OSHA is extending until March 30, 2010, the public commentary period on its proposal to restore a column to the annual injury-illness report used to specify musculoskeletal disorders. Many Occupational Safety and Health Administration watchers see this recordkeeping change as the first step in restoring an ergonomics standard that was withdrawn in the early stages of the Bush...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are continuing their sweep through the nation, targeting businesses that rely on immigrant labor for I-9 employment eligibility form audits. This new tactic replaces the Bush-era emphasis on employee raids--rounding up immigrants at worksites for questioning and possible legal action. The Obama administration approach thus means...

While a bill extending the COBRA subsidy eligibility period through the end of 2010 is awaiting Congressional action, the House and Senate have agreed on a stopgap measure to extend both expiring unemployment benefits and the COBRA subsidy eligibility period through the end of March 2010. Some 400,000 recipients would have been cut off from unemployment checks had Congress not acted, while...

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has signed House Bill 300, which extends the continuation of health insurance coverage under the state's mini-COBRA statute from 12 to 15 months. However, the extension is contingent upon the continuation of the federal COBRA subsidy, which is set to expire at the end of June 2010 unless extended. Congress is currently weighing several measures to extend both...

State-based Wage and Hour Division (WHD) inspectors are targeting 65 restaurants in Utah for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), specifically in regard to possible wage and hour, overtime and child labor violations. Lee Ann Dunbar, district director for the WHD in Salt Lake City, affirmed that the reason for the restaurant focus was the generally low compliance rate for the...

With the one-year anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), new provisions covering the use and handling of personal health information (PHI) are now in effect, though regulations have not been issued for their implementation. Some confusion reigns over whether the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act took effect...

Oregon has passed a law to mandate that employers try to find reasonable accommodations at work for victims of domestic violence. Such accommodations might include changing the victim's phone extension and/or actual physical workstation or desk location. The inartfully named Oregon Victims of Certain Crimes Leave Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, piggybacks on a 2007 law that extended...

New Hampshire has lowered the threshold on WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) requirements, now mandating that firms with 75 or more workers provide 60 days' advance warning of mass layoffs or plant closings. This lowers the bar from the 100-employee threshold in federal WARN. The state's WARN Act was signed this past summer and took effect at the beginning of 2010....

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) has passed legislation, Senate Bill 519, which prohibits employers from taking adverse action against employees who decline to attend meetings or participate in communications concerning the employer's opinion about religious or political matters.   The new law became effective Jan. 1, 2010.   The law requires employers to...

The State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development has updated its Family and Medical Leave notice.  According the agency, the change is mandatory and all employers with 50 or more employees must replace existing notices dated 09/2009 with the new version dated 01/2010.   Under the state law, employers with 50 or more employees must now also allow employees of either sex:...

When the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) was signed and enacted on Feb. 4, 2009, it triggered a requirement for the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue a model notice for employers within one year. Exactly one year to the day later, the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on Feb. 4, 2010, published a model notice in the Federal Register,...

Along with crackdowns on wage and hour violations and the misclassification of employees, the Department of Labor (DOL) is now focusing more intently on violations of the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. Fines for child labor violations resulting in injury or death were increased in 2008 from $11,000 to $100,000 maximum. Accordingly, the DOL has issued...

During a live Web chat on Monday, Feb. 1, 2010, new OSHA chief David Michaels revealed that, in addition to 100 new inspectors being funded under its fiscal 2010 budget, another 25 will be added in fiscal 2011, with another 35 personnel being shifted from compliance assistance to field inspection. “Today's budget affirms this administration's strong commitment to vigorous...

The Louisiana Workforce Commission has updated its Earned Income Credit (EITC) notice for 2010.  According to the agency, the change is mandatory and all employers must replace existing notices with the current version dated January 2010. Changes to the notice include the following new income eligibility limits for 2010 as follows: ► $43,352 ($48,362 for married filing jointly)...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today (Jan. 29, 2010) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to mandate the reporting of musculoskeletal (MSD) injuries on the annually required Log 300, to which an MSD column will be added for 2011. This next Monday, Feb. 1, companies with more than ten employees must still post the current Log 300 report of illnesses and...