The OFCCP is tasked with monitoring compliance with federal labor laws and regulations by contractors working on federal government contracts.

In announcing its "unprecedented initiative," the OFCCP said it will increase monitoring of contractors’ self-audit obligations and also will target two industries for random audits. It will then re-audit the two industries in fiscal 2013 to evaluate recidivism rates (to see if they’re back-sliding).

The agency will also vigorously pursue affirmative action and fair pay violations by contractors in accordance with President Obama’s vow in the State of the Union Address to "crack down on violations of equal pay laws." As part of that effort, the OFCCP plans to update its regulations to strengthen affirmative action requirements for covered veterans, for individuals with disabilities, and for construction workers.

Contractors, a good way to start on ensuring your full compliance is by posting mandated OFCCD notifications at all your work sites. Get your copy of Personnel Concepts’ All-In-One Federal Contracts Poster today.

Evidently reading the Obamaic tea leaves during the 2008 campaign, WalMart set in motion a plan to market Electronic Health Record (EHR) computer systems to physicians, and in so doing has come up with a system that shaves 50 percent off the price of its competitors.

Using its Sam’s Club operation, the Arkansas giant will pair Dell computers with software from eClinicalWorks and will throw into the mix installation, maintenance and training.

Cost will be $25,000 for the first physician in an office and $10,000 for each additional. Yearly upkeep fees will run $4,000 to $6,500.

Recall for a moment how the recent stimulus package (also called “porkulus” by many commentators) included $19 billion in subsidies for EHRs, and you’ll see how savvy WalMart was in preparing for an upcoming opportunity.

With McDonald’s, WalMart has also been about the only bright spot on the economic front since the Great Crash of September 2008 when Timothy Geithner and Hank Paulsen let Lehman Brothers go under (while paying the bonuses for AIG, Merrill Lynch and scads of other institutions they did decide to save), so you have to give the much-maligned (by Obama’s very own supporters) company some credit.

“If Wal-Mart is successful, this could be a game-changer,” observed Dr. David J. Brailer, former national coordinator for health information technology in the Bush administration.

Like I said at the top, you don’t get to be Top Dawg without having some chops–and using them to eat up your competition.

The implication here is pretty obvious: The Democrats decided to expand their favorite federal programs (some implemented by the states with fed dollars) while masquerading the whole thing as a “job-creating” stimulus package.

The question remains whether the targeted projects will “create or save” three million jobs (I also heard that Obama had raised that promised figure to four million). I’ve got a feeling that the $146.2 will just go to support unionized workers who are already working. At any rate, how does one prove that something “saves” four million jobs?

Here are the areas where money will be spent on job-creating or -saving projects: 1) Create a new “smart” power grid (to replace our current “dumb” one, I guess), $30 billion; 2) Repair and make energy efficient public housing, $6.3 billion; 3) Extend broadband services, $7 billion (again, does this create or save jobs?); 4) Implement electronic health records (EHRs), $19 billion; 5) Modernize roads and bridges, $29 billion; 6) Improve public transit and rail, $16.4 billion; 7) Restore lean water and modernize flood control, $18 billion; and 8 and last) Modernize federal and public buildings, $9.5 billion (again, already-existing union workers who will now get triple-time).

I guess that’s why White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel warned early on that “this is no time to waste a good crisis.”

*N.B.: I loosely included the health IT’s portion, $19 billion, but as I further thought about it, this really doesn’t create any jobs; it just goes to buy equipment and services that are already available. If I delete this sum, the total going to “jobs” is reduced to $127.2, or 16 percent.

First, under the Rahm Emanuel rule, all government agencies have been forced to place on hold any directives that hadn’t taken hold by Jan. 20, inauguration day of the new administration.

This has affected important labor issues such as the E-Verify system and the change in documentation for employment verification. You can read about these in the News Alerts section of Personnel Concepts.

This past Friday, Obama wielded his pen to crack the union code, or rather the Bushian anti-union code, by reversing some Bush decrees.

One reversal told federal contractors they could not (as in DON’T) post notifications of workers’ rights to withhold the portion of their union dues that go to political activity. A second mandated that federal contractors could not use federal payments to support or oppose unionization efforts (the thrust here is obvious since no employer would bother to pay for pro-union activities). The third ukase forces successor government contractors to offer jobs first (only?) to workers employed by the predecessor contractor.

All three edicts reverse Bush, who reversed Clinton, who was either original in these or reversed the elder Bush. Either way, you get the idea–and we all get to pay for their caprice when things backfire or produce unintended consequences.

Lilly Ledbetter, who was the subject of that Supreme Court ruling, will be there when Obama inks the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law.

The legislation reverses the court’s decision in the Ledbetter case that the 180-day statute of limitations on pay discrimination cases starts ticking when the initial decision is made to pay unfairly. The Fair Pay Act amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act and mandates that the statute starts ticking again every time a paycheck is issued to the victim.

(Pay discrimination is defined as an employee’s being paid less for the substantially same job and same set of job responsibilities, figuring in length of service, etc., based on age, race, gender and factors besides experience.)

Opponents fear that this will just open up the spigot for lawyers to march an endless stream of employees into court and win two years of backwardly adjusted pay.

They’re probably right.

N.B.: Catch this, the law is worded to “take effect as if enacted on May 28, 2007.” This is curious for a couple of reasons. First, I believe there’s a Constitutional ban on ex post facto laws (backdated laws), and this date is one day before the Supreme Court heard the Ledbetter case. Evidently, it’s been so written as to enable Lilly to go back to the Supreme Court and reopen her case. If so, I hope the court rules that the start date is unconstitutional.

First, there are a lot of clarifications and updates to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). For one, it now covers not only private-section employees but also service members’ families, allowing them up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave in certain situations. (Everyone else gets up to 12 weeks, which can be taken intermittently.)

The so-called FMLA Final Rule also tightens up employer and employee communication standards. Gone are the days when an employee could disappear for a length of time and return to announce s/he had been on FMLA leave. Everything has to be done just as sick days and vacation requests–no more disappearing acts. For further details, read this.

The new FMLA regulations take effect on Jan. 16, 2009, but on New Year’s Day we’ll all be greeted with the implementation of the Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA).

One labor lawyer whose advice I read announced, after reading the ADAAA, only half in jest that everyone now qualifies for a disability. From my reading of parts of the ADAAA, I would say that, yes, it’s now much simpler to seek “accommodations” for just about anything physical or mental. I just wonder how far some employees will go to test the limits of these workplace accommodations and looser definitions of disability.

For more details, read this.

Again, thanks to Personnel Concepts for keeping me updated on all these issues. The alerts and other information are all free at their Web site, www.PersonnelConcepts.com.