Oregon Says Uber Drivers Are Employees

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian ruled this week in a four-page opinion that Uber drivers are employees and not independent contractors. “Oregon’s worker protections are in place for a reason,” Avakian wrote in a statement. “When corporations misclassify an...

Judge Nixes St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike

St. Louis tried to hike its minimum wage from the state-mandated $7.65 an hour to $8.25 an hour, but it ran afoul of a recently passed state law barring municipalities from setting their own minimum wage. This week Judge Steven Ohmer of the St. Louis Circuit Court,...

DOL Rule Protects Foreign-Born Sheepherders Working Here

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced a Final Rule on the employment of foreign workers in jobs related to the herding of livestock on the range, including the herding of sheep and goats. The regulation, the H-2A Herder Final Rule, implements a methodology to...

OSHA Chief Decries Underfunding

Testifying before Congress, David Michaels, chief of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), said his agency is so underfunded that it can inspect each American business only once every 140 years. Facing a further 7 percent reduction in the OSHA...