Description:
About this seminar:
The outbreak of labor unrest all over China in mid-2010 has made front-page headlines around the world. Since then, the central and local governments and the government-sponsored union organisation ACFTU, have started various initiatives to organize labor and increase wages.
In order to help companies prepare for this challenge, Andreas Lauffs, head of the China Employment Law Group at Baker & McKenzie and Jonathan Isaacs, senior associate will give a presentation on and answer any audience questions on the following issues. Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie partner and union specialist Doug Darch will moderate the Online Seminar.
- What are the new rules that will have an impact on labor relations in China? – Should companies reconsider their union avoidance strategies? – Will collective bargaining become the norm in private companies? – What measures can companies take to reduce the chance of a strike?
Our Guest Speakers / Presenters:
The Online Seminar guest presenters are Andreas Lauffs and Jonathan Isaacs, moderated by Doug Darch
Andreas Lauffs, Partner, Baker & McKenzie
Practice Areas : Labor, employment and employee benefits (China); Mr. Lauffs is head of the Employment Law Group. The Group comprises a large team of dedicated full-time employment lawyers based in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Mr. Lauffs has been advising on employment law and related business issues in China since 1991. He regularly advises multinational employers on their strategic and complex employment and labor union matters, employment aspects of mergers & acquisitions, executive transfer, social insurance and on employment litigation/arbitration.
Jonathan Isaacs, Senior Associate, Baker & McKenzie, Hong Kong
Practice Areas: China Employment.
Mr. Isaacs’ practice focuses on employment and labor issues. He is experienced in providing advice to multi-national companies on labor unions, collective bargaining, overtime compliance, termination issues, anti-bribery issues, as well as employment aspects of M&A transactions in the PRC.
Education & Bar Admittance: Mr. Isaacs graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a JD, cum laude (2004). He is admitted as an attorney in the State of New York, USA (2005).
Douglas Darch, Baker & McKenzie, Chicago
Douglas Darch represents and counsels management in the areas of Labor and Employment. Mr. Darch has handled highly publicized cases under Title VII and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including the largest corporate restructuring of a publicly held employer at the time. He has extensive union election campaign and collective bargaining experience, and has participated in over 100 hearings before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), labor arbitrators, federal and state courts, and administrative agencies.
Mr. Darch’s practice has a particular emphasis on union relations, corporate transactions, labor management restructuring, Taft-Hartley benefit plan modification, corporate campaigns, as well as labor and employment litigation. He is an experienced appellate court advocate, and provides clients — some of them manufacturers, health care and service employers — with strategic and pragmatic solutions that help meet corporate objectives while avoiding costly litigation where possible. Mr. Darch also provides counsel in leave management, sexual harassment, arbitration agreements, workforce reductions, severance plans, developing personnel policies, workplace investigations to maintain a union free environment, preparing for and conducting collective bargaining, as well as workforce interruption contingency planning.