Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

April 24, 2015

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Ringling Bros. Circus Agrees to Safety Enhancements | WWC

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, will implement ongoing safety enhancements in aerial acts to protect employees against injuries like those sustained by its aerialists during a May 4, 2014, performance in Providence, R.I., according to a Department of Labor (DOL) press release. Feld Entertainment Inc., headquartered in Palmetto, Fla., owns the circus. The proactive measures are ...

April 19, 2015

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Obama's Immigration Plan Argued Before Circuit Court | WWC

In a hearing Friday before a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both pro and con sides were allowed one hour to argue their positions on President Obama's November executive order on immigration. The issue at hand was the injunction issued in February by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen that put the executive order -- affecting the legal status of some 5 million undocumented immig...

April 17, 2015

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EEOC Issues Proposed Rule on Wellness Programs | WWC

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) yesterday published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) describing how Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to employer wellness programs that are part of group health plans. The NPRM is available in the Public Inspection portion of the Federal Register, and will be officially published on Monday, April 20, 2015. Mem...

April 16, 2015

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MSHA Data for 2014 Show Increased Mining Deaths | WWC

The Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has released preliminary data for calendar year 2014 and updated its Mine Safety and Health at a Glance web page. The charts include information on inspections, violations, number of mines and miners, and fatality and injury rates for coal, metal and nonmetal, and all mining. The data show that, while the 2014 overall opera...

April 15, 2015

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DOL Seeks Commentary on Proposed Fiduciary Rule | WWC

The Department of Labor (DOL) has released a proposed rule aimed at protecting 401(k) and IRA investors by mitigating the effect of conflicts of interest in the retirement investment marketplace. A White House Council of Economic Advisers analysis found that these conflicts of interest result in annual losses of about 1 percentage point for affected investors — or about $17 billion per year in ...

April 14, 2015

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OSHA Seeks Input on Tower Worker Safety | WWC

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is asking the public for information about worker safety hazards in communication tower construction and maintenance activities. Public input will assist the agency in determining what measures are needed to prevent worker injuries and fatalities. In the past 30 years, the increased demand for wireless and broadcast communications has sp...

April 13, 2015

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Angry Judge Digs in Against Obama Immigration Plan | WWC

Judge Andrew Hanen, who issued an injunction that stopped the Obama administration's plan for its version of immigration reform, has refused to lift the ban, saying the federal government, under President Obama's orders, "has abdicated enforcement" of the nation's immigration laws. The U.S. district judge cited two factors this past weekend in refusing to halt the injunction (and thus letting ...

April 13, 2015

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DOL to Enforce FMLA Spouse Rule Nationwide | WWC

Before the new definition of spouse for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) purposes could take effect, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction against its enforcement, but the Department of Labor has now announced that it will honor that injunction only in the four states whose lawsuit led to the order. Those four states are Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Nebraska. The new definition o...

April 11, 2015

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Justice Declines to Lift Embargo on New Definition of Spouse for FMLA

After Justice Reed O'Connor placed a temporary injunction on the new definition of spouse for purposes of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave, the Department of Justice (DOJ) quickly moved to ask for the block to be lifted. On Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office initiated the lawsuit resulting in Judge O'Connor's injunction, announced that the federal judge in Wichita...

April 10, 2015

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EEOOC Finds Treatment of Transgender Employee to Be Sex Discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this week ruled that an army facility's decision to force a transgender civilian employee to use a unisex bathroom, and not a female one, represented sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The five-member board also found that her supervisor's use of male pronouns when addressing Tamara Lusardi, the employee, “compounded t...

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