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Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis has announced the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) regulatory agenda for 2010, saying, “Protecting wages and working conditions for workers is key to the mission of our department, and ensuring that workers have a voice on the job is also vital.” The agenda is expected to satisfy many union demands. Below is a summary of the DOL’s priorities by department.
Wage and Hour Division
read more…
The federal Transportation Department’s announcement banning texting by drivers of commercial vehicles is sure to make employers think twice about their policies even if they don’t have trucks or buses on the road.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the announcement January 26 that an interpretation of standing rules prohibits texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as big trucks and buses. The ban, effective immediately, subjects violators to civil or criminal penalties up to $2,750.
After a 5-4 ruling delivered January 21 by the U.S. Supreme Court, corporations and labor unions will now be permitted to spend as much as they wish on independent activities in support or opposition of presidential and congressional candidates. The restrictions on campaign expenditures had been in place for decades.
In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Court’s majority held that these limits are an unconstitutional restraint of free speech and a form of censorship and that the government lacked a legitimate basis on which to restrict independent corporate campaign expenditures. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that “[t]he government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.” Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito joined Kennedy in the majority.
With news of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in a special election held to fill the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s term, many employers are wondering what the future holds for health care reform. The answer is, it’s still coming.
Last year, the Senate and House each passed their own health care reform bills with significant differences. Typically, the next step would be for the House and Senate to reconcile their two bills. Although Brown supports the 2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, he opposes both the House and Senate health care reform bills and is expected to become the crucial 41st Republican vote, enabling the minority party to filibuster any reconciled bill that comes before the Senate. Earlier Wednesday, the President announced that the Senate won’t rush to pass a reconciled bill before Brown is seated. However, despite reports to the contrary, health care reform clearly isn’t dead. Democrats are still weighing a number of options.
The White House reportedly reached a deal with organized labor on Thursday over the controversial “Cadillac” tax found in the U.S. Senate’s health care reform bill. The original provision in the Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) creates a tax on employer-sponsored high-end “Cadillac” coverage. Under the original provision, the tax would have been 40 percent of the “excess benefit” of plans that exceed the thresholds of $8,500 for individual coverage and $23,000 for family coverage.
Audio Conference: Health Care Reform Is Here: Impact and Answers for Employers offered April 22, May 6 and May 20
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) just released updated COBRA Model Notices that reflect the COBRA subsidy extension that was part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010. The new COBRA subsidy legislation extends the original federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and requires employers to provide notice to certain current and future COBRA beneficiaries that details the premium subsidy extension created by the new legislation.
The EBSA’s COBRA page now has several new model notices available, including: read more…
According to the New York Times, President Barack Obama has reportedly decided to renominate Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Last summer, the President nominated Becker, Mark Pearce, and Brian Hayes to the U.S. Senate to be members of the NLRB. In December, Becker’s nomination was returned to the White House for reconsideration after Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) put a hold on it. (The Senate held over the nominations of Pearce and Hayes until its 2010 session.)
Becker has stirred up the most controversy out of the three nominees since the business community and Republicans are strongly opposed to his nomination. He currently serves as associate general counsel to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the largest unions in the United States, and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a voluntary federation of national and international labor unions.
According to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announcement yesterday, 93,277 workplace discrimination charges, the second highest level of charges ever filed with the agency, were filed in 2009. Additionally, the EEOC obtained over $376 million in monetary relief for discrimination victims in 2009.
The EEOC received a record high number of private-sector charges alleging disability, religion, and/or national origin discrimination and the second highest number of age discrimination charges on record. Discrimination charges based on race, retaliation, and sex continued to be the type of charges that were filed most frequently. (In 2009, 33,579 race discrimination charges, 33,613 retaliation charges, and 28,028 sex-based discrimination charges were filed.)
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