and Urgency Decree No. 34/2019. ii. To extend the prohibition of dismissals without just cause and for the causes of lack or reduction of work and force majeure for a period of 90 days as of the expiration of the term established by Decree No ...
Imagine you instruct an employee to get tested for the Covid-19 virus infection. The employee refuses the test, claiming that the employer is not authorized to instruct him to take such a test. Moreover, the employee claims he had been vaccinated against Covid-19. What is the legal situation? 1 ...
Labor Court Siegburg 11/11/2020 - 4 Ca 1240/20 Short-time work continues to be omnipresent in many sectors of the economy due to the Covid 19 pandemic. A recent decision by the Labor Court Siegburg once again emphasizes that the ordering and implementation of short-time work requires careful preparation on the part of the company in terms of labor law in order to avoid unpleasant surprises ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
