Tag: Public Employees

Obama takes steps toward requiring paid sick leave

by Tammy Binford Is it a sensible plan to boost productivity and give workers the help they deserve, or is it an unaffordable, unfair mandate on already overburdened employers? President Barack Obama’s announcement of a push to pass a paid sick leave law is likely to garner both reactions. Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to […]

Louisiana’s scaled-down pay law goes into effect August 1

by David Theard Louisiana’s Equal Pay for Women Act (EPWA), which applies only to public-sector employers, goes into effect August 1. The new law affirms that paying unequal wages to public employees on the basis of sex is discriminatory and violates public policy. The original bill would have covered both public- and private-sector employees, but […]

Ohio Joins Wisconsin, Idaho in Passing Union-Curbing Legislation

Another state has secured victory in the battle to balance struggling state budgets by restricting collective bargaining rights for public-sector employees. Ohio Governor John Kasich has approved Senate Bill (SB) 5, a bill that is in some ways more restrictive than the highly publicized and protested Wisconsin bill that passed earlier this year. The bill […]

Legislation Special Report: Health And Safety

Smoking by Public Employees Under existing law, neither employees nor members of the public may smoke inside a state-owned or state-occupied building, or a state-leased and state-occupied building, or within five feet of the main exit or entrance of these buildings, or in a state-owned passenger vehicle.