The Office of the Civil Registrar General of the National Statistics Office promulgated Administrative Order No. 1 series of 2012 (AO 1) on October 24, 2012. The AO implements the provisions of Republic Act 10172, the amendatory law to Republic Act 9048, and supplements Administrative Order 1 series of 2001, which, in turn, implements RA 9048. Both statutes provide a means of correcting erroneous entries in the civil registry without need of judicial action ...
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become active in scrutinizing and striking down employers’ social media policies. Three times in the last year, the NLRB issued Operations Management Memoranda providing employers with direction on drafting and applying social media policies. The NLRB specifically evaluated social media policies to determine whether they violated the employee bill of rights in Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) ...
If your company utilizes temporary workers supplied by a staffing agency, you may be a target of OSHA. On April 29, 2013, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA, Richard Fairfax, issued a memorandum to its Regional Administrators, entitled “Protecting the Safety and Health of Temporary Workers.” Mr ...
In recent months, high profile M&A warranty claims1 and falling premiums have dramatically increased the utilization of "representations and warranty insurance" (RWI), also known as "warranty and indemnity insurance," in mergers, acquisitions and related transactions. By one account, demand for transactional risk insurance policy limits in North America grew by eighty-six percent (86%) in 2012 ...
Battered women who fear for their safety, mothers unable to support their children, dysfunctional families in need. A reality for many women is the presence of domestic violence in their lives. This situation, although occurring in all social and economic levels, is much more obvious and has more serious consequences in low-income communities ...
On April 24, 2013, WorkSafeBC announced the approval of new Occupational Health and Safety Workplace Bullying and Harassment Policies, which come into effect on November 1, 2013 ...
1. OverviewIn accordance with theWorld Football Association’s, FIFA’s requirements, (consistent) time periodsfor the transfer of players have been established within the Union of EuropeanFootball Associations (UEFA). These time periods exist to ensure that the transferwindows of individual Football Associations coincide with each other and inturn to guarantee equal opportunities for each individual club ...
In a recent decision by the Court of Appeal of Québec, the Honourable Jacques Chamberland, J.C.A. reviewed the application of exclusion clauses contained in a home insurance policy in the context of criminal activities1. THE FACTSThe Appellant, Union canadienne compagnie d’assurance insured the building of respondent, Mrs. Lise Houle and her spouse, Christian Alexandre. The latter was growing cannabis in the insured building ...
In 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) set the business community atwitter when an administrative law judge in American Red Cross decided that an at-will disclaimer in an employee handbook violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by being overly broad ...
America’s high school and college students will soon be finishing another school year, and employers across the country are gearing up to welcome many of these young adults as interns for the summer. Interns are staples in many organizations and often provide valuable benefit to a business. As employers strive to keep costs down, including that of labor, many use unpaid summer help where possible ...
On February 25, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its final rule (the Final Rule) setting forth standards for health insurance issuers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act). Specifically, the Final Rule outlines exchange and issuer standards related to coverage of essential health benefits, minimum value and actuarial value ...
Last month, the United States Supreme Court (Supreme Court) provided an unexpected gift to entities facing collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by holding that defendants may moot such a case by making an offer of judgment pursuant to Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This ruling could have application to the more common vehicle for multiple plaintiff claims, class actions under Rule 23, but that has yet to be tested ...
Because of recently-enacted changes to the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act, West Virginia employers will have more time to pay final wages to discharged employees. Prior to this change, the Wage Payment and Collection Act required that employers pay discharged employees within 72 hours of termination ...
Every year, tornadoes in the United States cause dozens of fatalities and inflict billions of dollars in property damage. The EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20 was the most powerful and destructive storm yet of the 2013 season. Although the Moore tornado is only one of 343 tornadoes already reported nationwide through May 23, more than 1300 occur annually in the United States, based on a three-year average ...
Another natural disaster has devastated a community. By now, all are aware of the tragedy the tornado inflicted on residents of Moore, Oklahoma, destroying lives and property. We join in offering our condolences to those affected by the storm. Although there is no way to replace lost lives, as with other catastrophes, there are likely to be a myriad of financial issues that will need to be addressed to rebuild and replace property. Maximizing insurance recoveries is one component ...
In Louisiana Generating LLC v. Illinois Union Ins. Co., No. 12-30651 (5th Cir. May 15, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") alleging violations of the Clean Air Act ("CAA") obligated an insurer to defend its insured ...
On Friday June 14, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its eagerly-awaited decision, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper, Ltd., 2013 SCC 34, a case concerning random alcohol testing at a paper mill operation in Saint John, New Brunswick ...
On June 14, 2013, Governor Rick Perry signed legislation, which for the first time authorizes domestic captive insurers in Texas. The bill, known as SB 734, allows Texas businesses to realize the advantages, including tax benefits, of forming and operating a “pure” captive insurance company without the burden and cost associated with an out-of-state captive ...
Many employers are wary of hiring applicants with criminal records because they fear exposing themselves to potential negligent hiring or negligent supervision claims, but they also have concerns imposed by the EEOC’s aggressive interpretation of Title VII that a blanket rule against hiring persons with criminal convictions is a violation of the law ...
The various plans and the range of measures included in them that have been described have produced practical results, particularly an increase in the applications for registration of patents, trademarks and protection by copyright, specifically for property such as software. In terms of applications for patents registered in 2011, China came in first place above the USA and Japan ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union recently issued a judgment in Case C-1/12, following a reference for a preliminary ruling submitted by the Lisbon Court of Appeals, in the dispute between the Order of Chartered Accountants (OTOC) and the Portuguese Competition Authority ...
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that excess insurance policies are triggered when the payment of losses exceed the attachment point rather than when the policyholder’s loss obligations exceed the attachment point. Ali v. Fed. Ins. Co., No. 11-5000-cv, 2013 WL 2396046 (2d Cir. June 4, 2013). The decision is another reminder that outcomes in insurance disputes may depend on subtle differences in the wording of insurance policies ...
IntroductionGovernment contractors often use teaming agreements to combine the services of two or more contractors to offer the most persuasive bid for a government contract. The prime contractor typically agrees with the other team members that if the prime wins the bid, it will allocate some of the contractual work to the other member(s) ...
By a vote of seven justices, with three inhibiting, one absent, and four dissenting, the Supreme Court – in a decision penned by J. Perez and promulgated last June 25, 2013 – dismissed this petition for certiorari assailing the earlier Resolutions of public respondent COMELEC which ordered the cancellation of petitioner’s Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) for the position of Representative of the lone district of Marinduque ...
In Vance, the Supreme Court announced a narrow standard for determining which employees constitute "supervisors" for purposes of establishing vicarious liability under Title VII. In a 5-4 decision, the Court decided that a supervisor is a person authorized to take "tangible employment actions," such as hiring, firing, promoting, demoting or reassigning employees to significantly different responsibilities ...
