labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Thirty-one U.S. states have laws requiring employers to give workers time off to vote. The penalties for employers who don’t give workers time off to vote can be severe.

In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, Election Day is a legal holiday. This includes any day a referendum is held. General elections are legal holidays in the Virgin Islands, and employees who give prior notice must be permitted two hours off, with pay, to vote.

Internationally, in many countries, election day (more…)

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC recently  issued a comprehensive question-and-answer guide that clarifies performance and conduct issues under ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The document addressing a wide variety of problems, is available in its entirety at  www.eeoc.gov/facts/performance-conduct.html.

Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act , employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities is prohibited.

However, the ADA and Rehabilitation Act generally do not impinge (more…)

The Oregon non-compete law prohibits noncompetition agreements between employers and hourly workers, in almost all cases.

However, under this new law, employers are still permitted to have management and sales employees sign non-compete agreements. The agreements limit the employee’s ability to work for a competitor, at least for a period of time.

Such non-compete agreements – even voluntary ones – are illegal when applied to hourly or salaried non-exempt employees under Oregon law.

The law set limits on the (more…)

With 2 major hurricanes affecting the Gulf Coast in just 11 days, the US Department of Labor personnel is stretched thin, but responding to demands for assistance, thanks to volunteers from Alabama, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota and Utah.

Initially volunteers from Texas traveled to Louisiana to assist survivors of Hurricane Gustav.  

However, as Hurricane Ike pummeled the Texas coast just days later, most of them returned to their home state to aid in recovery efforts there.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and state and local workforce organizations have (more…)

 The US Department of Labor has a number of resources in place for Louisiana victims of Hurricane Gustav. Similar programs for survivors of Hurricane Ike in Texas are sure to follow.

So far, the US Department of Labor has announced a $22.2 million national emergency grant  to Louisiana to aid workers displaced by the hurricane. Emergency grant funds are available to employers, small business owners and self-employed workers as well as employees displaced by the natural disaster.

The funds will be used to create more than 4,000 (more…)