Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

December 17, 2008

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ADA Amendments Act Will Greet the New Year

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), originally passed in 1990, sought to open up employment in the private sector to persons with physical or mental disabilities who were otherwise perfectly capable of performing the required duties. The ADA brought to private enterprise what the 1973 Rehabilitation Act did for federal agencies and firms carrying out federal contracts. Through the years...

December 16, 2008

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Old Approach to Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform

Recently, I wrote about a fresh, holistic approach to health care that could well serve as the basis for a real reform effort. However, more likely what will happen is the Feds will copy the Massachusetts model for health care reform--and get it all wrong. The problem with all announced reform plans is that the reformers want to make health both more affordable and more accessible, but if you...

December 15, 2008

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New Approach to Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform

One of the Google Alerts to which I subscribe is "health care reform," which seems to offer the liveliest discussion of late of any topic I subscribe to. For obvious reasons, of course, what with our incoming president putting health care on the top burner (right below economic stimulus, I would imagine). Everyone in what I read seems focused on how to maintain the current system of private...

December 11, 2008

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Straight Out of Dickens: Labor Strife in China

labor strife People's Republic of China

You might think it was the early phase of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain if you visited South China these days. Guangdong Province is the manufacturing heartland of China, and its factories supply a lot of what we Americans find at Wal-Mart and many other retail stores, especially toys. But things are getting tough in China, by many standards tougher than we have it here in the U....

December 11, 2008

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The Immaculate Recession: Men Feel the Most Pain

recession unemployment

I call it "The Immaculate Recession" because our current turmoil seems to be solidifying what should've been obvious a long ago:Â We are no longer an Industrial Revolution economy; we're the Information Age economy, and in that area, we still lead the world. That's why, when one surveys the pain going around in 2008, it's illustrative that 1.1 million men have lost their jobs this year while ...

December 10, 2008

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FMLA to Get Regulatory Makeover on Jan. 16

Family and Medical Leave Act FMLA

Mostly right, I guess, given the composition of the current administration. Much indeed has been made of Bush's so-called "midnight regulations," which no doubt face reversal under Obama and the Democratic Congress, but one set of regulations looks to be ensconced for a while. That would be the Final Rule issued Nov. 17, and taking effect next Jan. 16, to expand and clarify the Family and Me...

December 10, 2008

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FMLA, Minimum Wage Law Changes Abound in 2009

FMLA minimum wage servicemembers

I won't even begin to get into the changes to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) coming into force on Jan. 16, 2009, but as many have mentioned, the FMLA Final Rule (registered on Nov. 17) is a boon to families of service members and to employers, the latter of whom now get a better structure for dealing with FMLA requests. More on that perhaps another time. For now, let's look at changes co...

December 5, 2008

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Labor Law Changes Coming in 2009: A Preview

Barack Obama labor law

I've been following the News Alerts and other features at Personnel Concepts and note that big changes are coming labor's way next year even before the new president is sworn in on Jan. 20. First, there are a lot of clarifications and updates to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). For one, it now covers not only private-section employees but also service members' families, allowing them up ...

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Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

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