After a few video calls, it takes only a cursory kick of the tyres to discern that employment lawyers have had a crazy year. ‘Crazy’ almost does not cover it – you would be hard pressed to identify an area of law that experienced more change in the last year, in both the rate of …
Over the last couple of years, organisations have been working through a significant transformation journey in the way they work and operate. Automation and technology are replacing or significantly impacting human tasks and jobs, changing the skills that organisations require in their workforce. At the same time, workforces are demanding a new ‘deal’, with organisations …
Continue reading “The workforce of the future: key HR legal considerations”
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to the global economy. A lot of businesses ran into severe difficulty and even went on the verge of bankruptcy. Many employers cut employment directly by terminating employment contracts with employees instead of reducing salaries or arranging for employees to await job assignments to reduce labour costs. …
Despite Covid-19 remaining a global concern at the time of this article, much of Hong Kong has in fact returned to its pre-pandemic hustle and bustle for quite a while. However, the pandemic has left an imprint on the city – apart from making face masks a must-have when going out, as there seems to …
Continue reading “Post Covid-19 Hong Kong: a new kind of ‘business as usual’?”
Economic environment overview The Russian economy was greatly affected by the global epidemic and the decline in business activity. Economic performance was influenced by the OPEC+ oil pact, the drop in oil prices and the volatility in the dollar exchange rate. However, those difficulties were overcome relatively well, since the government implemented support measures to …
Continue reading “The Russian M&A market since the outbreak of the global pandemic”
When discussing the current direction of antitrust regulation, Carles Esteva Mosso, a partner in the competition practice at Latham & Watkins’ Brussels office puts it succinctly: ‘In Europe, we are seeing an evolution towards more intense merger enforcement.’ At a national level, many jurisdictions appear to be keen to occupy a role at the forefront …
More than a year has already passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began, yet the Philippines is still struggling to slow down the spread of the virus. New cases per day continue to reach four digit figures despite the mandate for the continued implementation of strict public health standards nationwide. The government’s quarantine measures in the …
In a notable development for employers doing business in Puerto Rico, on 7 August 2020, the local government enacted Law 90, titled the Law to Prohibit and Prevent Workplace Harassment in Puerto Rico (our translation, hereinafter the ‘Workplace Harassment Act’), to prohibit workplace harassment (commonly referred to as ‘mobbing’). Previously, workplace harassment had not been …
Continue reading “It’s not funny anymore: a primer on workplace harassment in Puerto Rico”
After a series of long-winded negotiations between the federal government, employees’ representatives and the entrepreneurial sector, the Mexican Congress approved, and the federal government enacted on 23 April 2021 the much prophesied labour reform to ban outsourcing through significant amendments to the Mexican Federal Labour Law (FLL), Federal Fiscal Code, Income Tax Law and Value …
Continue reading “Mexico’s outsourcing ban: rethinking current employment structures”
In Malaysia, employment issues are governed primarily by statute and contract. In respect of enterprises with large scale workforces, which would include the financial, manufacturing, industrial and plantation sectors, collective agreements between employers and registered trade unions are important in regulating the employment relationship between the parties.
On 25 May 2018, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, known as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) – on the protection of natural persons (‘data subjects’) with respect to the processing and transfer of personal data – became completely applicable in all EU member states. As an EU regulation, the GDPR is a provision to be directly applied …
Continue reading “Focus on compliance with data protection in Italy”
Measures to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Austrian economy On 16 March 2020, the Austrian government imposed drastic measures to contain the SARSCoV2 virus, commonly known as Covid-19. The international Covid-19 crisis resulted in a seven week complete lockdown in Austria, with only ‘critical infrastructure’ such as banks, supermarkets, pharmacies and …
Continue reading “Restructuring and insolvency in Austria: an update”