Posts by Allie
Department of Defense updates sexual orientation discrimination policies for military service
updated the military’s “equal opportunity” anti-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation in its protected classes. This would allow gay, lesbian and bisexual service members to openly serve in the military without the risk of harassment or discrimination. Race, religion, gender and age — among other federally protected classes under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission —…
Read MoreObama administration proposes expansion to employee overtime pay
could be raised to as high as $52,000. Under the current threshold, any salaried, white-collar employee who earns more than $23,660 per year does not qualify for overtime pay. Only about 12 percent of the workforce is eligible for overtime pay under this threshold, which falls below the poverty line. (Some estimate that fewer than…
Read MoreNew VA service aims to find employment for homeless vets
launching a new employment program aimed at helping homeless and at-risk veterans find work that matches their skills and abilities. The program, called Homeless Veteran Community Employment Services, will require VA medical centers to employ a Community Employment Coordinator (CEC) that can function as a liaison between local businesses and VA services. The goal of…
Read MoreFAA fines Allegiant Air for staff drug testing missteps
Allegiant Air, a budget airline that competes with Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue, is expected to pay the Federal Aviation Administration fines of more than $260,000 for failing to include all of its employees in a random drug and alcohol testing pool, per FAA requirements. According to the FAA, 25 of Allegiant Air’s employees were…
Read MoreFingerprint background checks mandatory for preventing Medicaid fraud, says CMS
released a letter early this month to Medicaid directors, which stated that beginning August 1, some providers must begin fingerprinting employees at locations that are considered “high-risk” for Medicaid fraud. This fingerprinting provision was actually part of the regulations for the Affordable Care Act, and was passed in 2011 in an attempt for the Department…
Read MoreOPM data breach includes three decades of security clearances, background check information
up to 4 million current and former government employees may have had their records compromised. The information that may have been accessed included social security numbers, birth dates and some bank information. However, other U.S. officials said that the hackers may have gotten access to information about federal employees’ security clearances and background checks dating…
Read MoreNSA announces web project to improve federal hiring, retention
launch an intelligence-hiring website for those interested in working with the NSA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other security agencies in the United States. That “brand-new applicant gateway” is expected to go live in the fall. The website is expected to include tools to help applicants determine what types of jobs…
Read MoreMay 2015 employment: new jobs in hospitality, but mining industry takes another hit
release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. saw an increase of 280,000 jobs in May, though the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.5 percent. The mining industry continued to see a decline in available jobs, though available jobs in professional and business services increased, as did positions within the health care and…
Read MoreEEOC wins religious discrimination case against Abercrombie, says Supreme Court
A few months back, we posed the question “What obligations do businesses have when it comes to avoiding religious discrimination?” Well, the Supremes have spoken: in a 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court declared that employers must accommodate prospective employees’ religious affiliations “if the employer at least has an idea that such accommodation is necessary.” Even…
Read MoreEEOC does not have to disclose background check policies, says federal court
it brought against Dollar General and BMW Manufacturing late last year, the EEOC argued that the companies’ hiring practices screened out minority candidates disproportionately, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. When Dollar General and BMW requested to see how the EEOC’s own hiring and background screening policies differed from their own, the EEOC…
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