Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

September 25, 2009

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The Next Time Somone Requests a Religious Accommodation...

Be careful. Here's the official Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) definition given at a recent training seminar: Religion includes not only traditional organized religion, but also "moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views." Note that just about any belief, including atheism, ...

September 24, 2009

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HHS Interim Final Rule Provides Cover for HIPAA Breaches

They ain't publicizing it, but it's there: A harm threshold in the Interim Final Rule published yesterday (Sept. 23, 2009) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that lets covered entities avoid ever admitting to a private health information (PHI) breach. The secret? Just encrypt the data. As the Interim Final Rule says, it wants to save the public from being “flooded with n...

September 23, 2009

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Can't Get Rid of the Employee? Just Eliminate the Department

I'm not sure if this is what's happening or not, but it looks suspiciously so: The Department of Labor (DOL) is eliminating its Employment Standards Administration (ESA) effective Nov. 8. After that, the four agencies/departments now administered by the ESA will report directly to the DOL secretary. Which looks to me like a ploy to eliminate the middle man, an assistant secretary of Labor,...

September 21, 2009

53 view(s)

Public Support for Unions Slips to Historic Low

EFCA NLRA

Good news comes from Gallup--and the good ol' American public itself--for those business owners and managers who fear that a tidal wave of unionization will increase their costs and rigidize (is that a word? how about comatose-ize?) their workforces. Public support for unions has plunged to the lowest depths ever--just 48 percent of Americans approve of unions, according to a recent Gallup head...

September 18, 2009

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No Inflation, So No Minimum Wage Hikes in 10 States

Add new tag minimum wage

Beleaguered employers who struggle to make ends meet in tough times can take a breather this year as ten states that tie their minimum wage into the inflation rate will be holding rates steady this year. Reason: There is no inflation; rather there's deflation. States use different statistical measures and time-frames (July to July, September to September) to gauge the inflation rate, but e...

September 17, 2009

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Blogger Tweets Her Way Out of Unwanted Surgery

Amid all the pop nonsense and rumor mongering and character assassinating going on at Twitter, one lucky blogger found the service useful in helping her avoid what she believed to be unnecessary surgery. Sarah Cortes, a technology consultant and blogger, found herself in a rural Pennsylvania hospital with a spine fracture. She claims the hospital did everything in its power to persuade her to g...

September 15, 2009

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World's Millionaire Ranks Thinned by Almost 20 Percent

millionaires Super Rich

The Grim Recession Reaper is out there weeding out the super rich by the bushel-full as the ranks of millionaires worldwide have fallen by 18 percent--22 percent in North America--while their assets plunged in one year by a whopping $13 trillion. Poor folk, they used to control about $105 trillion in wealth, but they were down to a paltry $92 trillion in 2008. The Boston Consulting Group, the f...

September 14, 2009

32 view(s)

U.S. Falls to Second Spot in World Economic Competitiveness

world business competitiveness

Switzerland has jumped ahead of the United States in terms of global business competitiveness, according to the annual survey of the World Economic Forum. The People's Republic of China has also moved into the top 30 for the first time. Though Switzerland and the U.S. both rank high on innovation and business climate, the U.S. is dropping like a lead balloon in the macroeconomic category, from ...

September 11, 2009

25 view(s)

Democrats Had Votes to Pass EFCA in July, But...

They couldn't muster the 60th vote, says Senator Tom Harkin, D.-Iowa, one of the sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which detractors have dubbed the Employee Forced Choice Act. The 60th vote needed to choke off a filibuster over the measure belonged to Ted Kennedy, but when Harkin phoned Kennedy's doctor to get the okay for him to spend three days in the capital, the good doc...

September 10, 2009

29 view(s)

A First? Labor Contract Dissolved in Municipal Bankruptcy

IBEW Vallejo

The City of Vallejo, Calif., has been in bankruptcy court for quite some time now, running up a legal tab of about $5 million, but it's made some progress in getting most of its labor contracts voluntarily renegotiated to lower its obligations. Not so the electrical workers' union, however. The group never agreed to a new contract, so U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael McManus simply diss...

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