The Energy Act 2011 deals with securing energy supplies and the regulation of renewable energy resources. It also sets out the framework to facilitate the "Green Deal" to be launched, with the support of secondary legislation this coming Spring. The Green Deal offers “no upfront cost” in respect of the installation of energy saving measures ...
Workplace harassment is once again in the news given our former Governor General’s resignation from her post after a 132 page investigation report was issued following accusations of a toxic work environment at Rideau Hall. While the Government of Canada took the correct steps in hiring an independent investigator once the allegations surfaced, meeting with all witnesses, and then meeting with Ms ...
A common question our Education Law Group receives is, “Can an employee rescind his or her written resignation that has been submitted to the superintendent and is waiting on approval from the board of education?” Unfortunately the question often arises frequently in situations where the employee is not the “best employee” and administration feels thankful upon receipt of the resignation ...
As courts cautiously resume in-person hearings across the country, there is looming uncertainty about when—or if—civil jury trials will ever resume. For instance, B.C. and some regions in Ontario have announced that civil jury trials are suspended until at least 2021—and Ontario is considering whether to abolish them altogether ...
We consider the first post Lloyd v Google decision considering loss of control damages under the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 and its implications for the future of data and privacy litigation. It suddenly became much more difficult to bring collective privacy claims in England in November last year when Google succeeded in the Lloyd v Google litigation before the UK Supreme Court ...
Now that we have persevered through one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been written about pandemic fatigue and associated social isolation, mental stress, and anxiety. Employers may be seeing an increase in the incidence of mental illness claims in their workplaces ...
The past year has seen a number of high-profile instances of employees resigning, allegedly to avoid disciplinary proceedings against them. This issue was dealt with in the case of Mtati v KPMG Services (Pty) Limited.The employee in this matter was informed by her employer that an investigation was being conducted into allegations of misconduct levelled against her. She then provided her employer with a letter in which she tendered her notice of resignation ...
Section 187(1)(c) of the South African Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) has always been controversial because of the interplay between the definition of automatically unfair dismissals, employers’ rights to terminate contracts of employment on the basis of operational requirements and the institution of collective bargaining ...
Section 187(1)(c) of the South African Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) has always been controversial because of the interplay between the definition of automatically unfair dismissals, employers’ rights to terminate contracts of employment on the basis of operational requirements and the institution of collective bargaining ...
Electronic cigarettes and vaping have been heralded by many as a safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. An outbreak of illnesses last fall allegedly related to vaping, however, ignited public hysteria and will almost certainly lead to substantial mass tort litigation aimed at manufacturers of e-cigarette devices and vaping liquids ...
The relationship between the periods set for pursuing unfair dismissal claims in terms of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”), and the prescription periods set in the Prescription Act, 1969 (“PA”) has been the subject of some confusion and debate. At the heart of the debate is the interpretation and application of section 16(1) of the PA ...
Pension-Linked Emergency Savings Accounts (“PLESAs”) are a special retirement plan feature created under SECURE ACT 2.0. PLESAs were first permitted to be made available to participants as of January 1, 2024. PLESAs, which provide a flexible savings opportunity for non-highly compensated employees, can be added to certain defined contribution plans. New guidance regarding this option has been released, which may be of interest to employers and plan sponsors ...
Pet owners do not get damages at law for the wrongful death of their pets, even when caused by fraudulent and unscrupulous profiteers. Should they? For many affluent “parents” of “furkids”, it is a familiar routine come Christmas or any other holiday season: stopping by at an expensive boarding facility on the way to the airport to drop off their precious pets, rather than leaving the cute critters home alone ...
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 ...
For the past 25 years, Peru has been undergoing comprehensive economic growth, followed by a modernization and development process, which includes the establishment of a reliable legal framework geared towards maintaining the stability required to promote private sector activity and investment. This continuous growth has been the best incentive to attract substantial foreign investment in various industries ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on October 29, 2020 it reached a more than $9.2 million settlement with Medtronic USA Inc. to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and Open Payment Program.[1] Specifically, Medtronic agreed to pay $8.1 million to resolve FCA allegations it paid kickbacks to induce a South Dakota neurosurgeon to use its SynchroMed II intrathecal infusion pumps ...
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the Essential Workers, Essential Protections Initiative on April 26, 2021. The Initiative is designed to educate workers on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ...
In the last quarter of 2018, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter ending what had become known as the “80/20 rule” for tipped employees. The new rule, which eases restrictions on an employer’s application of the tip credit, is a reissuance of a 2009 opinion letter that had been supplanted by contrary guidance since 2011 ...
The Department of Labor issued an opinion letter that provides guidance to employers paying exempt employees an hourly wage or other extra compensation in addition to a guaranteed weekly salary.SeeU.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Div., Opinion Letter (Fair Labor Standards Act), FLSA2018-25 (Nov. 8, 2018) (“Opinion Letter”) ...
On Wednesday, March 1, 2017, the Department of Labor ("DOL") proposed a 60-day extension of the applicability date of the ERISA Fiduciary Rule. President Trump's administration has openly criticized the Fiduciary Rule, and on February 3, 2017, directed the DOL to further analyze the legal and economic impact of the rule before its implementation ...
This week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued final rules to expand access to “Association Health Plans” for small businesses that are unaffiliated, but are in the same line of business or geographic area. An “Association Health Plan” or “AHP” is a group health plan adopted by members of an employer group or association to provide health coverage for their employees ...
The much awaited revised new regulations governing who qualifies for the FLSA white collar exemption has finally been revealed by the Department of Labor. It did so on March 8 by publishing anNPRM(“Notice of Proposed Rule Making”). In December of 2016, a Texas federal court entered a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of new regulations which would have dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempting most white collar employees from overtime ...
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to COVID-19. We discussed the original guidance in this prior article ...
Effective January 2020, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) increased the salary thresholds for several of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemptions. The salary threshold levels for the white-collar exemptions and the highly compensated employee exemption have increased, making it more difficult for an employee to be classified as exempt under the FLSA. As a result, an estimated additional 1.3 million workers now qualify for overtime premiums ...
