On March 27, 2019, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “Act”) was signed by President Trump. The Act provides significant relief for employee benefit plan participants and includes both required and discretionary changes. Plan sponsors should immediately review their benefit plans to ensure that amendments are properly and timely implemented to ensure that their plans continue to operate in accordance with applicable law ...
In March, the Estonian Government decided to implement first steps to help the employers in order to avoid lay-offs and introduced also few other reliefs to support the companies. Below you can find summaries of these measures. Relief measures for employers Compensation of salary The Estonian Government approved the relief measures for the employees subject to salary cut ...
The pandemic of COVID-19 has severely affected functioning of various business activities across the globe and has posed a threat to legal services. The risks to legal services posed by the spread of COVID-19 were highlighted a few weeks back when international law firm Baker McKenzie closed its London office after a staff member was suspected to have been at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus ...
As misinformation on COVID-19 continues to spread, there is another more serious threat being dispersed through back trade channels and that is of counterfeit goods either for sale at exorbitant prices or fake goods proclaiming to cure or treat the virus. In 2018, Forbes announced that counterfeiting was the largest criminal enterprise in the world[1] and the sales of counterfeit and pirated goods totals $1.7 trillion per year, which is more than drugs and human trafficking ...
Associate Partner Sarmis Spilbergs and Associate Mikijs Zimecs have prepared a sample of a Privacy Policy that may help employees to process data related to COVID-19 in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation ...
Effective on April 6, 2020, an Order was published to establish the technical guidelines (the “Technical Guidelines”) for the activities described in Article 1, Section II, sub-sections (c) and (e) of the order that adopted extraordinary measures to deal with the health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus” (the “Order”). (We published an article on the Order, which may be foundhere ...
Below is a summary of key new measures, as well as clarifications on previous measures we reported on, that have been implemented by various UAE authorities since 5 April 2020 and the time of this inBrief, 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 April 2020 ...
The protection of personal data has been one of the topics of analysis at the global level during the pandemic due to the expansion of SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease COVID-19. As an example, it is enough to observe the measures taken by the governments of Germany and South Korea in excessive population monitoring, or the development of applications for the location of people before the isolation measures to prevent the spread of the virus ...
On April 6, 2020, Law No. 21,227 came into force, allowing access to unemployment insurance benefits under Law No. 19,728, in exceptional circumstances. This law, in its Article 14, Title III "Final Provisions", provides for a new criminal offense consisting of fraudulently obtaining supplements, benefits and / or profits due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19 ...
On Monday, April 6, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Call to Action Portal, which allows businesses to help their bottom line while also helping Pennsylvania fight back against COVID-19 ...
In Pakdel v. City and County of San Francisco, filed on March 17, 2020, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal voted 2-1 to affirm the dismissal of a property owner’s takings challenge against San Francisco’s “Expedited Conversion Program ...
On April 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a temporary rule regarding the implementation of the emergency paid sick leave and Expanded Family and Medical Leave (“EFMLA”) requirements established by the recently enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The DOL temporary rule covers significant ground in terms of delineating workers’ and employers’ rights and responsibilities under the FFCRA ...
Over the past few years, more and more companies have started publishing news content written by artificial intelligence (“AI”) algorithms. This includes Chinese technology giant, Tencent, whose rapid growth has shaped the trajectory of Naspers, the South African company that currently still owns a bit more than 30% of Tencent. Tencent publishes content produced by automated software known as Dreamwriter ...
As employers try to comply with the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s (FFCRA) paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave requirements, the Department of Labor has thrown them a curveball by quietly changing the answers to some of its Guidance about the FFCRA as well as adding 19 more FAQs to its prior compendium ...
In an apparent attempt to further reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Michigan, on Friday, April 3, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued Executive Order 2020-36, which provides protection to all employees who stay home when they are at “particular risk” of infecting others with COVID-19 ...
In our previous legal alert we informed that Act on Employment Services[1]was amended so that allowances to maintain job positions and to maintain employees during the emergency situation, state of emergency and state of distress (the “State of Crisis”) can be provided to a broader group of employers compared to the currently available options under the Act on Employment Services ...
We are facing the growing and exponential spread of COVID-19 and a state of emergency was recently declared in Portugal. As a result, it is important to assess what impact this situation may have on the ability of businesses to meet the obligations they have assumed under the contracts they have made. The current situation is generating tensions in contractual relationships between companies ...
In its continuing efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, on April 3, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) recommended that the general public wear, on a voluntary basis, “cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission” of coronavirus ...
Impact of Supreme Court's order of March 23, 2020 A three-judge bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court (“the Court”) in the matter of Suo Moto Writ Petition (Civil) No. 3 / 2020 titled as,In Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitationinitiated suo - moto proceedings on 23.03 ...
