The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) is authorized to initiate various types of litigation and other legal actions in order to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other statutes that fall under the jurisdiction of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Enforcement options vary, depending on the specific law in…
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Personnel Changes To Cure Employee Grievances: The National Labor Relations Board (“the Board”) recently held that an employer violates the National Labor relations Act (“the Act”) by announcing during a union organizing campaign that it hired a bi-lingual human resources manager to improve workplace communications. The Board found that the hiring was made to…
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Should you find yourself in this situation, you are probably kicking yourself for not having used BizKeys to learn about why employees want to form unions and what you could have done to avoid getting to this point. If your employees have signed authorization cards and you were not aware of what was going on,…
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues its agenda of administrative labor law reform that Congress failed to pass when efforts to enact the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) were unsuccessful. In recognition of the fact that Member Becker’s recess appointment is to expire on December 31, 2011, reducing the Board to only two members, rendering it unable to act due to a lack of a quorum, the two Democratic appointees have voted to adopt new rules that will speed up the election process. The part of the overall rule proposal adopted yesterday provides:
The NLRB continues its administrative labor law reform by overruling cases that simply do not jive with its current political ideology. As Chairman Liebman departs after almost 14 years of service under three presidents, the NLRB will once again be short-handed as there will be only three (3) members unless and until the President can…
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By: William G. Trumpeter, Esq. Miller & Martin P btrumpeter@millermartin.com The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has decreed by its rulemaking authority, that employers that are covered by the National Labor Relations Act (“the Act”) must post an official notice to all employees who are protected by the Act advising them of their…
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I investigated a transportation business that had classified its drivers as independent contractors and paid them a percentage of revenue derived from their hauls. No overtime wages had been paid. The motor carrier exemption did not apply (rock was hauled from Texas quarries to Texas construction sites). The drivers worked long hours, in part because of arriving several hours before the quarry opened in order to be near the front of the line.
Access To The Work Area Where Temporary Employees Will Be Working In order for a staffing company to best serve you and their employees, they must know as much as possible about the jobs and workplace where they will be working. How many employees does your company hire without first showing that person the job site…
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Does your company use the same standards for employment and workforce compliance as required for other functions such as Accounting, Manufacturing, Engineering, etc? For example: Does the HR function have a quality system such as that used in manufacturing to assure the product is made to comply with specific standards? Does your HR function require…
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I knew, as do most staffing companies, that there are challenges and statutory requirements unique to the staffing industry that our clients don’t normally deal with that must be communicated, understood, and complied with to provide for the overall protection of both client and staffing provider. It is extremely important that supervisors and managers of client companies clearly understand and adhere to these requirements. I mention this only to make the point that staffing companies, if allowed to do so, can be a source of valuable information and training for the staff of their clients. Take advantage of this. Better than that, insist on it.
