A recent South African Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“CCMA”) ruling has provided clarity on issues of deemed employment in circumstances where multiple contractors are used. The matter before the CCMA involved Shoprite, one of the largest food retailers in Africa. In order to provide its approximately 2,000 stores with stock in an efficient manner, Shoprite established seven distribution centres (“DCs”) in South Africa ...
The notion of contractual freedom has long been recognised in the entrenchment of the principle that agreements should be honoured. In this context, the decision by private contracting parties to submit a dispute to arbitration falls clearly within the purview of the valid exercise of contractual freedom ...
Those seeking reasons to be optimistic about Ukraine’s judicial system can rejoice: Justice prevailed, or so ruled the High Commercial Court of Ukraine, the likely final arbiter in a dispute between the state Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and ACNielsen Ukraine, a market research firm ...
In a recent decision concerning off-site drilling, the Texas Supreme Court affirmed the San Antonio Court of Appeals1 and held that an oil and gas operator could drill through the mineral estate underlying an adjacent tract of land without the adjacent mineral lessee’s permission. Lightning Oil Co. v. Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC, No. 15-0910, 2017 Tex. LEXIS 463, --- S.W.3d --- (Tex. May 19, 2017) ...
BREAKING NEWSEnforcement of foreign court judgments in Russia: a wind of change June 06, 2017 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We would like to inform you on recent precedents of Russian courts in cases concerning enforcement of foreign court judgments, which we believe represents a major step forward towards the goal of creating a favorable investment climate in Russia ...
The 2017 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature saw several changes in laws relevant to employers. Changes of interest to employers include the West Virginia Safer Workplace Act, Second Chance for Employment Act, West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act, West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, striking employees and unemployment benefits, Physicians Freedom of Practice Act, and bonds for wages and benefits ...
Later this year, the Supreme Court of the United States will address the enforceability of class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements in Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris ...
On May 15, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the long-standing federal policy favoring arbitration agreements. In a lawsuit brought against skilled nursing provider Kindred Nursing Centers, LP, the Court held that states cannot single out arbitration clauses for “disfavored treatment,” because doing so violates the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The case involved two wrongful death lawsuits that were consolidated in the Kentucky Supreme Court ...
Long-term care (LTC) facilities received a boost last week when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reversed its position regarding the use of arbitration agreements in this setting. On June 8, 2017, CMS published a proposed rule amending LTC facilities’ conditions of participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to remove prohibitions on binding pre-dispute arbitration agreements ...
After several delays, the Department of Labor’s (the “DOL’s”) final “fiduciary” rule expanding the definition of who is an investment advice fiduciary became effective on June 9, 2017 ...
Under Israeli law, the employment of a foreign employee who is not a citizen or resident of Israel is a criminal offense, except if the person requesting to employ the foreign employee received a special permit from the Population and Immigration Authority (the "Authority") pursuant to the Foreign Workers Law, 5751-1991 ...
Last month, the Supreme Court decided TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, which narrowed the definition of where a corporate defendant "resides" for the purpose of suing it for patent infringement. In doing so, it overturned the 1994 holding of the Federal Circuit of what constitutes proper venue in patent infringement cases. Federal law allows a Plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit against a defendant in any district where one of two conditions are met ...
New regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council, effective July 1, 2017, limit California employers’ use of criminal history when making employment decisions ...
The use of fixed-term employment contracts has been the subject of contention for many years. Opponents to their use have argued that because these contracts terminate automatically after the period of time for which they have been entered into, they can be used to avoid liability for unfair dismissal ...
The South African Constitutional Court has found that cabinet ministers can now be held personally liable for the costs of legal proceedings to which they are a party. This finding was made in the case of Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development and Others (Freedom Under Law NPC Intervening), in which judgment was delivered on 15 June 2017 ...
In its recent decision in TFD Network Africa (Pty) Ltd v Singh NO & Others, the Labour Appeal Court (the “LAC”) considered the interpretation of section 17 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (“the “BCEA”); in particular, subsections 17(1) and (2), which regulate night work. Subsections 17(1) and (2) read as follows: “(1) In this section, 'night work' means work performed after 18:00 and before 06:00 the next day ...
The Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane (the “Minister”) recently gazetted the Broad-Based Black Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining and Minerals industry, 2017 (the “2017 Mining Charter”), which comes into effect on the date of publication ...
New Law No 125-FZ amending regulation of overtime and part-time work was signed by the Russian President earlier this year (hereinafter – the “Law”). The Law went into force on June 29, 2017. Highlight below is the most important novelties introduced by the Law. Part-Time Work The parties of labour relations may now agree on any length and frequency of an employee’s working hours ...
It was not until the late 1970s that deep-water offshore oil and gas exploration became significantly viable. The driver was the ever increasing demand for oil and gas products that provided the opportunity to raise the capital necessary to design and then build the incredibly complex floating assets needed to explore for and then to produce oil and gas in such hostile environments ...
On June 22, 2017, BOEM announced that, in light of the recent order of the Secretary of the Interior concerning its recent NTL 2016-N01 establishing a new program for financial assurance for decommissioning liabilities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), it will extend the NTL implementation timeline beyond June 30, except in circumstances where there is a substantial risk of nonperformance of the interest holder’s decommissioning liabilities ...
Gender discrimination is a hot topic for California employers, with a recent California appellate court decision regarding sexual orientation discrimination and new regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) regarding transgender discrimination. In Husman v. Toyota, (Case No ...
Following an industrial arbitration award in 2012, a teacher in an educational institution became aware that, for a long time, he had been subject to a wrong collective agreement and had therefore not received enough salary. Against this background, a dispute arose regarding, inter alia, adjustment of salary, overtime pay, holiday pay and pension contribution for the period 1 October 2007 - February 2009. Judgment of 30 May 2017 from the Danish Eastern High Court ...
Earlier this year the Federal Law " On Amendments to Articles 1252 and 1486 of the 4th part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 4 and 99 of the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of Russia" entered into force.The amendments relate to pre-trial procedure for resolving intellectual property disputes.1 ...
Contractors who are managing to continue to operate in the offshore oil and gas sector have had some time to adjust their business models and modes of operation to the new commercial realities resulting from the lower oil price. However, the radically different economic circumstances of recent years continue to manifest themselves in challenging commercial scenarios quite unlike those experienced in the better times when the oil price was significantly higher ...
Act 27 was published in the Official Gazette No. 28285-B earlier this year, establishes the Paternity Leave, applicable both to employees of private sector, as well as to public servants, effective since May 25th, 2017.This Act, whose initiative was promoted by the Ministry of Labor, is based on the duty of the Panamanian state to protect the family, sacred in our Constitution ...
