Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

October 21, 2011

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DOL Partners With Facebook to Help Job Seekers

Facebook

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis unveiled an innovative partnership via a live Web stream on Thursday (Oct. 20, 2011) that brings together the U.S. Labor Department, Facebook, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, the DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In addition, Facebook debuted a new Social Jobs Partnership page that highlights ava...

October 20, 2011

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Seattle Passes Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

The city of Seattle has passed an ordinance requiring businesses within the city to offer sick and safe days to workers who qualify. Sick days may be for the employee or to care for family members. Safe days provide domestic violence victims days off to relocate, file charges, or attend court proceedings. The ordinance will take effect on Sept. 1, 2012. All businesses with at least five full-ti...

October 18, 2011

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OSHA Issues Two Rights Booklets, One for Employees, One for Employers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published and made available two free booklets, one for employees called Workers' Rights, and one for employers called Employer Rights and Responsibilities. The latter focuses on what employers can and must do following an OSHA inspection and citation. Workers' Rights replaces an earlier OSHA publication entitled Employee Work...

October 18, 2011

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OSHA Offers Heat Index App for Android Smartphones

On the heels of its time-keeping smartphone app for tracking hours worked, the Department of Labor (DOL) is now introducing a smartphone app to measure the heat index at a work site. It is available now for Android operating systems, with apps promised soon for the iPhone and Blackberry. The app allows workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite, and, based on the hea...

October 17, 2011

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After Years of Decline, Workers' Compensation Rates Start Rising

In one of the ironies of so-called "right-sizing," as payrolls decline, workers' compensation costs rise. With fewer employees, companies must pay more to cover the liability, which is suddenly spread thinner. That and other reasons is behind an almost nationwide rise in workers' compensation rates. Rates are usually determined by size of the workforce covered, multiplied by a...

October 13, 2011

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Manager's Big Mouth Sinks Union Decertification Vote

A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected a company's union decertification petition because of coercive and threatening words spoken by a manger prior to the vote. Both the vote and the speech occurred at a manufacturing plant in Alabama, where employees had voted a year earlier for collective bargaining representation, but in the ensuing year neither company ...

October 11, 2011

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Some Big Names Found Deficient in Ongoing I-9 Audits

Earlier this year, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) sent out 1,000 letters announcing that the recipient companies would be audited for Form I-9 (employment eligibility) audits. To date, with the service announcing it will target another 1,000 as soon as it frees up resources, some big names have been audited and found not in compliance—the Krispy Kreme Doughn...

October 10, 2011

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Supreme Court to Resolve Church-State Battle Over ADA Leave

In the first week of its 2011-2012 session, the United States Supreme Court heard a case involving a church and its actions in terminating an employee who took disability leave and was asked to resign as a result. When she refused to resign and threatened to sue, she was terminated. The teacher, Cheryl Perich, took her cause to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which sided wit...

October 7, 2011

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DOJ Sues California Firm For Requiring Document Not on I-9 Required List

DOJ I-9 USCIS

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and its Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices is suing a California medical services firm, alleging a pattern of requiring job applicants to provide forms not required for Form I-9 work eligibility status. The suit springs from a February 2010 incident in which the company rejected a job applicant's work authorization f...

October 5, 2011

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NLRB Delays Employee Rights Poster Mandate Until Jan. 31, 2012

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has postponed the implementation date for its new employee rights notice-posting rule by more than two months in order to allow for enhanced education and outreach to employers, particularly those who operate small- and medium-sized businesses. The new date is Jan. 31, 2012. The decision to extend the rollout period followed queries from businesse...

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