Articles by Girish Anand

June 19, 2013
33 view(s)

Georgia, North Carolina E-Verify Mandates Take Effect July 1

Both Georgia and North Carolina passed laws in 2011 that phased in use of the E-Verify online employment eligibility verification system run by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Beginning July 1, private employers with more than 10 employees in Georgia must use E-Verify to qualify new hires, and on the same day in North Carolina, employers with more than 25 on staff mu...
June 16, 2013
41 view(s)

HHS Releases 2013 Alzheimer's Disease Update

The Department Health and Human Services (HHS) has released what it calls the "National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease: 2013 Update" a follow-up to the initial plan released in May 2012.  The plan, ordered under the 2011 National Alzheimer’s Project Act, includes: finding ways to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025; enhancing car...
June 15, 2013
71 view(s)

Gordon Ramsay's Personal Kitchen Nightmares Courtesy of the FLSA

Gordon Ramsay, star chef and TV host of "Kitchen Nightmares," "Masterchef" and other shows, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit for alleged wage-and-hour and break-period violations at his Fat Cow restaurant in Los Angeles, RadarOnline reports. The legal action was filed on Thursday, June 13, according to Radar. “During the Class Period, Defendants ...
June 15, 2013
26 view(s)

EEOC Fires New Salvos on Criminal Background Check 'Abuses'

Much like recent activity against violations of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), with one lawsuit settled and another pending, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has opened up a new legal front, lodging two lawsuits against companies accused of discrimination based on criminal background checks. In 2012, the commission issued guidelines regarding the u...
June 14, 2013
30 view(s)

4th Circuit Court of Appeals Concurs with D.C. Court's NLRA Poster Rejection

A remaining case brought against the mandate to post a National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) Employee Rights Poster -- basically, a pro-union notification -- has been decided by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which rejected the mandate and, in so doing, echoed a ruling in May by the Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. The three-judge Fourth Circuit panel ...
June 14, 2013
41 view(s)

Court Busts 'Black Swan' Filmmakers for Using Interns as Employees

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy – with interns fresh on college breaks coming to your company’s aid, right? Wrong! Often wrong, anyway. The Department of Labor (DOL) has been on the lookout for companies that use interns as unpaid employees – in other words, for companies that disguise work as internship “training.” The new watchfulness of th...
June 12, 2013
41 view(s)

Second GINA Lawsuit Filed by EEOC

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) became law in 2009, but it took a few years for enforcement to catch up, which it did just recently. In the first lawsuit based on GINA, which the company settled for $50,000 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the enforcing agency, the triggering event was the company’s asking for family medical history during a ...
June 10, 2013
59 view(s)

DOL Now Targeting 'Systemic' Wage-and-Hour Violations

The Department of Labor (DOL) is now enjoying a 71-percent success rate in ferreting out wage-and-hour violators by targeting industry- and geography-based culprits rather than waiting for complaints from employees at individual sites. The DOL is calling its new approach "directed investigations," which it instituted in 2012 after observing an "epidemic" of minimum-wag...
June 8, 2013
23 view(s)

Oregon Joins Parade Against Employer Requests for Social Media Passwords

States are rushing to restrict employer requests for social media access from new hires and employees, and Oregon has now joined the growing list of states banning employers from prying into personal accounts. In a law signed May 22 and taking effect Jan. 1, 2014, Oregon is making it an unlawful employment practice for employers to compel employees or applicants for employment to provide ...
June 7, 2013
33 view(s)

OSHA Budget Justification Shows Emphasis on Inspections, Enforcement

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) yesterday published a 2014 Budget Justification to make its case for an upcoming fiscal 2014 budget of $570,519,000. The justification cited a recent Science magazine article that claimed safety inspections result in safer workplaces and save companies' big dollars in workers' compensation costs. The Justification specified ...