The Federal Trade Commission's Red Flags Rule takes effect June 1, 2010, and Personnel Concepts has already created a guidebook to help businesses create identity theft prevention plans to comply with the law. Personnel Concepts' Workplace Identity Theft Prevention Kit has been available for a while as a hard copy guidebook, and now it's available--at less than half the price--as an...

While Colorado intends to lower its minimum wage by three cents for 2010, Connecticut will be one of the few states raising its rate for the new year. On Jan. 1, 2010, the state will see its minimum wage rise to $8.25 an hour, up 25 cents from the 2009 rate. Lawmakers raised the minimum wage in June 2008 by 35 cents for 2009 and 25 cents for 2010 before the recession was...

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees must work 1,250 hours in a year to be eligible for FMLA leave. This provision has generally excluded flight crews because of their irregular hours, but now the U.S. Senate has joined the House of Representatives in approving similar measures to make flight crew members eligible. Once the two bills are reconciled...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has turned to adding stricter accountability measures to settlements of sexual, racial and other harassment lawsuits. In addition to large monetary awards to the victims, the EEOC has in many cases mandated training programs, the hiring of compliance officials, demotions of responsible on-site supervisors, and continued reporting to...

Though the commentary period extends until Jan. 5, 2010, final regulations for the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) take effect Dec. 7, forbidding health care insurers and group health plans from basing decisions on genetic information. Genetic and other personal health information (PHI) have always been protected from disclosure, but with GINA and its final...

Thomas J. Perez, the Justice Department's assistant attorney-general for civil rights, made an appearance before the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee on Nov. 5 to press for rapid passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), prohibiting workplace discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D.-Iowa)...

If you're Tyson Foods in Blountsville, Ala., you do. The food processor just lost an unpaid-wages lawsuit for, among other things, not paying workers for the time they spent donning and doffing safety and sanitary gear. Not all donning and doffing time is evidently covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), however, as other courts have found differently, albeit under different work...

The Federal Trade Commission (FT C) has delayed implementation of its Red Flags Rule for financial institutions and creditors (which is a hugely broad swatch of firms under FTC definition) for a fourth time, from a Nov. 1, 2009, start date to June 1, 2010. The delay comes at the request of Congress. Created by a law known as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, the Red...

In figures released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) covering October 2008 through September 2009, the most frequently cited violations for general industry were of the hazard communication (HazCom), respiratory protection, and lockout/tagout standards. In the construction industry, the top citations were for scaffolds, fall protection and ladders....

As with other states using automatic adjustment formulas for their minimum wage, Florida will leave its $7.25-an-hour minimum wage unchanged for 2010. Colorado is the sole exception in that it is mulling a three-penny decrease in its minimum wage due to deflation in the state. Other states either do not provide for decreases or consider them politically unacceptable. Florida law...

By signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 today (Oct. 27, 2009), President Barack Obama has given his imprimatur to a set of amendments that expands coverage of FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) leave to family members of active duty personnel and veterans within five years of discharge. Previously, up to 26 weeks of unpaid FMLA caregiver leave were available to family...

Effective today (Oct. 26, 2009), employers in New York state are obliged to provide all new hires with written information about their pay scales, pay dates and employee status--whether they are exempt or non-exempt from overtime. The document must specify for non-exempt employees the hourly rate and the overtime rate. In the case of salaried non-exempt employees, the overtime rate must...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a revised "Equal Employment Opportunity Is the Law" poster to reflect new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) regulations and clarifies employer responsibilities under the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA).  According to the EEOC, the revised poster is mandatory and all...

The National Defense Authorization Act currently making its way through Congress contains language that would extend FMLA unpaid leave to family members of active duty service members. FMLA regulations that took effect at the start of 2009 granted 12 weeks of unpaid leave to family members of the Reserves and National Guard who get called up for active duty, but excluded full-time...

OSHA has been conducting a National Emphasis Program (NEP) of inspections for combustible dust violations since October 2007 that has resulted in a startling number of citations under the OSH Act general duty clause. As a result, the agency on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) in the Federal Register to develop a combustible dust...