As reported in our September WortHReading, if you want to employ workers from outside the Economic European Area or Switzerland ("migrants") after 27 November don't forget that the new points-based immigration system will be up and running and you will need to become a licensed sponsor to do so. An employer without a sponsorship licence, but which employs migrants, will be acting illegally ...
In Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police v Homer, Mr Homer argued that he could not obtain a degree in time to benefit from it financially before he retired aged 65, but younger employees would be able to and the policy was therefore indirectly discriminatory on the grounds of age ...
Many employers are rightly concerned about the significant amounts they are required to pay to the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail in respect of employment injuries sustained by their employees. The general rule underlying the financial system of the regime is that the cost of benefits paid following an industrial accident sustained by an employee is imputed to his employer’s account, irrespective of whether the employer is at fault ...
On May 22, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in a case involving the notion of reasonable foreseeability in negligence actions. This judgment, written by the Chief Justice, confirms that tort law must compensate harm done on the basis of reasonable foresight, and must not be considered as insurance ...
The various amendments recently made to the Act respecting labour standards(1) (hereinafter the “ARLS”) essentially apply to the following:• the introduction of a new type of authorized leave for employees who are also reservists of the Canadian Forces and take part in operations;• the clarification of the concept of spousal cohabitation especially with regard to leave for family or parental reasons;• details on the advance notice to be given by employees who want to take pat
Pat McFadden, the Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs, has confirmed that the extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16 will be implemented in April 2009, as planned ...
Anybody who has ordered their Christmas shopping online or installed software will have encountered so-called 'clickwrap' agreements. With clickwrap, before being able to complete the order or install the software, you must indicate acceptance of the service provider's terms and conditions – with a simple click on the I agree button – before being able to proceed. This is the stark choice of “take it or leave it” for the digital age ...
What Happened Last week, the chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India's fourth largest information technology company, admitted to a stunning fraud. Fraudulent entries in the company's financial statements totaled in excess of US$ 1 billion, as compared to the actual financial state of the company. In response to the fraud, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd., a local affiliate of Bank of America Corp ...
A new regulation has been issued by the Minister of Health, namely Regulation of the Ministry of Health No. 1010/MENKES/PER/XI/2008 regarding the Registration of Medicines (“Regulation 1010/2008”). Regulation 1010/2008 revokes previous Ministry of Health Regulation No. 949/Menkes/Per/VI/2000. Under Regulation 1010/2008, a medicine to be distributed in Indonesia must first be registered before a Distribution License (Izin Edar) can be applied for ...
The Act to protect persons with regard to activities involving firearms and amending the Act respecting safety in sports(1) was assented to on December 13, 2007(2) and came into force on September 1, 2008. This Act was passed in the wake of the tragic events that occurred at Dawson College in September 2006, when a young 18-year old woman named Anastasia De Sousa lost her life in a shooting incident, hence its name, the “Anastasia Act” ...
On June 2, 2008, following the hearing of six cases (1) at the same time, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that section 114 of the Labour Code grants exclusive jurisdiction to the Commission des relations du travail to hear complaints made under section 124 of the Act respecting Labour Standards ...
While they are an integral part of most businesses - often with a primary function of delivering cost savings and efficiencies - they must be kept up-to-date to ensure they achieve those aims. So now is a good time to undertake an IT systems review, and look at consolidation and streamlining. Changes to business structures, acquisitions and a system's age are other triggers for an IT stock take ...
Six months on from the implementation of sections 20 and 21 of the Road Safety Act 2006, and occupational road safety remains a significant cause for concern for employers. The Act introduced two new offences of causing death by careless driving and causing death whilst unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured, with offenders finding themselves facing up to five years’ imprisonment for what could be a momentary lapse of concentration ...
GENERAL 1. How can the government’s attitude and approach to internet issues best be described? The attitude of the Belgian government can be described as positive and their approach is proactive. In 2003, the Belgian authorities announced the introduction of ‘e-government’. The most important initiatives were the introduction of electronic identity cards (e-ID) for all Belgian citizens over 12, and the federal government’s information web-portal ...
What is spamdexing? The Internet contains a lot of information. In 2002, the total number of web pages was estimated at 2.024 million; by 2005 this estimate had risen to 11.5 billion2. The ever- increasing amount of information found on the Internet also has disadvantages. In this jungle of information, it is getting harder and harder to see the wood for the trees ...
In the current economic downturn it seems that industrial relations are once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Recent "wildcat" strikes over the use of foreign labour suggest a trend towards more militant attitudes within the workforce and the possibility of greater industrial unrest. The UK's labour laws are very complex ...
With the credit crunch likely to affect every aspect of the global economy, the prospect of declining revenue threatens to erode the profitability of many businesses. So the challenge is to preserve cash and cut costs. But how does this affect IT? Cutting back on IT projects is not necessarily an option. Software is the engine of the modern enterprise. Indeed, for many organisations it is their primary source of competitive advantage ...
I. IntroductionIt has been over 4 years since the Constitutional Court’s ruling on 26 October 2004 which declared that Article 158 and other relevant articles of the Manpower Law in relation to serious misconduct were against the Indonesia Constitution and therefore were not legally binding. The legal effect of the ruling was that an employer cannot immediately terminate an employee for serious misconduct ...
The shifting of the burden of proof is an issue of great concern for suppliers when involved with litigation over product liability ...
Software is part of the day-to-day fabric for most companies. And almost everyone who uses it does so with little or no thought about what happens should it fail, or if it is no longer available. However, the prudent software buyer will consider how to protect against failure of critical or bespoke software, which is where escrow may come in. Be warned, though ...
Last year, the European Commission initiated an inquiry into the pharmaceutical industry, claiming that there were indications that competition in the industry was not working as well as it should. Although responses to the preliminary report have been rather critical, from both the legal community and the industry itself, there are a few conclusions worth noting ...
The High Court has held that in certain circumstances, an employee has the right to be represented by a lawyer at internal disciplinary hearings. The Employment Relations Act 1999 gives employees a statutory right to be accompanied only by a work colleague or union official at disciplinary and grievance hearings. The good practice recommendations in the new ACAS Code on Disciplinary and Grievance in the Workplace reflect this ...
A campaign that ran throughout March has been extended into April, and will focus on refurbishment, repair and maintenance works. Statistics show that more than half of workers who died on construction sites in recent years were working on refurbishment projects ...
On 6 April 2009 the Mandatory Dismissal and Disciplinary Procedures and Grievance Procedures (the statutory procedures) will be Repealed when Relevant Provisions of the Employment Act 2008 Come Into Force. It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most eagerly awaited changes to employment law for many years, and it is all but impossible to find anyone who doesn't view this as a positive development ...
Virtually every business has some sort of website or presence on the internet, and it is often an integral part of the business. At the same time, many organisations use bespoke or customised software internally on a day-to-day basis, and undoubtedly attribute significant value to these assets, not least because the development of them probably required a significant investment via a third party developer providing the software ...
