SPORTS
3 Washington Redskins Co-Owners Want Out, But Daniel Snyder Remains All-In

BY SCOTT MCDONALD ON 7/5/20

Former NFL Player Burgess Owens Wins Utah’s Fourth Congressional District Primary

Things are changing quickly with the NFL's Washington Redskins and their mascot of the last 88 years. Just days after two major sponsors threatened to pull their millions of dollars, three co-owners now want out of their shares.

And none of them are named Daniel Snyder.

The three minority owners in the team—Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar and Frederick W. Smith—hold a collective 40 percent ownership, and they have reportedly hired an investment firm to help them sell their shares of the club, the Washington Post reported.

Snyder owns the majority of the team, and the other three co-owners are "not happy being a partner." The Washington Redskins are worth about $3.4 billion, according to Forbes' latest calculations. That ranks seventh in the National Football League.
 

Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder sits next to his franchise's three Super Bowl trophies during a press conference in Ashburn, Virginia. Snyder now has three co-owners who want out of their ownership.PHOTO BY LARRY FRENCH /GETTY IMAGES

The latest news comes after a sequence of events over the last week that has forced the team to reexamine the name "Redskins" and whether it should be changed.

A group of investors on Wednesday sent letters to the team's top three sponsors—FedEx, Nike and Pepsi—urging them to pull their sponsorships if the team did not change their name from Redskins to something else. The next day, FedEx sent a letter to the team that threatened a yanking of sponsorship dollars.

Why is FedEx important? FedEx holds the naming rights to the team's stadium, and pulling sponsorship could cost the Washington NFL franchise many millions of dollars if the team doesn't comply. Not to mention, the team would scramble to recuperate those dollars with another sponsor—one not likely to throw down cash unless a name change was made.

And within a few hours of the FedEx decision, Nike pulled all of its Redskins merchandise from the Nike.com website. Not only did a search of "Washington Redskins" take users to an empty landing page, Washington was omitted from the list of NFL teams on Nike's website.

On Wednesday, 87 different investors and shareholders, whose total net worth is $620 billion, signed the letters urging the them to pull their sponsorships unless the Redskins change their nickname.

"This is a broader movement now that's happening that Indigenous peoples are part of," said Carla Fredericks, who is director of First Peoples Worldwide and director of the University of Colorado Law School's American Indian Law Clinic. "Indigenous peoples were sort of left out of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s in many respects, because our conditions were so dire on reservations and our ability to engage publicly was very limited because of that. With social media now, obviously everything is very different."

FedEx made the first move.

"We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name," FedEx said in a statement.

Then Nike pulled the Redskins gear.

READ MORE
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Washington Redskins Urged to Lose Name, or Millions in Sponsorships

This isn't the only time in history the Redskins have faced opposition to the name. Native American groups in the late 1960s began efforts to end any harmful stereotypes or images of Native American life, especially in the sports world. By the early 1970s, there became a growing plea from activists for the Redskins to drop their name, or change its mascot altogether.

Although requests for sports teams to change their mascots from Indians and similar names somewhat dissipated throughout the 1980s, it began picking up steam again following the 1991 season, when the Redskins advanced to the Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis.

About 3,000 demonstrators showed up at the game to protest the Redskins name—the largest such protest at the time. Later that year, a Native American group filed a petition to have the team's nickname removed from trademark.

A federal appeals board sided with the petitioners, but the Redskins appealed the ruling. The board ruled that the team's name was belittling to Native Americans.

In 2004, a poll of 768 self-identified Indians showed that only nine percent of them were offended by Washington's nickname, and it's a survey that owner Daniel Snyder has used to this day as a way to defend the Redskins organization and brand.

Lawsuits have continuously been filed against the Washington Redskins, but the organization has never wavered. Snyder even said in 2013 that he would never change the team's name.

After the death of George Floyd on May 25 while in custody of police, protests against his death—and police brutality against Blacks, in general—swept the nation. There have also been protests for equality of all races, including Native Americans.

In the letter from the investors to Nike, it stated, "the use of the R-word as the name and mascot of the Washington National Football League team is offensive and hurtful to American Indian and Alaska Native people and causes direct, harmful effects on the physical and mental health and academic achievement of the American Indian and Alaska Native populations, particularly youth; and ... despite the team's arguments to the contrary, the R-word is not a term of honor or respect, but rather, a term that still connotes racism and genocide for Native peoples and for all others who know of this history and recognize that it is wrong to characterize people by the color of their skin."

Bullying and Harassment Increase for Some Workers in Pandemic Lockdown: Opinion

By Elisa Martinuzzi, Bloomberg Opinion | June 23, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL


Working from home should have liberated employees from toxic workplace behavior such as bullying and harassment. Amid the lockdowns, gone are undesired office encounters, business trips, round-the-clock conferences and much after-hours socializing. Yet, far from ending misconduct, the pandemic lockdowns have displaced it at best and fueled it at worst.

Early anecdotal evidence in the financial services industry — which has all too often silenced victims of harassment — does not paint a pretty picture. SteelEye, which makes surveillance tools for securities trading and communications in banking, told me its clients have witnessed a notable increase in potential impropriety amid a surge in activity and heightened stress in financial markets. While the alerts mostly flag potential insider-trading and market abuse, offensive or hostile language that points to bullying and harassment has shown up too, according to SteelEye’s Chief Executive Officer Matt Smith.

Suzanne McKie, a London-based employment lawyer, whose clients work predominantly in finance, concurs. She told me that she has heard of more occurrences of harassment than before lockdown. This intimidation has not been physical, but it has moved to WhatsApp and text messages on personal phones, which are just as, if not more, difficult for employers to monitor.

McKie says she is also seeing a distinct uptick in complaints of gender harassment and racial intimidation. For example, her clients have reported being excluded from meetings and bullied over video calls – provocations that would have been harder to do in an office with bystanders present. Abruptly leaving a meeting room, for example, is not as easy as hanging up a video call.

Also specific to the coronavirus crisis, McKie says, managers have used furlough as a form of bullying minorities, either by forcing them to take it or by denying the option when it’s been requested. (In the latter case, the hope is this will lead the employee to resign.)

According to another London-based employment lawyer, whose clients also work predominantly in finance, remote working during the pandemic has given rise to harassment in two key ways. First, virtual communication provides a degree of anonymity that can lead people to act in ways they would not do so in person — similar to how the internet and social media produced cyber-bullying, which then became an issue in schools.

Second, stressful conditions from the pandemic have led some working relationships to break down. Inappropriate comments that denigrate an individual, be it over the phone, by text message or by e-mail, are proliferating, the lawyer told me.

If history is any guide, economic vulnerability can breed harassment. In the U.S., workplace harassment charges spiked in the Great Recession to a two-decade record, says Alexandra Kalev, an associate professor in sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University. Using data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Kalev calculated that the rate of harassment charges in 2008 shot up to 33 per 1,000 employees, a jump that was four times higher than the rate of increase in the decades before. Harassment rises in line with insecurity, Kalev explains.


And right now we are all more vulnerable. Some jobs that have been lost may never return. Those fortunate enough to stay employed are still concerned about their future financial wellbeing. And we are worrying about our physical survival and that of our loved ones, as Covid-19 infection rates continue to ebb and flow. Add in the stress of coping with closed schools and remote working, and it’s easy to see how many people may be at their wits’ end.

Crucially, just as many are at their most strained emotionally, the boundaries between work and private life have blurred, which can facilitate harassment. Take the explosion of video calls and meetings. Colleagues, as well as customers and other contacts, are now regularly brought into the intimacy of our homes. Working out of our kitchens and living rooms can lead people to let their guard down and be more informal or in some cases inappropriate. A comment about a nice bookcase in the background can all too easily be followed by unsolicited remarks about a person’s appearance or by an improper joke – an uncomfortable situation I have experienced myself.

McKie says that some firms have postponed investigations into harassment cases due to the pandemic, which is not an encouraging sign. In the U.S., some states, such as Connecticut, have extended deadlines to conduct mandatory sexual harassment training that were introduced after the #MeToo movement.

Company executives should pay attention. As many people continue working remotely and others begin transitioning back to the office, employers will have to prioritize rooting out improper behavior and mistreatment of employees. Industries like finance have to improve their dire record on harassment.

Bullying and harassment perpetuate inequality in organizations, typically by preventing women and minority groups, who are most often targets, from advancing. This behavior hurts productivity, damages mental and physical health, produces absenteeism and high staff turnover and distracts management.

There is no quick fix. Filling management positions with more women — one commonly cited solution — is no panacea. A recent study into harassment in Sweden, the United States and Japan found that women promoted into leadership positions can face even more harassment.

But employers can step up by putting more effort into offering anti-harassment training and following up on complaints. At a time like this, Kalev says, companies need to send a strong anti-harassment message and get more people involved in rooting out misconduct.

Bystander training, for example, can teach staff to speak up when they spot inappropriate behavior. This should be beefed up online and reinforced as an important way to empower employees and establish health work cultures. Companies can also create easier, non-adversarial reporting mechanisms for employees to share concerns and complaints. Longer term, Kalev and her coauthor Frank Dobbin, a professor of sociology at Harvard, also suggest creating task forces and publishing data that reveal the extent to which harassment permeates a firm.

As company executives shift their focus from the health crisis to returning to work, employment conditions need to be firmly in their sights. Concerns about harassment can’t go ignored.


Copyright 2020 Bloomberg.

Fidelis, Aon and Marsh Develop Marine Cargo Clause Aiming to Combat Modern Slavery

June 22, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL


A group of brokers and insurers in the London market has come together to announce a new approach to keeping the products of modern slavery out of the export supply chain.

Fidelis, Aon and Marsh have developed a clause which makes it a condition of marine cargo policies that the insured complies with applicable legal and regulatory obligations in respect of forced and child labor.

“Forced labor in all its forms is an extreme expression of inequality and injustice. The insurance industry is committed to do all it can to prevent association with the abhorrent practices of modern slavery. We sometimes think that slavery is a thing of the past, but it is not – it is real and present in all societies and we want to do our part to root it out,” said Charles Mathias, group executive director & group chief risk officer, Fidelis Insurance.
About Fidelis Insurance

Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited is a privately owned, Bermuda‐based holding company, which, through its subsidiaries, is a global provider of property, bespoke and specialty re/insurance products. The core operating subsidiaries of Fidelis have financial strength ratings of A (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and A‐ by Standard & Poors.

Source: Fidelis

THE SLAVE TRADE IS THE ORIGIN OF CAPITALISM

Some Facts About London’s Role in Insuring the Slave Trade

By Guy Faulconbridge | June 19, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL


London is facing up to its role in insuring the slave trade as part of a sweeping global reassessment of history and racism.

This reappraisal was triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him.

For centuries, London has maintained a pre-eminent role in financing global trade and on Thursday the Lloyd’s of London insurance market apologized for its “shameful” role in the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic slave trade.

About 17 million African men, women and children were torn from their homes and shackled into one of the world’s most brutal globalized trades between the 15th and 19th centuries. Many died in merciless conditions.

By the late 18th Century, Britain was the leading slaver nation, carrying about 40% of Africans transported between 1761 and the abolition of the trade in 1807.

Update: Lloyd’s of London Apologizes for Its ‘Shameful’ Role in Atlantic Slave Trade

Lloyd’s grew to dominate the shipping insurance market, a key element of Europe’s global scramble for empire, treasure and slaves, who were usually in the 18th Century included in insurance policies in the general rate for ship cargo.


Other major traders were Portugal/Brazil, with about 32% of the market, and France, with about 17%. American and Dutch ships were also involved, with around 6% and 3% respectively.

How important was slavery to British maritime insurance?

There is a lack of documentary evidence from the time, but historians have estimated that the slave and West India trades combined accounted for 41% of British marine insurance in the 1790s.

(For more information: Insuring the Transatlantic Slave Trade.)

“Between a third and 40 percent of London marine insurance in the 18th Century was accounted for by the slave trade and by the movement of slave grown produce across the Atlantic,” said Nick Draper, former director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership.

“Those ships bringing sugar to Britain had a valuable cargo and the ships themselves were valuable and often coming through enemy waters because Britain was at war for long periods.”

Who were the big players?

There were three main marine insurers in the 18th Century: London Assurance, Royal Exchange and Lloyd’s of London.

“Lloyd’s had the dominant insurance business – probably had 80-90 percent of the market,” said Draper.

“By 1807 when the slave-trade was abolished, it was relatively unimportant to marine insurance and by the 1830s when slavery was abolished the sugar economy in turn had become less important. We were shipping then huge amounts of raw slave-grown cotton, for example, back to the UK from the American south.”
How did it work?

Slaves were seen as cargo by the insurance market of the time and generally included in the general insurance rate.

Often slaves were termed as a “parcel” whose value was determined by ethnicity, size, height, age, gender and health.

Slaves were also classified by underwriters as “perishable goods,” alongside cattle. Underwriters and courts dealt with slave losses arising from revolt as the equivalent of damage and losses caused by livestock panicking during a tempest.

“Most insurance policies for the slave trade excluded the death of enslaved people from disease or insurrection – they were insuring the ship against the perils of the sea,” said Draper. “But they were not insuring so that people were disembarked at the other end in a healthy condition.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Alexander Smith)

Photograph: Black Lives Matter protest in London on June 6, 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown.

Related:
Update: Lloyd’s of London Apologizes for Its ‘Shameful’ Role in Atlantic Slave Trade


Copyright 2020 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

CAPITALIST ETHICS:AN OXYMORON
UK Insurers Cite Swedish Example in Bid to Dodge Coronavirus Biz Income Payouts

By Lucca de Paoli | June 17, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL


Insurers are set to argue against paying out fully on claims made by businesses forced to shut because of the pandemic, saying that shops in Sweden lost money even without a strict lockdown.

The strategy was raised at the first case management hearing Tuesday in the Financial Conduct Authority’s London lawsuit seeking clarity on the limits of business interruption insurance amid the coronavirus crisis.


Lawyers for Hiscox Ltd. and other insurers said Sweden is an example of a country where no firm lockdown restrictions were implemented, but businesses still suffered. The Swedish example is key to the insurers’ defense because some policies cover losses resulting from government action, but not necessarily pandemics.

The court case is one of a number of battles across the world, where insurers and clients are fighting over whether coverage extends to measures taken by governments to halt the spread of coronavirus. In France, AXA SA was ordered by a Paris court last month to compensate a restaurant owner for two months of virus-related losses.

“Some proportion of the UK businesses’ losses could not properly be said to have been caused by COVID alone,” said Jonathan Gaisman QC, a lawyer for Hiscox. One way that this might be examined is for the court “to compare the situation in the UK with that in Sweden.”

Sweden, in stark contrast to most other countries in Europe, enforced softer lockdown measures, leading to one of the highest death rates in the world relative to population. Despite the more lenient measures, the country’s economy has taken a hit with Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson estimating the Scandinavian nation is set for a 7% drop in gross domestic product.

The FCA trial is due to start in London’s High Court in July and will examine 17 policy wordings and try to establish whether a number of insurers should pay out on business interruption insurance.

In addition, other insurers in the case include RSA Insurance Group Plc, Zurich Insurance Group AG and MS Amlin Ltd.



–With assistance from Ellen Milligan.

Related:
Hiscox Action Group Launches £40M Arbitration Claim for COVID Biz Interruption Dispute
British Regulator Enlists 8 Insurers in Pandemic Test Case of Business Interruption Cover
UK Regulator Seeks Court Review in July to Resolve COVID-19 Insurance Dispute
Forced Payouts of Pandemic Claims Risk Insurers’ Financial Stability: Regulators
Willis Paints COVID-19 Insurance Loss Big Picture: It’s a Wash or Historic Catastrophe
FERMA Forms Task Force to Find Solution for Non-Damage BI Cover – Such as Pandemic
Two Law Firms Seek British Businesses to Join Biz Interruption Lawsuit Against Allianz
UK Regulator Wants Courts to Clarify Wording of Disputed Business Interruption Policies
Non-Life Insurance Claims from Pandemic to Surpass 9/11 Claims: Willis Towers Watson
Top Insurers Face Lawsuit from UK Hospitality Sector on Rejected Biz Interruption Claims
Hiscox Action Group Gears Up to Take Hiscox to Court over COVID-19 BI Exclusions
Many Insurance Policies Bought by Small UK Firms Don’t Cover Pandemic: Regulator




Copyright 2020 Bloomberg.

U.S. Economic Losses from Severe Weather During May Topped $4 Billion: Aon

June 24, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL


Severe weather outbreaks across the United States, with a lot of hailstorm damage, resulted in another costly month for insurers as a significant proportion of the US$4 billion economic cost was covered by insurance, according to Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report.

One of the more severe outbreaks on May 4-5 hit the Plains, Midwest and Southeast, with impacts felt the most in parts of Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina, said the report. Most damage was due to straight-line winds, causing estimated economic losses of more than US$975 million, with 75% of the costs insured.

Michigan Sues Owner of Failed Dams, Seeks Compensation for Destruction

Top 100 Cities: 6 in 10 Homes in High-Risk Flood Zones Lack Flood Insurance

Evacuations in Michigan as Dams Break, Flooding Hits Midwest


Record rains and flooding on May 16-21 led to the failure of two dams near Midland, Mich. on May 19, which caused historic flooding along the Tittabawassee River. Additional flooding occurred within the Chicago metro region. Total economic losses were estimated well into the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. While most of the wind and hail-related damage was expected to be insured, low National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage in areas hard hit by flooding meant most of that damage was likely to be uninsured.


In other parts of the world, damages were often high, but there was little insurance protection to pay for them. For example, the report reveals that Cyclone Amphan, which swept across India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka during the month, killed at least 133 people – 103 in India, 26 in Bangladesh, and four in Sri Lanka – and injured more than 1,200 others. Governments of India and Bangladesh estimated that nearly three million homes had been damaged or destroyed, along with vast areas of agriculture and infrastructure.

The government in West Bengal, India, expected total economic losses to exceed INR1.0 trillion (US$13.5 billion), while officials in Bangladesh noted damage costs nearing BDT127 billion (US$1.5 billion). Most of the damage was expected to be uninsured.

“The vulnerabilities of infrastructure were amplified by Cyclone Amphan’s widespread effects in India and Bangladesh during May. The storm brought extensive coastal and inland flooding, in addition to hurricane-force wind gusts, which put a further spotlight on the need for future investments in modernizing coastal barriers, embankments, and the electrical grid in storm-prone areas around the world,” said Michal Lörinc, catastrophe analyst within Aon’s Impact Forecasting team, in a statement.

The Aon report indicated that hailstorms had a big role in U.S. losses during the month. Some of the storms included:
Severe weather on May 2-3. Parts of the central and southern sections of the U.S. were affected, causing total economic losses of an estimated US$650 million with insurers covering nearly US$500 million of that amount. The hardest-hit areas were in parts of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee where large hail – up to the size of softballs – and damaging straight-line winds approaching 80 mph (130 kph) were recorded.
Powerful thunderstorms on May 7-8. Hail (larger than baseballs) and straight-line wind (topping 60 mph), caused damage in Texas (especially in the Panhandle), Oklahoma, Kansas, and Louisiana. Economic losses were estimated at nearly US$150 million, with insurance covering most of the damages.
Severe weather on May 13-15. Twelve states saw damage from large hail (up to the size of baseballs), straight-line winds (topping 70 mph), flooding rains and isolated tornadoes. Some of the most extensive damage was reported in New York and Massachusetts. Total economic and insured losses were estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Severe weather and major flooding May 16-21. The central and eastern U.S. saw thunderstorms with reports of tornadoes, large hail, and straight-line winds. Extensive property damage hit areas from Texas to Ohio to Florida (which included hail larger than baseballs in Seminole County, Fla.)
Major hailstorm on May 27. Extensive severe weather was reported across Texas and elsewhere in the Southeast on May 27-28. Supercells produced swaths of large and significant hail, notably near San Antonio. Hailstones approaching 2.50 inches (6.4 centimeters) were reported. Total economic losses were expected to top US$1 billion, with most of those costs likely to be covered by insurance.

Further global natural hazard events during the month of May include:
Tropical Storm Amanda affected parts of Central America and caused 33 fatalities. Its remnants later evolved into Tropical Storm Cristobal in the Gulf of Mexico in early June.
Notable hail, wind and flood-related effects occurred in Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland on May 9-11. Aggregated economic losses were expected to be in the tens of millions of euros.
Typhoon Vongfong became the first named storm of the 2020 Pacific Typhoon Season and hit the Philippines on May 14-15. Nearly 50,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Seasonal flooding continued in Eastern Africa, leading to an additional 30 fatalities in Kenya on May 4-6. Kenyan government officials reported that the seasonal death toll rose to at least 237 since late March. At least 29 out of 47 counties in Kenya were affected, displacing around 100,000 people.
Strong winds and heavy rains swept across western Australia on May 25. The event occurred as remnants of Tropical Cyclone Mangga interacted with a cold front, later hitting southwestern Australia. Widespread power outages ensued, as power was cut to nearly 62,000 homes across the state. No human casualties were reported, and impact on property and motor was subject to further assessment.

Source: Aon’s Impact Forecasting

Photograph: Law enforcement officers patrol downtown Midland, Mich. in a rescue boat on Thursday, May 21, 2020. Severe flooding was caused by dam failures upstream. Photo credit: Katy Kildee/Midland Daily News via AP.

Canadian Privacy Panel Finds LifeLab’s Data Breach Was One of Biggest

              By Moira Warburton | June 26, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL

Canadian laboratory testing company LifeLabs failed to adequately protect sensitive health information of millions of people, resulting in one of the biggest data breaches in the country last year, privacy commissioners for the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario said on Thursday.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Ontario has ordered LifeLabs to improve and clarify its data protection policies, as well as better inform individuals of their information that was breached.


Some 15 million customers of LifeLabs, Canada’s largest provider of specialty medical laboratory testing, had sensitive personal information, including names, addresses, emails, customer logins and passwords, health card numbers and lab tests exposed due to a breach that was reported in November 2019.

Commissioners have delayed releasing the full report as LifeLabs claims it includes privileged or confidential information. The privacy commissioners disagreed and said the report will be made public, unless LifeLabs takes court action.

Canadian Lab Test Firm, LifeLabs, Pays Ransom After Data Breach

The Toronto-based company declined to say how much money was paid to secure the data.


The privacy commissioners’ joint report found that although the company for the most part took “reasonable steps” to contain and investigate the breach, it had failed to appropriately safeguard personal information of its customers.

LifeLabs is reviewing the report’s findings, according to a company statement, and “has committed to being open and transparent.”

The investigation “reinforces the need for changes to B.C.’s laws that allow regulators to consider imposing financial penalties on companies that violate people’s privacy rights,” Michael McEvoy, information and privacy commissioner of British Columbia, said in the statement.

Had such laws existed, McEvoy said, he would have taken action.

“This is the very kind of case where my office would have considered levying penalties.”

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto; Editing by Aurora Ellis)


Copyright 2020 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Canada’s Supreme Court Allows Class Action Seeking Employee Status for Uber Drivers

By Steve Scherer | June 26, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL

OTTAWA— Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a driver in a gig economy case that paves the way for a class action suit calling for Uber Technologies Inc. to recognize drivers in Canada as company employees.

UberEats driver David Heller had filed a class action suit, challenged by Uber, aiming to secure a minimum wage, vacation pay and other benefits like overtime pay. Drivers are now classified as independent contractors and do not have such benefits.

The ride-hailing company’s contract allows arbitration, but not class-action lawsuits. Heller’s attorney said the decision allowing him to sue was important, but only a small first step in a case that will probably take years to litigate.

Two days ago, California said it plans to ask a state court judge to force Uber and Lyft Inc to classify their ride-hail drivers as employees rather than contractors.

Canada’s 8-1 Supreme Court ruling dismisses an Uber appeal to an Ontario high court ruling that said the Uber’s arbitration clause violates provincial labor rules and is “invalid and unenforceable.”

The arbitration process, which must be conducted in the Netherlands where Uber has its international headquarters, costs about C$19,000 ($14,500). Heller earned between C$21,000 and C$31,000 per year.

“This was an access to justice case,” said Michael Wright, one of Heller’s lawyers. The court essentially ruled that “a stronger party was taking advantage of a weaker party in an unfair manner,” said Wright.

Uber had no immediate comment.


“The arbitration clause is improvident because the arbitration process requires US$14,500 in up-front administrative fees,” the top court said.

Now Heller can restart his class action suit, Wright said, but the matter will not be settled soon.

“This is the first round in a series of rounds,” said Wright, a labor and employment lawyer with Wright Henry LLP in Toronto, adding that it could take “a few more years.”

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, additional reporting by Moira Warburton Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Copyright 2020 Reuters. 

Mining Groups Should Be Required to Buy Insurance for Tailings Dams: Report

June 30, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL

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Mining companies should be required to buy private insurance for tailings dams and their board of directors should be held legally responsible for any disasters, a coalition of 140 environmental groups said in a report published on Tuesday.

The recommendations, which differ from standards to be published soon from a group that includes miners and investors, come as public scrutiny over tailings dams has intensified after the deadly 2019 collapse of a Brazil dam owned by Vale SA.


Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada, two prominent environmental nonprofits, co-wrote the report that includes 16 recommendations they hope will be adopted by regulators across the world and used by bankers as they consider whether to lend to miners.


Tailings dams, which are embankments constructed near mines to store mining waste in a liquid or solid form, can sometimes tower dozens of meters high and stretch for several kilometers. They are the most common waste-disposal method for miners, but they can be dangerous depending on construction method and a host of other factors.

The Earthworks-led report recommends that new tailings dams be banned near inhabited areas; make dam inspection data easily available; and make safety, not cost, the main factor in a dam’s construction.

“We hope local governments and local regulators, as well as lenders, insurers and investors, take these recommendations into account,” said Earthworks’ Jan Morrill, who co-authored the report.

Reuters reported last week that the Global Tailings Review (GTR), a panel of industry, investor and United Nations groups, had finalized its own tailings dam standards, which are not binding and are set to be released in the coming weeks.

The GTR’s final standards do not require private insurance and do not place final culpability with a company’s board. Instead, they call for appointing at least one executive responsible for tailings dam safety who is accountable to the chief executive and has regular communication with the board.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; additional reporting by Jeff Lewis; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Photograph: In this Jan. 26, 2019 file photo, a van is half submerged in the mud after a Vale dam collapsed near Brumadinho, Brazil. Corrego do Feijao was the epicenter of the breach, which got the brunt of the deluge, and where rescuers found a bus with an unknown number of bodies inside. Photo credit: AP Photo/Leo Correa.
Related:

Chile’s Environment Regulator Files Charges Against Codelco for Mining Waste Pollution

Global Mining Standard Omits Ban on Upstream Dams Sought by Civil Groups

Brazil’s Vale Knew Deadly Tailings Dam Was Unsafe as Far Back as 2003: Report

Vale Says Mine Collapse in Brazil Partially Linked to High Water Level

Vale’s ‘Negligence’ May Have Cost Lives, Says Brazil Mining Regulator

Vale CEO Received Emailed Warning Ahead of Brazil Dam Collapse: Report

Brazil Police Accuse Mining Firm Vale, Auditor of Fraud Related to Deadly Dam Collapse

Audit of Burst Brazil Tailings Dam Raised Concerns over Drainage, Monitoring

Brazil’s Burst Dam Disasters Blamed on Cheap Storage of Mining Waste

Copyright 2020 Reuters.

Report Highlights Need for Better Risk Management on Europe’s Container Ship Routes

By Mike Corder | June 29, 2020 INSURANCE JOURNAL



A Dutch safety watchdog said Thursday [June 25] that it is “undesirable” for large container ships to use a shipping route through an environmentally sensitive, shallow sea off the coast of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark in heavy northwesterly storms because of the heightened risk of them losing their cargo.

The conclusion came in a report by the Dutch Safety Board into the loss of hundreds of containers from a ship, the MSC Zoe, on New Year’s Day 2019, that led to tons of cargo washing up on nearby beaches.

“The lessons to be learned from this accident must result in a better risk management of container transport on the shipping routes,” the report said.


The ship, carrying more than 8,000 containers, was sailing north of a chain of islands in the Wadden Sea on a route from the Portuguese port of Sines to Bremerhaven, Germany, when it was battered by waves kicked up by a northwesterly storm. It lost 342 containers and 3,000 tons of cargo overboard, the Safety Board report said.

There are two shipping routes north of the Wadden Islands – a southern passage, which is shallower and closer to the islands, and a northern route. The Zoe was using the southern route.

“The Dutch Safety Board concludes that due to the value of the Wadden area, it is undesirable that these container ships choose the southern shipping route past the Wadden coast during a northwestern storm,” the board said.

In the days and weeks after the incident, debris including shoes, televisions, lightbulbs and packaging material washed up on normally pristine beaches. The Dutch government sent the armed forces to the region to help in the cleanup operation and a salvage ship fished sunken containers from the seabed.

When slammed from the side by waves kicked up by northwesterly storms in the Wadden Sea, “large, wide container ships make extreme rolling movements,” the board said in a statement. It added that on the shallow southern shipping route there is a risk of ships grounding and waves forced upward putting extreme stress on lashing systems used to hold containers on board.

The safety board made a series of recommendations, including that the governments of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark work together to make a proposal to the International Maritime Organization to safeguard the environmentally sensitive Wadden area.

“The aim of this proposal should be to minimize the loss of containers north of the Wadden Islands and to protect the Wadden area,” the Dutch report said. “This may include measures for (a specific category of) container ships, and if necessary alteration of the two shipping routes north of the Wadden Islands.”

Bernd-Carsten Hiebing, a lawmaker for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party in the state of Lower Saxony, said the report highlighted the continued dangers of shipping. But he pushed back against calls by the opposition Green party for a ban on `mega container ships,’ saying it wouldn’t help improve security for people and the environment.

Instead, he said it would be better to consider more closely which routes are navigable by which types and classes of ships. He also backed stricter rules for securing freight and the use of location transmitters for hazardous cargo containers.

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AP writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Photograph: The Geosund salvaging ship lifts a container from the seabed off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. Dutch authorities say a freight ship lost dozens more containers than previously thought when it was caught in a heavy storm on Jan. 2 when at least 345 containers fell off the MSC Zoe. Photo credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong.
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