Federal law
Obama expected to sign Executive Order to ‘ban the box’ for federal employers
President Obama is expected to sign an Executive Order on Monday that would prohibit federal employers from asking job applicants questions about potential criminal records until significantly later in the hiring process. In a previous post, we shared that both the House of Representatives and the Senate are also currently debating bills that propose ban-the-box…
Read MoreFood chains under fire for wage theft, illegal background checking
Restaurant and food-delivery chains have been under fire lately, as Chipotle, Waffle House and Papa John’s Pizza have all been slapped with lawsuits recently. Four current and former Papa John’s franchises reached a settlement with New York employees and former employees after admitting that they had not paid fair wages to 250 workers in the…
Read MoreLabor Dept. in minimum-wage catch-22 for home health care workers
the Department is now putting that decision on ice while it sees if it can get an industry-wide ruling from the Supreme Court. Previously, home health care workers — who primarily take care of elderly patients in their own homes — were generally thought to be employed through agencies or directly by the family itself,…
Read MoreLabor Department sues fundamentalist group over child labor
Wage and Hour Division sued the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and several employers within the sect for continuing to violate child-labor laws after a 2007 court order demanded they cease the employment of minor children for pecan harvesting. The Wage and Hour Division had been investigating the FLDS church for…
Read MoreDepartment of Labor implements back wages website
The U.S. Department of Labor has introduced a new website to help employees — who may not have received proper overtime pay or minimum wages — to receive back wages. The site, Workers Owed Wages, is run by the Wage and Hour Division, and is a nationwide database where employees can receive recovered back wages…
Read More$15 minimum wage not a win for all, says Bureau of Labor Statistics
New York state — have managed to raise wages for employees to a $15-per-hour minimum, the Bureau of Labor Statistics warns that many businesses underpaid their workers even when the minimum wage was lower. The Bureau stated that in 2014, employers failed to pay up to 1.7 million workers the federal minimum wage of $7.25…
Read MoreEEOC: sexual orientation now a protected class under Title VII
by federal law, discriminating against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation for employment purposes is illegal. In its ruling in Complainant v. Foxx, the EEOC stated, “Indeed, we conclude that sexual orientation is inherently a ‘sex-based consideration,’ and an allegation of discrimination based on sexual orientation is necessarily an allegation of sex discrimination…
Read MoreOregon: drug-testing policies won’t change for state jobs
went into effect at the beginning of July, many state employers have begun releasing memos re-stating their drug policies and reminding employees that nothing is likely to change in those policies. Employers are still allowed to conduct drug tests, and ensure their employees show up for work sober, though some acknowledge that what an employee…
Read MoreStates’, federal protection laws the next battlefield for LGBT community
that same-sex couples have the right to marry was one hard-fought battle won for the LGBT community. However, the U.S. still has a ways to go in protecting the rights of every one of its citizens, especially when it comes to employment discrimination. “We have a crazy quilt of laws in this country when it…
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…
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