Category Archive

The following is excerpted from OSHA’s national newsite:

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Good Neighbor Care Centers LLC, doing business as Four Seasons Assisted Living in Coeur D’Alene, with three serious and two other-than-serious safety and health violations. OSHA conducted an inspection under the agency’s National Emphasis Program for Nursing and Residential Care Facilities.

Four Seasons was cited for three serious violations: failing to protect workers from musculoskeletal injuries to the back,

 » Read more about: Coeur D’Alene’s Four Seasons Assisted Living Cited by OSHA  »

A federal jury has returned a unanimous verdict awarding a total of $20,251,963 to eight former employees of Four Amigos Travel, Inc. and Top Dog Travel, Inc., a former Florida vacation agency with offices in Largo, Orlando and Lake Lauderdale, Fla., who suffered sexual harassment and retaliation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, travel agency owner Ronald Schlom and male managers working at Four Amigos / Top Dog’s Largo facility subjected a class of female employees to egregious sexual harassment on a daily basis.

 » Read more about: EEOC Wins over $20 Million Jury Verdict for Eight Employees  »

I hope that you can join us on June 13, 2013, for our latest educational opportunity: “If it Quacks Like a Duck: Properly Classifying Employees and Independent Contractors.”

The improper classification of employees as independent contractors may be one of the most common errors that employers make. The Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service have recognized this, have teamed up, allotted additional enforcement resources, and are dramatically increasing their enforcement efforts.

 » Read more about: Sperry Law Presents: “If it Quacks Like a Duck: Properly Classifying Employees and Independent Contractors”  »

Last month, I wrote about the NLRB’s decision to appeal the Noel Canning case to the U.S. Supreme Court.  In Noel Canning, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that President Obama’s 2012 NLRB appointments were unconstitutional.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1120:  Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Management Relations Act.   H.R. 1120 requires the NLRB to cease all activity that requires a quorum and prohibits the NLRB from enforcing any action taken on or after January 4,

 » Read more about: Wrangling over the President’s 2012 NLRB “Recess” Appointments Continues in Congress  »

President Obama’s 2014 budget proposal includes increased funding for nearly every federal employment agency.  Below is a summary of the proposed increases over 2012:

• Department of Labor–$12.1 billion, up $20 million
• Wage and Hour Division–$243 million, up $17 million
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program–$108 million, up $3 million
• OSHA–$571 million, up $4 million
• Office of Labor Management Standards–$47 million, up $6 million
• Employee Benefits Security Administration–$189 million
• National Labor Relations Board–$285 million,

 » Read more about: Administration Proposes Funding Boosts for Federal Employment Agencies  »

On December 4, 2012, the Boise City Council passed an anti-discrimination law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment and in other matters.  Since then, I have had a flurry of questions about the new law and decided to post the basics here.

The provisions related to employment impose potential imprisonment and a fine for:

Denying “any other person because of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression the right to work:

 » Read more about: Boise Employers: Go Directly to Jail, Do NOT Pass Go  »

Senate Bill 1098 was signed by Governor Otter last week and is effective as of March 22, 2013.  The new law relates to educational professional’s contract bargaining and requires most of the negotiations to be open to the public.  It also subjects the negotiations and any documents involved in the negotiations to public disclosure under the public writings disclosure laws.

 » Read more about: Idaho Senate Bill 1098 Signed into Law  »

On March 20, 2013, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) reintroduced legislation originally introduced in 2004 into the House and Senate. The 49-page Healthy Families Act would mandate that employers provide “paid sick time so that [employees] can address their own health needs and the health needs of their families.”

In what appears to be a further extension of the FMLA, the proposed bill would allow workers to earn up to 56 hours of paid sick leave: one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.

 » Read more about: Healthy Families Act Reintroduced to House and Senate  »

While on vacation in Australia, a man made the news when video showed him saving some children from a shark on the beach.  The problem?  He and his wife were both on sick leave from work.  His employer took exception to his method of recovery–shark wrangling–and terminated his employment.

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, certain employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for their serious health condition.  

 » Read more about: Medical Leave Probably Shouldn’t Involve a Vacation to the Beach  »

On March 13, 2013, Governor Otter signed House Bill 163 into law.  The purpose of the new law is to:

• provide for the orderly business operations for school districts and public charter schools with regard to setting dates certain for confirmation of personnel employment status at a time so as to allow for the board’s full consideration in setting the school’s annual fiscal budget; and
• provide for the cost saving and time saving process of allowing for electronic delivery of standard contracts to professional employees while still assuring receipt of the electronic delivery prior to taking negative action for non-response.

 » Read more about: Governor Otter Signs Educational Employee Contracts Bill  »