May 2015

Since the amendments to the Criminal Code in 2004, Parliament armed itself with an arsenal of legal weapons aiming to facilitate criminal prosecutions against organizations in case of workplace injuries.

These amendments provide that any act or omission that constitutes the failure of a legal duty reflecting wanton or reckless disregard for the life or…

The legal context

French employment law offers specific protection to employees’ representatives, for example staff delegates or members of the works council. Such protection exists in order to provide a safeguard against the employer inhibiting the representative from performing his/her duties. In this context, the main aspect of this protection is a requirement that a…

The Supreme Court of New South Wales has handed down judgment in a case which involved attempts by two employees to enforce benefits under a company policy relating to redundancy.

The case is noteworthy because the employees based their claims on a number of common law and equitable causes of action which are not regularly invoked in employment disputes. The decision of the Court, therefore, provides guidance as to the degree to which employers may be required to treat policies as binding commitments. 

On April 29, 2015, reversing a Seventh Circuit decision in Mach Mining, LLC v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), the U.S. Supreme Court held that courts have the authority to review, to a limited degree, EEOC compliance with Title VII’s statutory requirement that the agency first attempt informal conciliation before bringing suit against employers for…

When lawyers advise on federal law, they frequently conclude with a warning to check state or local law for additional requirements.  This probably strikes most readers as boilerplate. It is a warning that is probably ignored as often as it is followed.

However, it is a warning that should be heeded.  Take the state of…

This article was written by Ismail Laher, a Director at Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa

On 5 May 2015, the Department of Trade and Industry released a clarification note on the amended BEE Codes which confirmed the 1 May 2015 effective date of the amended BEE Codes and clarified those matters contemplated below.

In…

This article was written by Lara Kerbelker, an Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa

On 6 May 2015, the Labour Appeal Court handed down judgment in Putco v TAWUSA, which has significant implications for collective labour law in South Africa. A collective agreement, and therefore lock-out notices, extend to bind unions who are…

The ECJ has delivered its decision in a case based on the interpretation of collective redundancies and how to determine the term “establishment”. It has held that the UK legislation does correctly implement the EU directive on collective redundancies and therefore that the term “establishment” must be interpreted as referring to the entity to which…

After much heated debate over the years, the Minimum Wage Ordinance (Cap. 608) (“Ordinance”) came into force in Hong Kong on 1 May 2011. Before the implementation of the Ordinance, Hong Kong was one of the few places in the world without any sort of minimum wage law. The Ordinance is undoubtedly a milestone as far as the protection of the rights of employees, particularly low-income workers, in Hong Kong is concerned.

The majority of workers in the province of Quebec are entitled to receive the minimum wage established by the provincial government. The right to the minimum wage is set out in the Act respecting labour standards, which applies to most provincially-regulated employers and employees.

Certain categories of workers have clearly been exempted from the…