The Paycheck Fairness Act now under consideration by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee was introduced by then-Senator Hillary Clinton in January 2009. The House of Representatives approved its version shortly thereafter, and now, after a long hibernation, it has roared back to life in the Senate more than a year later. For employers, [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which took effect Nov. 21, 2009, not only forbids employers and health insurers from collecting individuals’ genetic information and using that in their decision-making; it also prohibits the solicitation of family medical histories, again to prevent discrimination in decision-making. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, however, GINA could [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has approved the nominations of three Obama appointees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), including that of proposed Chair Jacqueline Berrien. The others approved were Chai Feldblum and Victoria Lipnic, who upon full Senate Approval will join current member Constance Barker and Acting Chairman Stuart Ishimaru, [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a new version of its "Equal Employment Opportunity Is the Law" poster that incorporates new regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), along with new contact information. With GINA taking effect for employers on Nov. 21, 2009, it is imperative to make [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The EEOC and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will hold four town hall meetings throughout the nation to share information and gather comments about proposed regulations in the recently enacted Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act. Each town hall meeting will consist of two sessions, one for disability advocates and one for the employer community, offering opportunities [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has codified the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into its Compliance Manual, incorporating the law’s standard that the statute of limitation on discriminatory pay practices resets each time a paycheck is issued, regardless of when the initial discriminatory pay decision was made. The 2009 Fair Pay Act, to recount, [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is so concerned about the rise in age-discrimination filings that it recently held a public hearing on the matter. "Age discrimination is an equal opportunity plague," acting EEOC Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru said. "It is not limited to members of a particular class or a particular race. It is [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Turns out that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) borrowed a page out of the private sector and reclassified employees as exempt when they should’ve remained non-exempt employees eligible for overtime pay–a clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Affected employees didn’t like being awarded comp time instead of time-and-a-half and filed a [...]
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