Articles by Girish Anand

September 3, 2009
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Low-Wage American Workers Report Widespread Abuse

minimum wage overtime wage abuse wage theft
A study done by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment has turned up some startling statistics revealing persistent wage abuse. Surveying 4,300 low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, the consortium found that: 26 percent reported being paid less than the minimum wage; 76 perc...
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September 2, 2009
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New User-Friendly USCIS Home Page: See It Here First

New USCIS home page sneak peak
You can say you saw it here first (all except for the red border, which is a result of using Vista's snipping tool). It's the revised United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) home page, redesigned to make it more user friendly for finding forms and checking on one's immigration processing status. If you want to see more page views along with explanatory text, check out this U...
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September 2, 2009
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Pfizer to Pay Record Criminal Fine

Pfizer Pharmacia and Upjohn
Pharma-giant Pfizer has agreed to pay the largest criminal fine in U.S. history--$1.195 billion--for marketing its drug Bextra for unapproved "off-label" uses. The company ran afoul of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act when it chose to market Bextra for purposes other than the anti-inflammatory treatment for which it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Along with subsidiary P...
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September 2, 2009
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Despite Company Bankruptcy, Court Finds Managers Liable for Wages

back wages bankruptcy
The decision may not even resonate outside the court's jurisdiction, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that individual managers can be held liable for former employees' back wages even after a company has gone bankrupt. In a Nevada case, Boucher v. Shaw, former employees sued the CEO and CFO of the bankrupt parent company for back wages. After a District Court dismissal, the Nev...
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September 1, 2009
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September's Here, and So (Probably) Is E-Verify (Finally)

Despite the united efforts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and politicians trolling for the future votes of (suddenly amnestied) illegal immigrants, the Department of Labor is implementing the Bush-era mandate for contractors to use E-Verify. Everything E-Verify (unless delayed again or even canceled) thus takes hold a week from today, on Sept. 8, 2009. E-Verify is an online system that checks...
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August 28, 2009
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FLSA Misconceptions About Off-the-Clock Work

DOL FLSA off-the-clock overtime
We've just posted a new white paper in that section on the Personnel Concepts new Web site entitled "Popular Misconceptions," in which we examine the ingenious ways that employers seek to stay off the overtime-pay radar of the Department of Labor (DOL). Let's look at one of those methods: Say Employer A sends 20 hourly employees to training on a Saturday. He calls it "voluntary," but the emplo...
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August 24, 2009
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Welcome to the New Personnel Concepts Blog

If you're here, you probably visited the redesigned Personnel Concepts Web site and saw a blog tab and hit it. Anywhere, you're here, so a few words of welcome are in order. For months, we've been blogging with Blogger and WordPress and experimenting with every wild thought on labor law and OSHA (and a few other topics) to try to drum up some interest in a rather mundane set of topics. In fac...
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August 5, 2009
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Site Opposing EFCA Creates 'Card Checked the Game'

card check Card Checked the Game EFCA
The site called "What Is EFCA?" is pretty gnarly looking, but it's offering a new take on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) with a somewhat interactive presentation called "Card Checked the Game." Behind the site and game, evidently, are two groups called Americans for Tax Reform and Alliance for Worker Freedom. No idea who they are.
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July 30, 2009
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Has the Republic Windows Recovery Door Slammed Shut?

ARRA Joe Biden Republic Windows and Doors Serious Materials
Vice President Joe Biden even visited the factory to proclaim a great victory for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the new owners pledged to hire back everyone laid off in December 2008. However, despite plans for Republic Windows and Doors to be back in full operation by May or June 2009, the Chicago-based factory has so far managed to hire only 15 or so of the 240 worke...
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July 24, 2009
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Number of Mass Layoffs Recede in June from Record High

Bureau of Labor Statistics mass layoffs WARN
Mass layoffs of 50 or more employees receded in June to 2,763 events, down 170 from May's record high. In all, the June layoffs resulted in 279,231 new filings for unemployment insurance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced on July 23. Thus, over the year so far, the number of mass layoff events has increased by 1,046 and initial claims from those events by 104,483. From the start of...
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