Articles by Girish Anand

March 18, 2011

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DOL Opens Web Portal for Regulation Feedback

The Department of Labor (DOL) has created a Web tool to solicit public commentary on "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review," the Obama initiative issued on Jan. 18, 2011. The new portal is for comments on existing DOL regulations and reporting requirements, with the goal of streamlining and simplifying. The DOL announcement gives these guidelines: In addressing these questions...

March 17, 2011

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OMB Approves ADAAA Final Regulations, Publication Next

ADA ADAAA EEOC OMB

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reportedly has approved the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed final regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA). The EEOC, if this is the case, is free to publish the final regulations in the Federal Register and begin enforcing their provisions after a stated period of time. The ADAAA was written, passed and signed into law to ...

March 16, 2011

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EEOC Recovers Record Claims from Employers

EEOC

In addition to reporting a record number of discrimination charges during the last fiscal year (nearly 100,000), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) secured more than $400 million in monetary benefits from employers–the highest level of monetary relief ever obtained by the EEOC through its combined enforcement, mediation and litigation programs. In order t...

March 14, 2011

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EBSA Hearings on ACA Auto-Enrollment Mandate

ACA DOL EBSA PPACA

The Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) will hold public hearings on April 6 to discuss the automatic enrollment provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). PPACA inserts a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requiring businesses with 200 or more employees to automatically enroll all employees into a health plan, but new FLSA section 18A will no...

March 14, 2011

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ADA Design Standards to Change on March 15

ADA ADAAA Department of Justice Final Rule

The U.S. Department of Justice's amended Final Rule concerning the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) takes effect tomorrow, March 15, 2011, replacing the 1991 act's Standards for Accessible Design with a more vigorous 2010 set of standards. The 2010 Standards for Accessible Design provide new specifications for a wide range of architectural access features, including public stairwel...

March 11, 2011

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OSHA Clarifies Who Must Pay for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

OSHA PPE

Following a series of court and review commission decisions regarding personal protective equipment (PPE), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued guidance on who must pay for each type of PPE. The relevant document, Guidance for Personal Equipment in General Industry, took effect on Feb. 15, 2011, clarifying final regulations issued in 2007 and 2009. The prior guidance req...

March 9, 2011

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EEO Seeks Public Comment on Regulations

EEOC

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is requesting public commentary for a review it is launching into all its regulations to determine which "should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, to make the EEOC's regulatory program more effective and/or less burdensome." The review follows an executive order issued by President Obama for all government agencies ...

March 8, 2011

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HHS Imposes First-Ever Fine for HIPAA Violations

When the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), charged with enforcing the privacy and security rules of HIPAA, recently levied a $4.3-million fine on Cignet Health of Maryland, it marked the first time a HIPAA fine had been issued. This was swiftly followed by a $1-million settlement with Massachusetts General Hospital for an employee's negligenc...

March 5, 2011

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Spider-Man' Gets Caught in Web of OSHA Violations

OSHA Spider-Man

The $65-million Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, beset by spidery actors falling from the heights and landing on the stage from the beginning of rehearsals, is now facing $12,500 in fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which issued four citations on Friday (March 4, 2011). That's not all. In February, the New York State Department of Labor cite...

March 4, 2011

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New York Ups the Ante on Wage Theft

wage theft WTPA

New York has augmented its already-existing New York Labor Law Section 195 with a more demanding set of requirements contained in the recently enacted Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA). WTPA takes effect on April 12, 2011. Section 195 had already required employers to inform their employees in writing of their rate of pay, regular pay day, and overtime rate, and further required employers to ret...

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About author

Girish Anand

Recent Articles

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

U.S. Department of Labor Officially Restores Prior Overtime Exemption Rules

On May 14th, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it has officially rescinded the 2024 overtime exemption rules. Specifically, the WHD published a technical amendment to restore previous 2019 regulations that dictated overtime exemptions for...

NLRB General Counsel Takes Action to Tackle Current Case Backlog

On May 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey announced the bulk transfer of thousands of labor practice cases. Specifically, this action fulfills an initiative signed by the NLRB General Counsel earlier this year. Overall, the initiative...

Privacy Agency Invites Comments from Businesses on the CCPA’s Usage of Personal Data

Recently, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a call for comments on the current state of personal data collection under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Specifically, the invitation to deliver remarks was issued on April 20th, 2026. The information provided by the...

DOL Proposes New Joint Employer Rule To Unify Standards Under Federal Labor Laws

In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to establish a single, clear standard for determining when joint-employer status applies under three major federal laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal...

DOL Updates Enforcement Approach for Employee Benefit Plans: What Employers Should Know

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a significant change in its enforcement of employee benefit plan rules. The DOL will now focus more closely on serious violations that harm workers and retirees, meaning compliant employers may face less scrutiny under the updated approach.

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Articles by Girish Anand