Rwanda has adopted a ministerial order implementing the law on immigration and emigration, introducing various changes to the Rwandan immigration and emigration landscape. The ministerial order provides for a new type of work/residence permit (the Q1 permit), which allows the secondment of employees of multinationals to their subsidiaries and/or branches in Rwanda without employees being required to enter into employment contracts with a Rwandan company ...
A recent landmark decision of the of the South African Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council could see Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“CCMA”) commissioners stripped of their discretion in granting legal representation for those involved in unfair dismissal disputes arising from misconduct or incapacity ...
The general requirements for a fair dismissal based on an employer’s operational requirements are found in section 189 of the South African Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”). However, section 189A provides for specific procedures and remedies, should an employer embark on a large-scale retrenchment. Various consequences flow from the fact that a proposed retrenchment falls within the scope of section 189A ...
Just a few months ago, South African advocates, attorneys and candidate attorneys alike were celebrating therulingof an arbitrator attached to the Dispute Resolution Centre (“DRC”) of the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council in the matter betweenCoetzee v Autohaus Centurion. In this matter, the applicant employee had applied to be legally represented at an arbitration ...
Section 38(2)(a) of the Mauritian Employment Rights Act provides that: “(2) No employer shall terminate a worker’s agreement – (a) for reasons related to the worker’s misconduct, unless – (i)he cannot in good faith take any other course of action…” (our emphasis added) In its judgment in the case ofUnited Docks Limited v De Spéville [2019] UKPC 28(delivered on 10 June 2019), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council had to c
When the tide of democracy and constitutionalism swept through labour legislation in South Africa from the early ‘90s onwards, domestic workers, for the first time, gained access to important labour rights. However, they remained excluded from two important statutes, the Unemployment Insurance Act, 2001 (the “UI Act”) and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1993 (“COIDA”) ...
On August 6, 2019, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a panel opinion in the case of Texas v. EEOC at al., Case No. 18-10638 (5th Cir. August 6, 2019), that looks to significantly impact the way employers may choose to treat employees or applicants with criminal backgrounds. Background In April 2012, the EEOC issued “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII” (Guidance) ...
Unfair dismissal disputes arising from allegations of insubordination have had their fair share of attention from South African arbitrators and the courts. The latest of these decisions is that of the Labour Court inNaicker v Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration and Others. The employee in this matter, Ms Naicker, was employed by Africa Flight Services (a cargo handler) as a customer service agent ...
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed comprehensive legislation on Aug. 9 aimed to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. This omnibus legislation, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, imposes significant new responsibilities on employers. Workplace Transparency Act One of the new laws created in this legislation is the Workplace Transparency Act (WTA) ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") published its long-awaited decision on the use of the Facebook Like-Button on July 29, 2019 (Case C-40/17). One major aspect of the judgment is the question to what extent Facebook and website operators who incorporate the Like-Button into their website are joint controllers under European data protection law. As a result, the CJEU affirms this question and takes a firm stand on the conditions for joint controllership ...
This summer, the IRS significantly increased its efforts to police the taxation of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other similar cryptocurrencies. On July 26, 2019, the IRS announced that it had begun sending letters to taxpayers who potentially failed to pay cryptocurrency taxes associated with digital currency transactions or failed to properly report those transactions. By the end of August, the IRS anticipates that it will have sent over 10,000 letters to taxpayers ...
In what appears to be a first under the False Claims Act, a case based on flawed cybersecurity has been settled, for nearly $9 million. On July 31, 2019, the Attorney General of New York announced that, alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, New York, eighteen other states, and the District of Columbia have reached an $8.6 million settlement with Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”) over sales of surveillance video software allegedly vulnerable to hacking ...
On August 14, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its Supplemental Decision, Order, and Notice to Show Cause in Cordúa Restaurants, Inc. and Steven Ramirez Rogelio Morales and Shearone Lewis, 368 NLRB No. 43 (2019). The decision resolves several important issues of first impression involving mandatory arbitration agreements following the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 84 U.S. __, 138 S.Ct. 1612 (2018) ...
A website operator that embeds third party plugins on its website may become a joint controller in relation to the website visitors' personal data together with the third party service provider, according to a preliminary ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in case C-40/17 Fashion ID. The judgment upholds the broad interpretation of joint controllership of personal data established by the CJEU in its recent case law ...
Strict data protection requirements apply to the use of location tracking systems both in the employment context and in cooperation with other companies. In its partial judgement from March 19, 2019, the Lüneburg Administrative Court ruled in compliance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the new Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) that unrestricted tracking of employee vehicles is impermissible ...
The “good faith” requirement of a light-duty offer was just examined by the 10th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court with a somewhat surprising result. Light-duty job offers can be a good way for employers to minimize the payment of temporary total disability compensation and bring injured workers back to the workforce. However, these job offers must conform to very specific requirements under the Ohio Administrative Code ...
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued regulations that prohibited long-term care facilities from entering into pre-dispute arbitration agreements with residents and their families. Shortly thereafter, those regulations were successfully challenged in federal court, and CMS has not attempted to enforce them. On July 18, 2019, CMS issued a final rule that will formally rescind the ban on pre-dispute arbitration agreements with long-term care residents ...
CalPERS Announces New Administrative Fees for Section 218 Agreements The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the California State Social Security Administrator (SSSA), announced in July that it will begin charging new administrative fees to public agencies for Section 218 Agreements to pay the cost of administering the SSSA program ...
By way of advance notice, please note that the window to apply for the 2020 foreign employee quota will open in September 2019. Organizations employing or intending to employ foreign employees in 2020 are required to apply for a foreign employee quota from the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (“MLVT”) ...
As of August 7th, 2018, the amendments of the Consumer Protection Law (CPL), which includes for the first time, the consumer protection in the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce), taking that as the contracting process or the goods, services and commercial information trading through data communication webs ...
A rose, said Shakespeare, by any other name would smell as sweet. But while the Bard may know his flowers, he clearly was no expert on branding Apples. Rodrigo Duterte, the Filipino president, would like to change his country’s moniker “because the Philippines is named after King Phillip”. He appears to be eager to distance his nation from its colonial past, the said monarch being a 16th century ruler of Spain ...
As of July 1, 2019, registration officially opened for CalSavers, California's new retirement savings program, formerly known as Secure Choice. CalSavers is a mandatory state-sponsored program for private sector and nonprofit workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan. Under CalSavers, eligible employers with five or more employees must register with the California State Treasurer’s office as a participating employer in CalSavers ...
In an opinion letter issued Aug. 8, 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) concluded an employee may take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to attend meetings to discuss the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) of the employee’s child with a qualifying serious health condition. BACKGROUND The employee has two children with qualifying serious health conditions under FMLA ...
