The Equality Tribunal (the Tribunal) has directed that an employer pay €52,000.00 in compensation to a former employee after it held that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of gender and victimised1. The Tribunal awarded €26,000 in respect of the discrimination and €26,000 in respect of the victimisation. The award is equivalent to one year's salary. The claimant was employed as a business development manager for a branch of the business ...
Pending consideration by Congress is Senate Bill No. 3371 which seeks to amend Section 5 of Republic Act No. 7277, as amended, otherwise known as the “Magna Carta for Persons With Disability”. A counterpart measure in the House of Representatives is House Bill No. 5475. Senate Bill No. 3371 proposes that Section 5 of Republic Act No. 7277 be amended to read as follows: “Sec. 5. Equal Opportunity for Employment ...
Pending consideration by the Congress is House Bill No. 3591, otherwise known as the “Alien Social Integration Act of 2010”, which aims to grant legal residency status to certain aliens in the Philippines under certain conditions. The proposed legislation covers all aliens whose stay in the Philippines is otherwise illegal under existing laws, and who have entered the country prior to 30 June 2000, excluding those who already availed in good faith the benefits of Executive Order No ...
Some amended/new provisions introduced by the NLRC En Banc Resolution No. 11-12 adopted on 16 November 2012 are: · Section 6, paragraph g, Rule III ...
The Courts have considered the concept of constructive dismissal on many occasions. Generally, the expression “constructive dismissal” refers to situations in which an employee does not agree to a substantial change made unilaterally by his employer to one or more essential terms of his employment contract, and leaves his employment for this reason. In the case ofSt-Hilairev.Nexxlink inc ...
The Scottish Courts: The largest volume of litigation takes place in the Sheriff Courts located throughout Scotland, which are similar to the County Courts in England & Wales in that they typically handle disputes which are relatively straightforward and low value ...
In July 2012 the Croatian Parliament abolished the rule that had enabled employees to receive salaries and other benefits as agreed in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), years after the CBAs had ceased to be in force.For decades companies with a large number of employees, through the CBAs, were establishing a minimum level of employees’ rights, such as vacation bonuses, Christmas bonuses and loyalty bonuses ...
Although only tangentially related to oil and gas operations, the recent pipeline rupture and resulting fire near Charleston, West Virginia highlights the importance of safety inspections and the costs incurred when accidents occur ...
With a law enacted on 17 December 2012, the Finnish parliament moved forward on the longstanding plan to house intellectual property rights disputes in the Market Court. This legislative reform has a significant impact for all companies operating in Finland. The Market Court will start to hear these disputes in the autumn of 2013 ...
Yet again, this year has been a busy one for employers, HR teams and their lawyers: employment law changes and decisions from the Courts have kept us all on our toes! Here is a reminder of some of the most significant cases and legal developments of 2012.1. The unfair dismissal qualifying period increased to two years for those employed on or after 6 April 2012. The qualifying period for employees whose employment started before this date remains 12 months.2 ...
The Government has confirmed it plans to increase the lower earnings trigger for automatic pension enrolment from £8,105 to £9,440 from April 2013, keeping the figure in line with the income tax threshold. Only workers with an annual salary above the earnings trigger will have to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme by their employer ...
As we embark upon the season of goodwill, those wishing to embrace the Christmas cheer may wish to consider settlement of an ongoing commercial dispute bringing peace and goodwill to all - besides saving their business time and money in the process.Should you settle? Parties settle disputes for a variety of reasons ...
French at work, at school and in the Civil Administration - Protection and bolstering of the official language. The title of this newsletter gives a good summary of the explanatory notes that serve as an introduction to Bill 14, entitled "An Act to Amend the Charter of the French Language, the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and other Legislative Provisions" ("The Bill"). The Legislature is concerned that English is being used systematically in certain workplaces ...
By a decision of 18 October 2012 the Danish Board of Equal Treatment found that it was okay to dismiss an employee shortly after her return from maternity leave as it was not until that time that the outlook of the organisation had been established. The matter involved an employee who was dismissed shortly after the expiry of her maternity leave. The employee argued that the decision to dismiss her had been made, while she was on maternity leave ...
In two decisions of 18 October 2012 the Danish Board of Equal Treatment found that it is not permitted to use criteria in job advertisements that indicate that the advertisement is targeted at younger applicants. In the first case a 57 year old job applicant had complained that an industry association in a job advertisement had stated that emphasis was placed on the applicants having "a few years' experience or were newly graduates" ...
The question raised in the case was whether a previously concluded agreement on salary cuts could be set aside in the event of the employer's bankruptcy to the effect that an employee could receive salary from the Employees' Guarantee Fund as if no agreement on salary cuts had been entered into between the employer and the employee some months before the employer went bankrupt ...
Although like in most EU countries, there is no specific regulation in France on social media, judges have recently answered very clearly to this question: it depends on the privacy settings made by the employee!French judges make a clear distinction between (i) social media postings that remain private (i.e ...
On November 30, 2012, the long-awaited amendments to the Mexican federal labor law were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación). The primary purpose of this set of reforms is to promote job creation and to attempt to regularize labor relationships that arise informally ...
A Polish company enters into a contract with a German company. Which country’s law will govern the contract? Monika Hartung: To start with, under Art. 3 of the Rome I Regulation (Regulation 593/2008 of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations), the parties themselves may select the law governing the contract. The previous version of Poland’s Private International Law required the existence of a link, e.g ...
The Quebec Court of Appeal rendered an important decision on the legality of termination of employment for some 190 employees of the Wal-Mart store in Jonquière. In the context of several proceedings which were filed to obtain compensation for those job losses, the United Food and Commercial Workers, local 503 (hereinafter the "Union") argued that the store's closure in April 2005 was contrary to section 59 of the Labour Code (hereinafter the "L.C.") ...
Since the adoption of Bill C-451 amending certain provisions of the Criminal Code in march of 2004,2 employers have had to take on increased responsibility in the area of occupational health and safety. Indeed, the effect of sections 22.1 and 217.1 of the Criminal Code is to facilitate the laying of criminal negligence charges in cases involving the health and safety of workers. Section 217 ...
The Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Cole, 2012 SCC 53 may have a significant impact on how employers manage the use of digital devices in the workplace. While a constitutional and criminal decision at its core, the case nevertheless recognizes the importance of employees’ reasonable expectation of privacy when using work computers and other digital devices. In Cole, the accused was a high school teacher who was issued a laptop computer by his employer ...
FAQ on the Belgian Pre-Contractual Information in the Framework of Commercial Co-operation Agreements Act of 19 December 2005.Belgium has a specific legal regime protecting the economically weaker party in certain commercial partnership agreements (i.e. the Pre-Contractual Information in the Framework of Commercial Co-operation Agreements Act of 19 December 2005 – “the Act”) ...
The use of social media is now a fact of life, but many employers are struggling to keep up with the consequences of rapid technological change.Technology develops fast: it is hard to believe that Twitter has only been with us since 2006. The law moves more slowly and regulating new employee behaviours within the existing legal framework can be a challenge ...
The constitutional right to privacy was discussed in the decision promulgated on 18 October 2011 by the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) in the case of Briccio “Ricky” A. Pollo v. Chairperson Karina Constantino-David, et al. (G.R. No ...
