The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”) recently released an advisory addressing employer and employee obligations “in the event of possible worker exposure to the Ebola virus.” Employers who believe that there is possible worker exposure to Ebola virus must implement various OSHA standards as part of a comprehensive worker protection program. The question many employers now face is: when does our workforce meet the threshold of “possible worker exposure” that would trigger implementation of these standards?
Labor Unions Want Your Email System Too!
If you have a union in your workplace, or if unions have tried to organize workers in your workplace, you know that unions need ways to communicate with your employees. Before the current digital age, unions relied primarily on communicating through informational picketing and leafleting, posters and mailings, and individual and group meeting to encourage unionization or to communicate with members and represented employees. Today, with the modern workplace and internet-connected workers, communications can be conducted far more quickly, efficiently, cheaply and often more effectively through electronic means, such as email. But historically, unions have not been permitted access to company email systems. The current rule is that “employees have no statutory right to use the[ir] Employer’s e-mail system” for non-work-related purposes. If unions and the current Presidential administration get their way, that all might change.
President Employs More Executive Measures to Press Equal Pay Agenda
Yesterday, President Obama signed an executive order and issued a presidential memorandum pressing his equal pay agenda. The executive order establishes that workers cannot be prevented from discussing their pay with other employees or applicants. Its declared target is to support efforts to eradicate gender-based pay disparities. Its aim though is probably more akin to using a hand-held mirror to shoot over your shoulder at the target.
Suit Filed to Block OFCCP Rule on Goal for Hiring Disabled Workers
On November 19, 2013, a trade association representing construction-related firms, Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to block a final rule from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) that would require federal contractors to establish a seven-percent goal for the employment of workers with disabilities.
Is your business compliant with Federal Labor Laws? DOL may soon have an app for that
The DOL recently announced that it is sponsoring a contest to develop a smartphone app that would allow customers to determine whether a certain business is compliant with federal labor laws.
OSHA, EEOC and other DOL-managed agencies often insist on a condition that resolutions of matters include a public notice on that agency’s website that denotes the agency’s prowess in securing a penalty or fine. If the DOL insists on such a condition as a means to provide data for this smartphone application, employers should consider the impact of this future recurring data affecting its scorecard on the app with its customers, clients or vendors.