Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

October 5, 2017

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Company Fined Whopping $95 Million for Hiring Illegal Workers

Asplundh Tree Experts of Philadelphia has agreed to pay a fine of $95 million for hiring illegal workers and openly accepting false documents to do so, even after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had audited the company and ordered the workers terminated, many of whom were soon thereafter rehired under different names. The fine includes $80 million of profits made while the illegal wor...

October 2, 2017

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First Monday in October Sees SCOTUS Weigh Workers' Rights

This 1932 photo of the Supreme Court, taken by a camera smuggled into the courtroom, is one of only two known to exist. Photography in the chamber is forbidden.[/caption] The Supreme Court opened its 2017-2018 term by taking up a case involving some 25 million workers. At issue was whether workers could be contractually forced to us...

October 2, 2017

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DOJ Sues Firm for Hiring Foreign Workers

Citing the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued Crop Production Services Inc. of Colorado for not hiring American workers but instead taking on foreign H2-A visa workers. It is the first prosecution since President Trump's American First executive order of April 18. According to the DOJ, the INA makes it unlawful for employers to intentionally discrim...

October 1, 2017

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Who is Don Wright, the New HHS Secretary?

After the resignation of Tom Price as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) over his abuse of air travel, President Trump named Don Wright, deputy assistant secretary and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, to be acting HHS secretary. Who exactly is Don Wright? Wright has been in government service since the presidency of George W. Bush. He previously se...

September 30, 2017

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ACA Reconciliation Process, CHIP Both End Tonight

The latest effort to repeal and replace Obamacare -- the Graham-Cassidy bill that would turn health care over to the states -- never made it to vote, and with the fiscal year ending tonight, the Republicans' chance to use the reconciliation process, which requires only a majority vote in the Senate, ends with it. Meanwhile, the Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly called CHIP, runs ou...

September 29, 2017

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New EEO Digest Focuses on Race Discrimination in the Workplace

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the latest edition of its federal sector Digest of Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEO Digest), which is available on the EEOC's website. This edition (Fiscal Year 2017, Volume 4) features a special article titled "Race Discrimination in the 21st Century Workplace." The comprehensive article discusses the legal prohibitions o...

September 29, 2017

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HHS Secretary Price Resigns

Tom Price, M.D., secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), resigned today amid a nationwide controversy over his use of private jets for government travel, sticking the taxpaying public with a tab of $1 million or more. Before the announcement of Price's resignation, President Trump called him "a good man" but said "the optics" weren't good. Don Wright, director of the Office of Disease P...

September 28, 2017

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EEOC Says No New Wellness Rule Until Late 2019

While the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decides whether to vacate the current Wellness Rule, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says it won't be able to issue a revised rule until October 2019, effective in 2021. In August, the court ordered the EEOC to revisit and redo the current Wellness Rule because, in a lawsuit brought by the AARP, the court found ...

September 26, 2017

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NLRB Now in Republican Control

The Senate on Monday, Sept. 25, confirmed business lawyer William Emanuel, President Trump's pick to fill an open seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), by a vote of 49-47. The vote puts the board, the nation's top labor law enforcement agency, under the control of Republicans, 3-to-2, for the first time since President George W. Bush's administration. The newly constituted board ...

September 22, 2017

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Appeals Court Rules the ADA Is Not a Leave Entitlement

In a case involving a worker who exhausted his Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 12 weeks of leave and then requested more time off under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “ADA is an antidiscrimination statute, not a medical-leave entitlement.” In Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., the court was to determine if the company was...

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