Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor Twenty-one states and several employer interest groups filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) September 20, alleging that the agency’s new overtime regulations exceed its authority. The suits, however, are not expected to have any success in the near future and employers would be well-served to be in […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)—the agency responsible for enforcing federal wage and hour law—has agreed to pay $7 million to settle claims that it failed to properly pay its own District of Columbia-area employees.
By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) did not properly explain a regulatory change made in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined. The department issued regulations exempting car dealership “service advisors” from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime requirements but those rules were not properly issued and therefore are […]
By Kate McGovern Tornone, BLR Editor Warning letters from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) can be challenged in court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled in Rhea Lana, Inc. v. Department of Labor, No. 15-5014 (D.C. Cir. June 3, 2016).
by Amanda Shelby On January 29, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency charged with administering and enforcing the civil rights laws that prohibit workplace discrimination, proposed a significant revision to its Employer Information Report (also known as the EEO-1). The federal government uses the EEO-1 to collect demographic data about an […]
by Emily L. Bristol To focus on the importance of the federal contractor community’s role in President Barack Obama’s commitment to enacting change with the “power of the pen,” Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez spoke in early August at the 2014 National Industry Liaison Group’s (NILG) national meeting in Washington, D.C. This was the first […]
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced on January 9 she will step down, but no signs of immediate change to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) policy or pending audits are apparent. President Barack Obama praised Solis’ term as DOL leader but named no possible successor. “Over her long career in public service—as an […]
By J. Robert Brame Social critics routinely criticize Western culture as being racist, sexist, xenophobic, and more recently, ageist and “lookist,” the latter being the widely asserted preference within our society for the more attractive over the less attractive, especially regarding women. Some of these “problems,” including racism, xenophobia, and ageism, have been enshrined in […]
In August, U.S. combat troops left Iraq, and President Barack Obama has said the military will start pulling troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. With this steady stream of military veterans coming back, inevitably some will end up in your application pools. Previously, we have discussed why hiring veterans makes sense. Now, the U.S. Department […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is expected to issue guidance on Wednesday that will grant expanded Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) rights to gay and lesbian employees. The development, however, may not be as dramatic as it sounds. Initial overnight reports made it appear that the Obama administration was expanding the FMLA to […]