labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Companies will have to add yet another step in their due diligence when buying or merging with a new company, because of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. That law permits employees to sue for wage discrimination, even many years after the fact.

Twenty years after going to work for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, a woman by the name of Lilly Ledbetter learned through an anonymous tipster that she was making less money for doing the same job as her male coworkers.

Lilly Ledbetter calculated that she had lost $200,000 in pay compared to the men, not to mention the lost Social Security benefits and pension funds. Ledbetter sued over the issue, but was blocked by rulings that she had not met the 180-day deadline for filing her petition. She took the matter to the Supreme Court, which upheld lower court rulings in a split decision.

Now, as a way of rectifying situations like hers, the U.S. Senate has passed, and President Obama  has signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The new Act allows for discrimination suits beyond the old 180-day deadline. The Senate vote was 61 in favor and 36 against.

This means that employers must retain records on the basis of compensation decisions far longer, to defend against a possible lawsuit.

When a company is bought out by another, the new owners also purchase any liability for discrimination or other unfair labor practices. Prospective owners need to assess the risk of the company’s employee compensation packages and compensation system, before making a final purchase decision. 

The President, in signing it one week later, said Ledbetter had not planned to become a household name when she took on Goodyear. “She was just a good hard worker who did her job – and she did it well – for nearly two decades before discovering that for years, she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the very same work,” President Obama said.

He added that he intended (more…)

The deadline for employers’ compliance with changes to the I-9 form is April 3, 2009.

Essentially, the U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services, the agency in charge, has given employers a several-weeks respite.

Action by the new Presidential administration has helped the cause of those seeking a delay. Numerous employment law and regulatory deadlines put into action by the Bush Administration during its final months were postponed recently. Chief of Staff of the White House, Rahm Emmanuel, put out a memo urging federal agencies to take an additional 60 or 90 days to review all of those policies. The intention was to insure that the policies would be consistent with the standards of President Barack Obama.

An interim rule published by the USCIS in December of 2008 originally required all employers in the U.S. to begin using a new I-9 form by February 2, 2009. Under the new regulations, (more…)

The new stimulus package has employers scrambling to conform to the COBRA expansion and take advantage of the COBRA subsidy.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or ARRA, also known as President Obama’s stimulus package, health care premiums for laid off employees are partially subsidized.

The bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009, provides a government subsidy of COBRA continuation coverage for a maximum of 9 months for certain laid-off workers and their eligible dependents. The measure does not cover employees who voluntarily quit.

Under the ARRA, plan administrators need to inform eligible employees and their beneficiaries of the program, implement extended COBRA coverage periods, and implement administrative procedures to take advantage of the subsidy.

In one of the major changes, the ARRA will subsidize 65% of the COBRA premium charged (more…)

Several features of the $780 billion stimulus plan passed this week will affect how Human Resources professionals perform their jobs in 2009 and beyond.

The goal of the law signed by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009 is to save or create more than 3 million jobs. The bill, H.R. 1, was developed jointly by the House and Senate.

During negotiation, members of the House and Senate removed all mention of the federal government’s E-Verify system. The initial bill passed in the House would have required that any business receiving funds from the federal government under the stimulus bill use that system to verify that all employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S., using that system.

E-Verify is still required by many states and local governments, and is free to all private employers in the country. All federal contractors will be required to implement E-Verify later this year.

In addition, the stimulus bill requires that any employer receiving aid hire U.S. workers who have been laid off before recruiting and hiring workers from other countries on H-1B visas. This measure is expected to have the biggest impact on IT employees. (more…)

An new executive order requires federal contractors to post notices informing employees of their right to form unions and collectively bargain. This requirement must be included in every federal contract along with language giving the government the right to terminate/suspend the contract or even debar the contractor for noncompliance.       

Under Executive Order 13496, every federal contractor is required to post a notice informing employees of their rights to form unions and collectively bargain. This executive order overturns an order signed by President George W. Bush early during his administration.

Under the Executive Order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday, January 30, 2009, this requirement must be included in every federal contract along with language giving the government the right to terminate or suspend the contract if the employer does not comply.

In fact, employers who fail to post the required notice can be debarred for noncompliance.

The Executive Order signed by President Obama focuses specifically on (more…)