labor lawAdivision of labor law center

 Senator Ted Kennedy recently introduced a bill – called the Healthy Families Act– that would implement a mandatory sick leave law.

If passed, the bill would require most employers to provide up to 7 paid sick days per year to employees.

In the House, the mandatory sick leave law introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro  is called HR 2460.

The mandatory sick leave law would apply to employers that have 15 or more full-time workers (or the equivalent) for at least 20 weeks of the year.

The bill would require that workers earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, beginning on the day the worker is hired. Employees would be eligible to use paid sick leave after 60 days.

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…)

A combination of efforts by President Obama’s administration and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), backed by the courts, has extended the deadline for implementation of new E-Verify regulations for federal contractors.

The original deadline was January 1, 2009. That has been delayed until May 21, 2009. As a result, federal contracts will have several additional weeks in which to comply with E-Verify.

Starting on May 21, any companies that enter into contracts with the federal government will be mandated to use E-Verify in order to double-check the immigration and legal work status of new employers.

A confluence of events led to the delay. For one, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, had sent memos to all federal agencies urging them to delay the effective dates of regulations pushed through during the final days of the (more…)

In one of his first official acts, President Barack Obama signed 3 executive orders reversing employment policies introduced under the Bush administration.

The executive orders reversed Republican policies that many Democrats considered anti-union. However, employers argue that these new policies will further hamper employers – especially federal contractors – trying to compete financially in a tight market.

The new policies require federal contractors to inform employees of their rights to form unions. They also require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change, and make it more difficult for employers to discourage union activities, according to the New York Times.

Under one of the executive orders, when a government service contract expires and there is a new contract to perform the same services at the same location, the new contractor has to retain the old workers. Proponents point out that keeping trained, experienced workers (more…)

Effective May 21, 2009 companies entering into new federal contracts will have to use E-Verify to double-check the immigration and legal work status of new employees. This deadline has been delayed from January 15, 2009. 

The Office of Management and Budget or OMB recently extended the deadline after a request by the SHRM, or Society of Human Resource Management.

President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sent a memo to all federal agencies, suggesting that they delay effective dates of any regulations introduced during the last few months of the Bush Administration. SHRM had partnered with other business organizations to fight the new regulation in court.

The Department of Justice concurred with the SHRM request to delay the deadline. Although a federal district court judge in Maryland must review the delay, it seems certain to be approved.

This action gives federal contractors (more…)