For employment lawyers, the elements of an employment discrimination lawsuit are second nature: a plaintiff must belong to a protected class, the employer must make an adverse employment decision, and the employer must act based on the plaintiff’s protected status. And, for the most part, employment lawyers have mastered the art of defending clients against these claims and advising on strategies and policies to avoid them altogether or minimize the likelihood of success ...
Employers who consider arrest and conviction records when making employment decisions should be aware that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the "EEOC") has issued new enforcement guidance regarding the issue ...
Third Amendment to the Employment CodeLaw 23/2012, which was published on 25 June, introduces the third amendment to the Employment Code. The new legislative text results, to a great extent, from the commitments made by the Portuguese State in the Memorandum of Understanding of 17 May 2012, and its aim is to improve employment legislation by updating, organising and speeding up processes ...
GOVERNMENT PUBLISHED PROPOSAL TO CHANGE THE INSOLVENCY REGIME Insolvency proceedings are currently governed by the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code approved by Decree-Law 53/04 of 18 March (referred to here by its Portuguese initials ‘CIRE’). From its entry into force to date, this legislation has been subject to five legislative amendments ...
On the 10 May 2012, the Swedish parliament enacted a permanent exemption to the Swedish Public Procurement Act (2007:1091) (“LOU”) for the direct award of contracts to affiliated companies.[1]Parliament also decided to enact an option for municipalities and county councils to delegate the competence to make decisions in relation to public procurement procedures to central purchasing bodies ...
The question of liability for the work environment is increasingly in focus as are the demands on those parties who are responsible for knowing what applies and for taking action in accordance with these demands. Below, we address two aspects of the work environment issue and the importance of both investigating and being aware of the applicable provisions. I ...
Several of the players which regularly participate in public procurements are aware of the extended right to make an application to the court to have procurement cases reviewed. Almost a year has passed since the Supreme Administrative Court extended the right for suppliers to appeal in procurement cases to encompass a greater range of situations ...
Employers and employees in B.C. will soon benefit from a long-awaited and wide-ranging overhaul to the Pensions Benefits Standards Act (PBSA). Significant changes to how pensions are structured and administered in B.C. have followed the passing of Bill 38 on May 31, 2012. The Bill repeals and replaces the PBSA, which has remained largely unchanged since it was first introduced in 1993 ...
In a recent decision, Jean C. Omegachem Inc.1. The Court of Appeal answered that question by ruling that an employee's refusal to sign a non-competition agreement during employment, which had been discussed when the employee was hired but presented to him three years after commencement of employment, is not a just and sufficient cause for dismissal ...
Employers preparing for the phasing in of the new pensions auto-enrolment regime should not overlook their data protection obligationsBackground: the new pension regimeFrom October 2012 a new pensions regime will start to be phased in which will eventually require all employers in the UK to automatically enrol eligible staff into some sort of pension scheme and, importantly, for the first time, to pay minimum contributions ...
The European Convention on Human Rights applies also to legal entities.As a result, businesses and organisations can address the European Court of Human Rights if they consider that their human rights, guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights, have been violated. Although not rare in Europe, this option is still new and not widely used by companies in the Baltics ...
On February 29, 2012, the Quebec Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of the Quebec Superior Court that had dismissed the motion to authorize the bringing of A Class Action filed by Mr. Michel Dell'Aniello ("Dell'Aniello") in connection with changes made unilaterally by Vivendi Canada Inc. ("Vivendi") to the extended medical insurance benefits plan for retirees. THE FACTS In 1977, The Seagram Company Ltd ...
Agreements to compel the resolution of most employment related disputes are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have mandated the enforcement of arbitration agreements in employment cases under the FAA provided the agreements are fair, provide due process, and enable employees to preserve all the rights and remedies that they would have been entitled to in a court of law. See Circuit City Stores Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S ...
A religious organization has a constitutional right to make decisions about the hiring and firing of its “ministers” under the First Amendment. In a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church and School v. E.E.O.C., 132 S.Ct. 694, 2012 WL 75047 (2012), the Supreme Court ruled that religious organizations can assert the “ministerial exception” under the First Amended to bar employment discrimination suits by those who can be considered “ministers” of the organization ...
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has long contended that when employers use criminal histories to make employment decisions, they run the risk of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by basing their decision on information that has an unfair impact on minorities. The EEOC recently stepped up its enforcement efforts and publicly settled with Pepsi for $3.13 million over the beverage company’s use of a blanket exclusion policy of people with criminal records ...
On May 26, 2011, in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America et al. v. Michael B. Whiting et al., 131 S.Ct. 1968 (2011), the Supreme Court of the United States upheld states’ rights to mandate use of the employment verification program (E-Verify) organized by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) ...
On May 15, 2012, a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia struck down recent changes to the National Labor Relations Board’s representation election procedures, which were intended to streamline the Board’s representation election process. In response, the Board has halted implementation of these changes, which took effect on April 30, 2012 ...
Employers, imagine that your employees’ use of Facebook and Twitter is akin to being at the controls of a forklift. Consider the employee who is angry because he has not been adequately trained and is tired of having to be on call 24/7, or the employee who is upset because she believes overtime is being unfairly distributed among company personnel ...
On January 3, 2012, the Ontario Superior Court ordered that Solid Gold Resources Corp. ("Solid Gold"), a junior mining exploration company, be enjoined from carrying on any further mineral exploration activity for 120 days on a parcel of land claimed by the Wahgoshig First Nation ("Wahgoshig") as its traditional territory ...
The Minister of Manpower and Transmigration (MOM) recently issued Regulation No. 40 of 2012 on Certain Positions which are Closed to Foreign Manpower (“MOMR 40/2012”). MOMR 40/2012 lists 19 different positions, most related to human resources, which are closed to foreigners. However, MOMR 40/2012 applies to wholly owned local companies only and does not apply to foreign-owned companies (ie foreign investment companies/PMAs) ...
The Constitutional Court in Decision No. 27/PUU-IX/2011 (“Decision”) declared articles 65(7) and 66(2)(b) of Law No. 13 of 2003 (“Manpower Law“) conditionally unconstitutional where fixed-term employment contracts used in outsourcing arrangements do not provide a clause protecting the rights of existing workers when the principal company (work provider) switches outsourcing company or labour provider but the same work continues ...
Earlier this month the new Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), Rosemary Agnew, took up her position. Since Kevin Dunion finished his second term at the end of February his Head of Enforcement, Margaret Keyse, was Acting Commissioner until Ms Agnew was able to take up her new post. As you would expect the SIC’s team has carried on the work that Mr Dunion set in place but only time will tell what Ms Agnew’s approach to the role will be ...
