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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
United States | Publication | April 2021
As of March 29, 2021, California employers with more than 25 employees must provide paid sick leave specifically for employees who are unable to work or telework for any one of seven reasons related to COVID-19:
Full-time employees are entitled to 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave. Part-time employees are entitled to paid leave for the number of hours in a two-week period if they have a normal weekly schedule. Employees with variable schedules are entitled to hours according to a formula based on the number of hours they worked prior to the date they took COVID-19 leave.
The obligations under Senate Bill 95—which has been codified at Labor Code section 248.2— apply retroactively to January 1, 2021 and expire September 30, 2021. An employee who took unpaid leave for reasons that are covered by SB 95 may request retroactive payment for unpaid leave the employee took from January 1, 2021 through March 28, 2021. An employer must make the retroactive payment by the payday for the next pay period after the request is made. The retroactive provision of COVID-19 paid leave counts as a credit toward the employer's maximum obligation under the law (e.g., 80 hours for full-time employees).
The new law contains detailed provisions on the rate of pay at which the COVID-19 paid sick leave must be paid (possibly, but not necessarily, the regular rate of pay for the workweek regardless of whether overtime is worked), and a cap of US$511 per day and US$5,110 in the aggregate, unless Congress enacts new emergency paid sick leave legislation with a larger cap.
COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave must be set forth separately from regular paid sick on an itemized wage statement pursuant to Labor Code section 246(i).
Finally, the Labor Commissioner has issued a helpful set of FAQs on this new law. Of note, a general stay-at-home order does not entitle an employee to paid leave. Rather, "[t]he order or guidelines must be specific to the covered employee's circumstances … For example, guidelines or an order of a local health officer that directs individuals who live with someone who has COVID-19 to quarantine themselves would satisfy the eligibility requirement for taking 2021 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave."
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Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
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On February 2, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union confirmed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives had signed the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation, referred to as the AI Act. Approval by the EU Parliament followed on 13 March 2024, and the AI Act is likely to appear in the EU’s Official Journal around May 2024. The AI Act aims to establish a stringent legal framework governing the development, marketing, and utilisation of artificial intelligence within the region, thereby marking a significant advancement in the regulation of this burgeoning domain.
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The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
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