Summer 2021

New UK government powers to block deals on national security grounds | Brodies

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 completely overhauls the UK’s approach to government screening of investments. It will create a free-standing regime with unprecedented new government powers to investigate and block acquisitions (of entities or assets) on security grounds. Expected to be in force by the end of the year, the Act could be …

Continue reading “New UK government powers to block deals on national security grounds”

The Turkish Competition Board and the ice cream war | ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law

The Turkish Competition Board (the Board) decided that several practices of Unilever Sanayi ve Ticaret Türk AŞ (Unilever) amounted to infringement of Article 4 and Article 6 of the Law No 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Law No 4054). 1

The overnight experts

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 …

Continue reading “The overnight experts”

The workforce of the future: key HR legal considerations | PwC

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”

Termination for ‘change of situation’ or layoff – which to use for cutting employment? | AnJie Law Firm

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. …

Continue reading “Termination for ‘change of situation’ or layoff – which to use for cutting employment?”

Post Covid-19 Hong Kong: a new kind of ‘business as usual’? | Deacons

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’?”

Restructuring and insolvency in Austria: an update | fellner wratzfeld partner

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”

The zone of insolvency: what directors and companies need to know | Campbells

With global vaccination rates lifting consumer sentiment there are reasons to be optimistic about economic recovery from the global pandemic. However, new virus mutations, uneven vaccination rates, and reducing levels of government economic support measures all mean that the economic outlook remains uncertain and many market sectors will continue to face challenges in the medium …

Continue reading “The zone of insolvency: what directors and companies need to know”

A Philippine employer’s guide to legal compliance in the procurement and administration of Covid-19 vaccines | ACCRALAW

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 …

Continue reading “A Philippine employer’s guide to legal compliance in the procurement and administration of Covid-19 vaccines”

It’s not funny anymore: a primer on workplace harassment in Puerto Rico | Adsuar Muñiz Goyco Seda & Pérez-Ochoa

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”

Mexico’s outsourcing ban: rethinking current employment structures | Ibarra, del Paso y Gallego

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”

Employment law in Malaysia – an overview/recent developments | Shook Lin & Bok

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.