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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) agenda to increase enforcement, which includes items such as ergonomics, noise standards, and an injury and illness prevention program, seems destined to run into resistance from the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s fairly clear that changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act […]
First of a four part series Whether bedbugs happen to invade an office, a warehouse, school, library, hotel, or restaurant, they can be quite difficult to find and eradicate, more so than in the typical home. “In most cases [at work], there is no bed or sleeping area in which to focus a search for […]
The federal Department of Labor has launched a new “Bridge to Justice” program that connects workers with legal beefs to local attorney referral networks. The program launches today. In the words of the DOL:
The following 7 deadly sins were explained by Sandra Rappaport, Esq., an attorney at the San Francisco office of law firm Hanson Bridgett LLP. Rappaport made her remarks at ERI’s recent 2010 California Employment Law Update conference, held at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.
An old maxim says “never talk about religion or politics,” but how realistic (or even desirable) is that advice? And as the worlds of religion and politics collide, talk of one often crosses the line into speech about the other. While employers don’t want to trample on anyone’s right of free speech, they also can’t […]
Earlier this year, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), which is responsible for ensuring that entities doing business with the federal government take affirmative action as required by Executive Order 11246, released its fiscal year 2011 budget request and enforcement initiatives. OFCCP director Patricia A. Shiu said she plans to implement full-scale aggressive […]
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on an individual’s religion. Unless, that is, your employer is a religious organization. When three former employees sued World Vision, the question was whether the Christian charity qualified for the exemption. In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which […]
According to the 2009 Hate Crime Statistics report released by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the number of hate crimes reported in 2009 fell about 15% from the previous year. Participating local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 6,604 incidents — down from 7,783 reported incidents in 2008 — involving 7,789 offenses as […]
We knew social media was going to be a big part of 2011’s HR landscape, but the NLRB has just upped the ante considerably. It says that an ambulance service illegally terminated an employee who posted negative remarks about her supervisor on her personal Facebook page, because the posting was “concerted activity.” The complaint also […]
Is it really possible to find a state of “paradise” or “bliss” at work when everything seems chaotic and you’re scared to death about the security of your job? Absolutely! says Vicki Hess. Now more than ever, she says, Professional Paradise™ is alive and well. Professional Paradise is not just a feel-good concept, Hess says. […]