The Department of Labor (DOL) recently updated its regulations regarding child labor in the U.S.—calling them "the most ambitious and far-reaching revisions" in the past 30 years—and these new regs are set to go into effect this coming Monday, July 19, 2010.
The updated regulations effect a variety of changes to how DOL will interpret the [...]
The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced stiffer penalties for violation of the child labor laws covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other pieces of legislation.
"Beginning today, employers who hire children too young to work will face stiffer penalties," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Work is not child’s play. When [...]
If you find yourself reclassifying your employees as non-exempt (from previously being exempt), then you could end up in deep legal doo-doo like the Michigan Bell Telephone Company.
Reason? It doesn’t take employees long to figure out that, if they’re doing the same jobs as exempt as when they were non-exempt, then they were probably cheated [...]
The Department of Labor (DOL), in issuing an updated regulatory agenda this past week, announced it was considering a major change in its approach to enforcement. Instead of letting businesses play what it called a "catch me if you can" game, the DOL said it will issue regulations requiring each company to develop and implement [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) had long made life complicated for employers in the state who wanted to bring on board unpaid interns, adding an extra five criteria to those spelled out in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
But all that has changed now that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has [...]
A federal judge has dismissed claims against the Church of Scientology by a (former?) member who alleges she was forced to work 100-hour weeks for no pay under a billion-year contract for the religion’s elite Sea Organization, according to a report in The Baltimore Sun.
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer issued a written order saying the [...]
Taking the stage in Chicago at what was once Jane Addams’ Hull House, where FDR Labor Secretary Frances Perkins got started, Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis launched a nationwide public awareness program called "We Can Help" on April 1.
"I have a message for those employers who break this nation’s labor laws and prey on vulnerable [...]
The Department of Labor (DOL) is launching a Wage and Hour (WHD) investigation of Denver area restaurants for compliance with overtime pay, working hours, and child labor, according to the local DOL office.
Chad Frasier, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Denver, says that the restaurant industry has been targeted because of past [...]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), operating on information from its Albany field office, has targeted the health care industry in New York state for investigation into the misclassification of workers and subsequent under-payment of overtime wages.
Underlying this effort is a finding by the department’s Albany district office that, during the past five years, almost [...]
In 1993, the nurses at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in California voluntarily created and voted for a plan to work 12-hour instead of 8-hour shifts while retaining their hourly rate without being paid overtime.
Under the plan, the nurses went from $22.83 an hour for 8 hours to $19.57 for 12 hours. However, for the [...]
