Archive for the ‘Random Musings’ Category

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed  Rulemaking (ANPR) on developing a standard on combustible dust. OSHA has identified the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and its standard NFPA 652 as the basis for the new OSHA standard. An electronic comment form and instructions are available at www.regulations.gov in Docket [...]

Using the H1N1 pandemic as a selling point for mandating sick leave at work, Department of Labor spokespersons have been testifying in the Senate this week in support of the Healthy Families Act. The proposed bill would require employers to let employees accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, capped [...]

Don’t let the fox guard the hen house. According to "identity theft expert" Robert Siciliano: "As much as 70 percent of all identity theft is committed by someone with inside access to organizations such as corporations, banks, or government agencies, or by someone who has an existing relationship with the victim. People with access to [...]

An October survey by consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that 54 percent of employers plan to end salary freezes within six months, up from 33 percent in August. Some 49 percent, just shy of a majority, also said they plan to end hiring freezes in the same time frame. Overall, 56 percent of those surveyed [...]

Provisions in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was part of the stimulus package passed in February, created new security and breach rules for those covered by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996), but afforded everyone a six-month window to achieve full compliance that runs into 2010. [...]

The Obama administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) announced back in January that it was ending the requirement for unions to submit form LM-2 for financial disclosure purposes, and yesterday (Oct. 13, 2009) it made it official. The DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards yesterday published in the Federal Register a recission of the Bush-era rule that had [...]

Business cheered the Supreme Court’s decision in Gross v. F.B.L. Financial Services that set the bar higher for age discrimination claims by employees. Prior to Gross, employees need merely show in court that age was one factor in their adverse job decision (a firing or passing over for promotion, for instance). Now they must show [...]

Here’s a case that hinged on the statute of limitations for employment-based lawsuits–and how failure to post a basic federal and state labor law poster cost The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic CIty big time. Two Chinese national employees were dismissed by the hotel after one, a male chef, accused the other, a female room attendant, [...]

Sears Holdings Inc., without admitting any wrongdoing, has settled an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) claim for $6.2 million, the largest single fine in history according to the enforcing agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC claims the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer fired hundreds of employees who took workers’ compensation leave after being [...]

Worse, nearly 85 percent of those surveyed by Mansfield Communications said they feel pressured to come to work even if they come down with the H1N1 swine flu because of the tough economy. Nearly 70 percent also said their employers have communicated nothing and made no preparations for a possible swine flu resurgence. On a [...]