Some important changes to the Act respecting the legal publicity of sole proprietorships, partnerships and legal persons (the “Act”) took place effective January 1st, 2006.The Act generally applies to all legal persons, partnerships and individuals carrying on an activity in the Province of Québec and requires those entities to register with the Enterprise registrar ...
A 100% Quebec Parental Insurance Plan A new Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) came into force on January 1, 2006. This plan provides for payment of benefits to all workers eligible for the plan who take a maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave or adoption leave. This plan replaces the federal employment insurance plan. Beginning in 1996, Quebec informed Ottawa that it wanted to implement its own parental insurance plan ...
In April 2005 a new Disability Discrimination Act was passed by Westminster. The Act extends existing non-discrimination legislation, primarily the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. While some provisions of the Act came into force in December 2005, many others will be coming into force over the course of 2006. It is essential that businesses are aware of their new responsibilities under the Act and prepare for its implementation ...
Introduction Since June 1, 2004, the Labour Standards Act (hereinafter the “L.S.A.”) requires employers to provide a work environment free from psychological harassment. Thus, employers must, as a first step, take reasonable measures to prevent psychological harassment and then, whenever they become aware of such behaviour, put a stop to it. These duties imposed on employers are obligations “of means” as opposed to obligations “of result” ...
The Court of Final Appeal made a landmark ruling at the end of February on an unprecedented claim for holiday pay or annual leave pay based on commission in Lisbeth Enterprises Limited v Mandy Luk. The Court concluded that, apart from the contractual commission which accrued and calculated on a daily basis in amount varying from day to day, no commission is to be included in the calculation of holiday pay and annual leave pay ...
Doctors working in public hospitals claimed that, in breach of their employment contracts as well as the Employment Ordinance, for many years the Hospital Authority had required them to work long hours without proper compensation. The doctors in this latest round of confrontation with the HA successfully claimed compensation for "rest days" and "holidays" for which they had been deprived but lost their claim on compensation for "overtime" worked ...
This paper appears in the March 24, 2006 issue of The Lawyers Weekly, published by LexisNexis Canada Inc. Over the past few years, courts in Canada have faced the apparent conflict between competing statutory mandates with respect to class proceedings and arbitrations. In Ruddell v. BC Rail Ltd., 2005 BCSC 1504, Mr. Justice Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court reviewed this conflict in the context of pension litigation ...
In April last year, companies were given greater flexibility in protecting their directors against certain liabilities as a result of changes to the law. The changes recognised increasing concern over directors' exposure to liability arising from legal proceedings brought by third parties. The Companies Actprohibits a company from exempting directors in respect of liability if negligent, in default or in breach of duty or trust ...
On March 15, 2006, the German Federal Cartel Office published a new Leniency Program, which replaces the previous Notice 68 of 2000. With this Program, the FCO offers cartel participants wishing to leave a cartel and cooperate with the FCO immunity from or reduction of fines. A summary of the new Program can be found at: http://www.worldservicesgroup.com/files/groups/1494_0330023908 ...
There are three possible courses of action in this situation. These are: Derivative action A derivative action is brought under common law by a member on behalf of a company in respect of a wrong done to that company. Remedies awarded are for the benefit of the company. Derivative actions are an option where the company itself could sue and there has been a fraud on the minority, illegality or a failure to approve a matter by the members passing an appropriate resolution ...
From 1 October 2006, new legislation comes into effect intended to combat age discrimination. During a recent series of seminars, commercial law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn carried out a survey of delegates to understand employers' concerns and see what efforts they are making to take the new law on board. More than one in four delegates claimed they themselves intended to work past the anticipated default retirement age of 65 while a further 15% were unsure ...
The phenomenon of personnel agencies Generally, Labour Relations laws assume the interaction of two parties, an employer and an employee. The employee offers his services, for pay, to an employer, who determines the working conditions and ensures discipline. This is a bipartite relationship. However, when a business entrusts the management of its human resources to a personnel agency, there is a tripartite relationship ...
Twenty years after Portugal’s accession to the European Community, it has begun to be understood in Portugal that membership of the EU does not merely constitute for us a source of subsidies and aids of any kind, increasingly less so since the latest enlargement from fifteen to twenty-five Member States. It is, rather, a source of regulation for companies (and directly or indirectly for consumers) in a wide range of economic areas ...
In a judgment rendered on February 7, 2006, the Quebec Court of Appeal reiterated the obligations of the employer and the employee to play a role in seeking a reasonable accommodation. In cases where a collective agreement exists, the union has the same obligation ...
R E M E M B E R • A director must act in the best interests of the company at all times. • A director may not favour the interests of the shareholder or the member who arranged for his election if that person’s interests differ from the interests of the company ...
In recent times, the issue of post-retirement healthcare benefits has taken on new significance for employers and sponsors of pension and health and welfare plans. Factors such as increasing numbers of retirees, rising drug and healthcare costs and government cutbacks to universal healthcare programs are causing organizations to re-evaluate the extent to which they can or are willing to continue to provide post-retirement healthcare benefits ...
Last November the expert group appointed by the Scottish Executive to consider a statutory offence of corporate culpable homicide issued its report. As expected, the group proposed a new statutory offence of corporate killing. It recommended that this should apply to incorporated companies and, as far as possible, to unincorporated and Crown bodies. The report recommended that two individual offences (applying to named persons) be introduced ...
On 6 April 2006, new regulations, called the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – TUPE - Regulations 2006 came into force to replace the well-known 1981 Regulations. These are the Regulations that make provision for protection of employees – from dismissal and in their terms and conditions - where a business is transferred from one company to another. TUPE 2006 differs in a number of ways from the 1981 Regulations ...
On February 2, 2006, the Quebec Court of Appeal rendered an interesting judgement involving directors’ liabilities in the case of Johnson and Marcil v. André Arthur et al (500-09-012808-028), a lawsuit for slander ...
Article 55 of Supreme Decree No. 21060 of August 29, 1985, established that both private and public entities could freely enter into or terminate labor agreements subject to the General Labor Law and its Regulatory Decree. Also, under article 39 of Supreme Decree No. 22407 of January 11, 1990, the voluntary hiring and termination of employees was established ...
The European Commission published its Recommendation on the role of non-executive directors in February 2005. Member States are invited, but not required, to promote the application of the Recommendation's principles by 30 June 2006. The principles are applicable to listed companies, although Member States are allowed to extend the ambit to unlisted companies. The Recommendation adopts the comply or explain approach utilised by the UK Combined Code ...
On 17 February 2006, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Exchange") announced various minor and housekeeping amendments to the Main Board and GEM Listing Rules. The amendments came into effect on 1 March 2006. They relate to the following matters: Disclosures of "advances to entities" and "financial assistance and guarantees to affiliated companies" Rules 13.13 to 13.16 of the Main Board Listing Rules and rules 17.15 to 17 ...
SEC and PCAOB To Take Action on Section 404 Internal Controls Reporting Matters The SEC recently announced a series of actions it and the PCAOB intend to take to improve the implementation of the internal control reporting requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These actions include: • Providing Guidance for Companies ...
