Listen to this post

What Canadian Employers Need to Know to Ring in 2024

In 2023, we helped Canadian employers overcome a host of new challenges across the employment law landscape. Many companies started the year with difficult cost-cutting decisions and hybrid work challenges. We’ve worked hard to keep our clients ahead of the curve on these issues, as well as address new legislation, developing case law, and other new workplace trends and developments.

In our 75-minute “quick hits” format, we’ll help Canadian in-house counsel and human resources leaders track what to keep top-of-mind for 2024.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024
TIME: 11:00 AM TO 12:15 PM ET

Our discussion will include:

  • Key legislative developments including:
    • The progress and implications of Ontario’s latest “Working for Workers” legislation
    • Implications of Pay Transparency Legislation in British Columbia and the rest of Canada
    • An update on implementing the changes imposed by French Language Legislation in Quebec and the Federal Jurisdiction
  • Significant case law developments impacting:
    • Alberta’s new “tort” of harassment
    • Discrimination based on family status in British Columbia
    • Termination provisions in Ontario
    • Changes to the substratum rule 
  • Immigration developments and lessons learned in 2023
  • Best practices for managing generative AI in the workplace 
  • Navigating key Competition Act changes
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
Listen to this post

In this 75-minute “quick hits” style session, our team reviewed the challenges we helped California employers overcome in 2023 and the key legislative changes coming in 2024.

Among other topics, we discussed:

  • How to best protect company trade secrets given the expansion of the state’s restrictions on noncompetes under SB 699 and AB 1076
  • Best practices and crucial steps to take to avoid costly wage and hour class actions
  • Practical tips for managing charged speech in the workplace, as well as action items to consider with ID&E programming in the wake of the Supreme Court’s SFFA decision
  • Increased paid sick leave under SB 616 and the new leave entitlement for reproductive loss under SB 848
  • A quick update on new privacy rules employers need to know and more!
Please click here to view a recording of the California Employer Update 2023-2024 Webinar.
* Plus * a few stocking stuffers for our blog friends 🙂

Happy Holidays from all of us!

Click here to register for upcoming sessions, and to watch recordings of any you may have missed.

Listen to this post

Special thanks to co-authors Priscila Kirchhoff* and Tricia Oliveira*.

In July, Brazil passed a new Gender Pay Gap law (effective immediately) that requires companies with more than 100 employees — for the first time — to publish a report on salary transparency and compensation criteria (a ‘Salary Transparency Report’) every six months. The report must be published on company websites and/or on social networks, as well as shared with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. 

When there is failure to comply, severe sanctions have been introduced. And, in a proven case of wage discrimination due to sex, race, ethnicity, origin or age, in addition to the payment of salary differences, Law 14,611/23 establishes that payment of a fine equal to ten times the new monthly salary must be paid to the individual discriminated against (this is doubled in the case of recurrence).

Click here to continue reading.

*Trench Rossi Watanabe and Baker McKenzie have executed a strategic cooperation agreement for consulting on foreign law.

Listen to this post

Special thanks to co-presenters Ricardo Castro-Garza, Alfonso García-Lozano and Javiera Medina-Reza.

This year our team helped Mexican employers overcome a range of challenges across the employment law landscape — from keeping up with evolving health & safety obligations, defending contentious employment disputes, supporting the legitimization of collective bargaining agreements, and much more.

In this episode of Quick Chats for the Mexican Workplace, we review key labor and employment lessons from 2023 and prepare you for the challenges ahead in 2024. For example, we’ll discuss:

  • Best practices for legitimizing collective bargaining agreements
  • Increases to vacation entitlements
  • Proposed amendments to the Federal Labor Law to reduce the hours in a workweek

Possible changes to laws restricting criminal background checks

This video was recorded on November 29, 2023. With the rapid changes in Labor & Employment law, please be sure to subscribe to The Employer Report blog for the latest updates and stay tuned for our next Quick Chats for the Mexican Workplace episode.

Click here to watch the video.

Listen to this post

On January 1, 2024, businesses must post updated Privacy Policies under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which requires annual updates of disclosures and fully applies in the job applicant and employment context since January 1, 2023.

With respect to job applicants and employees, businesses subject to the CCPA are required to:

  1. Issue detailed privacy notices with prescribed disclosures, terminology, and organization;
  2. Respond to data subject requests from employees and job candidates for copies of information about them, correction, and deletion;
  3. Offer opt-out rights regarding disclosures of information to service providers, vendors, or others, except to the extent they implement qualified agreements that contain particularly prescribed clauses; and
  4. Offer opt-out rights regarding the use of sensitive information except to the extent they have determined they use sensitive personal information only within the scope of statutory exceptions.

If employers sell, share for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use or disclose sensitive personal information outside of limited purposes, numerous additional compliance obligations apply. For more: see also our related previous post: Employers Must Prepare Now for New California Employee Privacy Rights.

Key recommendations to heed now

Continue Reading Looking ahead to 2024: California privacy law action items for employers
Listen to this post

It is an unprecedented time for California companies’ privacy law obligations. The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) took effect on January 1, 2023 with a twelve-month look-back that also applies to the personal data of employees and business contacts. The California Privacy Protection Agency recently finalized regulations and has kicked off a new phase of rulemaking including on risk assessments, cybersecurity audits, and automated decision-making technology (draft regulations on each of these topics have been published). Meanwhile, the California Legislature is enacting privacy laws even though it has not repealed or streamlined any of the myriad California privacy laws that continue to apply in addition to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

With this virtual seminar series, privacy specialists from Baker McKenzie offices in California want to help prepare you for new and upcoming privacy compliance tasks in various business areas, in collaboration with other practice groups.

California residents are increasingly exercising data subject rights to access, correct and delete personal information. Companies receive requests from consumers, employees, and organizations that claim to act as “authorized agents.”

Join us online on January 11 @ noon pacific to learn more about the CCPA’s requirements and for practical and operational tips on frequently asked questions.

Click here to register.

CLE will be offered.

Listen to this post

We are pleased to share with you The Global Employer – Global Immigration & Mobility Quarterly Update, a collection of key updates from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

Click here to view.

Listen to this post

We’re not even out of 2023, and New York employers who engage independent contractors already have new obligations to reckon with before next spring. On November 22, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the New York State “Freelance Isn’t Free Act”, increasing obligations for parties who engage freelance workers (including independent contractors). Starting May 20, 2024, hiring parties (including employers who engage independent contractors) must provide freelance workers with written contracts, pay them within a specified time period, maintain records, and satisfy additional new obligations—and freelance workers will gain a private right of action for violations.

The Act replicates the 2017 NYC’s Freelance Isn’t Free Law, adding administrative oversight and support from the New York State Department of Labor and the New York State Attorney General while maintaining New York City’s local law. The Act will apply to contracts entered into on or after the May 20, 2024 effective date.

Here are some key details:

Definitions: “freelance workers” and “hiring parties” 

The Act defines a “freelance worker” as “any natural person or organization composed of no more than one natural person, whether or not incorporated or employing a trade name, that is hired or retained as an independent contractor by a hiring party to provide services in exchange for an amount equal to or greater than eight hundred dollars”—but does not include certain sales representatives, practicing attorneys, licensed medical professionals, and construction contractors. Also, a “hiring party” is any person (other than government entities) who retains a freelance worker to provide any service.

Written contracts required

The Act requires a written contract if the freelance work is worth at least $800, inclusive of multiple projects over a 120-day period. The hiring party must furnish a copy of the contract, either physically or electronically. At a minimum, the written contract must include:

  1. The name and the mailing address of both the hiring party and the freelance worker;
  2. An itemization of all services to be provided by the freelance worker, the value of the services to be provided under the contract, and the rate and method of compensation;
  3. The date on which the hiring party must pay the contracted compensation (or the mechanism by which the date will be determined); and
  4. The date by which a freelance worker must submit to the hiring party a list of services rendered under the contract to meet the hiring party’s internal processing deadlines to allow compensation to be paid by the agreed-upon date.

The New York State Department of Labor will provide model contracts on its website for freelancers and hiring parties to use.

Continue Reading More Scrutiny and Obligations for NY Businesses Engaging Independent Contractors Coming Spring 2024
Listen to this post

Does your holiday wish list include CLE credit and a quick tutorial on what to expect in California labor and employment law next year?

Excellent!

Join us for our virtual California 2023-2024 Employment Law Update on Wednesday, December 13 @ 1PM PT.

2023 has been a year of dramatic change for California employers, but have no fear as this fast-paced webinar will prepare you for a brighter 2024.

In a 75-minute program, our team will cover:

  • How to protect company trade secrets given the expansion of the state’s restrictions on non-competes under SB 699 and AB 1076
  • Best practices and crucial steps to take to avoid costly wage and hour class actions
  • Practical tips for managing charged speech in the workplace, as well as action items to consider with ID&E programming in the wake of the Supreme Court’s SFFA decision
  • How to implement the new requirements for increased paid sick leave under SB 616
  • Compliance tips for the state’s new leave entitlement for reproductive loss under SB 848
  • How to craft a workplace violence prevention policy that complies with SB 553
  • A quick update on new privacy rules employers need to know
  • What the Labor Code’s new rebuttable presumption of retaliation means for employers and more!

Register here.

Listen to this post

Special thanks to our Baker McKenzie speakers Pamela Church, Teisha Johnson, Cyrus Vance, Elizabeth Roper, Laura Estrada Vasquez, Joshua Wolkoff and Industry Experts, Alexandra Lopez, Privacy Counsel, Calix, Una Kang, VP and Associate General Counsel, Wolters Kluwer, and Pamela Weinstock, Managing Counsel, Intellectual Property, Tiffany & Co.

Join us in person on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 for an exclusive event discussing the transformative power of generative AI and the unfolding regulatory landscape.

In-house counsel in the cloud/software, publishing and luxury and fashion fields at top companies such as Calix, Tiffany & Co. and Wolters Kluwer will share insights on how they are embracing generative AI and its impact on their business operations. We will also examine recent legal and regulatory developments and discuss practical approaches to tackle associated issues.

Panel discussions will cover topics such as:

  • how to navigate both the use of AI and new technology,
  • how to practically tackle regulatory compliance,
  • how to appropriately identify and guard against evolving threat factors and risks,
  • and more!

The program will conclude with a networking cocktail reception in Baker McKenzie’s New York office.

Click here to view the invitation.