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Earlier this year, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued opinion letters offering employers guidance regarding certain wage and hour matters under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). While these opinion letters are nonbinding, courts often defer to these letters when presented with similar issues. The letters also offer employers valuable insight into the DOL’s interpretation […]
In a recent meeting with President Vicente Fox of Mexico, a delegation of American senators led by Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) pledged to initiate a new guest worker program that would bring Mexican workers into the U.S. and effectively grant amnesty to as many as 7 million Mexicans currently working here illegally. According to Gramm, […]
Norman Hutton, a diabetic who worked for Portland, Ore. based chlorine manufacturer Elf Atochem North America Inc., sued for disability discrimination after he was terminated following a series of on-the-job hypoglycemic episodes. Elf claimed it didn’t have to keep Hutton in his job because his condition created a direct safety threat to the workplace—and now […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has unveiled a new initiative to boost enforcement of the wage bias laws. The agency will create a new task force to help EEOC investigators analyze equal pay issues when employees file charges. The government is also providing additional educational resources through a new equal pay page on its […]
According to the results of a new survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, business owners and benefits managers whose companies currently pay for at least some health-insurance benefits expect healthcare costs to jump an additional 12 percent over the next year–and they will ask their employees to pay an average of 21 percent of […]
Restaurant Runners Inc., which contracts with restaurants to deliver prepared meals to customers’ homes, has shelled out $15,200 in civil penalties to settle Department of Labor (DOL) charges that the company violated child labor laws. The DOL said Restaurant Runner, which has offices in Santa Clarita and Bakersfield, allowed minors to work as delivery drivers, […]
In California, meal periods of no less than 30 minutes must be provided for an employee who works at least five hours, and two 30-minute meal periods are required for work shifts of more than 10 hours. Are employers responsible for making sure employees take their meal breaks? Or can employers just offer the meal […]
According to one columnist, you really can’t fail in creating a workplace wellness program. Here’s a tool to help you do it. If one thing impressed us while writing our recent article on new HIPAA rules for workplace wellness programs, it was this quote from Indiana employment law attorney and business columnist Jim Jorgensen, as […]
The Internal Revenue Service has postponed indefinitely a plan to begin collecting Social Security taxes on two types of stock options. Industry groups had complained that the proposed 15.3% tax would be detrimental to incentive stock options and employee stock purchase plans. The payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare, would be divided between […]