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Gratuities are often helpful for both employees and their employers: tips supplement a worker’s income, and federal law and the laws of most states allow employers to credit a portion of a worker’s tips toward the company’s minimum wage obligations. But what exactly is a tip and how do employers take this so-called “tip credit?”
When I wrote my first blog post on February 26, 2009, I could hardly have imagined where we’d be 14 years later. It would be fun to try to predict, and maybe I’d have gotten some of it right, but I try not to guess at the future.
One of the things I suspect we’d all have gotten right in some form is ChatGPT. I have been loathe to try it for many reasons – I’m not a technophobe, as you can all imagine, nor am I someone who advocates for lawyers to run and try the next big thing. Though, for those of you who have clients who may be using it or dipping their toe in the water, you know I will suggest you get to know it intimately for the usual legal reasons.
In a groundbreaking decision, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) ruled that a severance agreement with confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions was unlawful because it restricted the rights of employees to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Given how prevalent such provisions are in separation agreements, employers will have to consider very carefully what revisions they may need to make to these agreements when offering severance in exchange for a release. Read more…
On February 17, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced the creation of the Office of Technology (the “OT”), which will be headed by Stephanie T. Nguyen as Chief Technology Officer. This development comes on the heels of increasing FTC scrutiny of technology companies. The OT will provide technical expertise and strengthen the FTC’s ability to enforce competition and consumer protection laws across a wide variety of technology-related topics, such as artificial intelligence (“AI”), automated decision systems, digital advertising, and the collection and sale of data. In addition to assisting with enforcement matters, the OT will be responsible for, among other things, policy and research initiatives, and advising the FTC’s Office of Congressional Relations and its Office of International Affairs.
Was there a sufficient insurable interest for this insured whose building housed a printing business owned by a different entity with the same shareholder?
On January 12, 2023, the Honourable Dominique Poulin of the Superior Court of Quebec answered this question in a decision on the notion of insurable interest: 9208-9499 Québec inc. c. Royal & Sun Alliance du Canada, société d’assurances, 2023 QCCS 62.
The term “reverse merger” refers to a reorganisation whereby a subsidiary company absorbs the assets and liabilities of its parent holding company. With the approval of the merger, the parent company is being dissolved without being placed into liquidation and the subsidiary company continues to exist with direct shareholders, the persons who previously held the shares in the parent company.
Clients may wish to implement a reverse merger, where the corporate structure is desired to be simplified, and the subsidiary company is preferred to be kept alive. Such situations may include cases where there is no longer reason to maintain a two layer structure e.g. because the shareholder structure in the parent company has been simplified -for example, only one shareholder to have remained in the parent company, or the parent company to have no operations other than holding only one subsidiary, and at the same time, the subsidiary company to be party in agreements that must remain in place e.g. financing transactions, ongoing commercial arrangements or security agreements that cannot be amended. Other instances may be where the subsidiary has ongoing activities and employees, and moving those to another entity would cause disruption. Other reasons may also apply, for example due to requirements of foreign law, where the subsidiary holds assets in other jurisdictions, and registering those to another entity would be complex or impossible. Read more…
On February 24, 2023, the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House announced a series of actions that the U.S. and Group of 7 (“G7”) will take to support Ukraine and impose further costs on Russia.
On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) continued its aggressive application of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act” or “NLRA”) to workplaces without union representation and lessened the value of severance agreements for all employers by finding it unlawful for an employer to merely proffer a severance agreement that includes broad non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions to an employee. In McLaren Macomb, the Board held that a severance agreement that contains a confidentiality clause and a non-disparagement clause was unlawful because, in the Board’s view, these provisions impermissibly infringe on employees’ rights under the Act. Specifically, the Board found that these two provisions limit employees’ ability to discuss their wages, hours, and working conditions (which could include disparaging remarks) with other employees, prevent employees from assisting other employees seeking assistance, and hinder employees themselves from seeking assistance from the NLRB, unions, and other outside organizations.
As we previously reported, the US Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) announced back in August 2022, that it had received a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request from the Center for Investigative Reporting (“CIR”), for any and all Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Reports for 2016-2020 (“Consolidated Reports”) filed by federal contractors (“Covered Contractors”). In response to the request, OFCCP has provided Covered Contractors with the opportunity to object to the release of the Reports and on February 15 extended the deadline for objections to March 3, 2023.
On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) continued its aggressive application of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act” or “NLRA”) to workplaces without union representation and lessened the value of severance agreements for all employers by finding it unlawful for an employer to merely proffer a severance agreement that includes broad non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions to an employee. In McLaren Macomb, the Board held that a severance agreement that contains a confidentiality clause and a non-disparagement clause was unlawful because, in the Board’s view, these provisions impermissibly infringe on employees’ rights under the Act. Specifically, the Board found that these two provisions limit employees’ ability to discuss their wages, hours, and working conditions (which could include disparaging remarks) with other employees, prevent employees from assisting other employees seeking assistance, and hinder employees themselves from seeking assistance from the NLRB, unions, and other outside organizations.
TGS Baltic is a leading law firm with offices in Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn, and Tartu (Estonia). Currently, TGS Baltic unites 31 partners and 11 associate partners in the three Baltic States.
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