labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Washington employers have long complained about the high cost of doing business in the state, including workers’ compensation claims and insurance premiums. Now, they can take control of this annoying problem.

Employers in the state of Washington can sign up for free seminars on managing workers’ comp costs, claims and premiums sponsored by the state government.

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries or L&I is offering the free seminar, entitled “Introduction to Rates and Claims Management.”

The seminar is free, but registration is required. Participants can register online  or by calling 1-800-574-2829.

The half-day seminar will be presented on 17 different dates in locations across the state including Bremerton, Tukwila, Vancouver, Port Angeles, Kennewick and Mount Vernon.

The complete schedule of dates and locations is here.  The next workshop is in Kennewick on June 10, 2009. The final workshop this year is in Tacoma on December 9, 2009.

According to L&I, the workshop is an overview of basic workers’ comp claims management principles. Participants will learn:  (more…)

 The U. S. Department of Labor is sponsoring a series of free seminars on updated labor laws for employers in July 2008.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) of the U.S. Department of Labor provides training to federal supply and service contractors and subcontractors. Topics covered include the agency’s equal employment opportunity laws and regulations. Federal contractors are subject to more stringent anti-discrimination regulations than other employers. In many cases, those regulations apply to all divisions of a company, not just those holding federal contracts. Most of the seminars are scheduled for a half day.

The Department of Labor takes a proactive approach in training employers, especially those with new federal contracts, in the requirements they face under the law.

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One of the unexpected long-term consequences of Hurricane Katrina has been repeated violations of wage and hour laws in the Gulf Coast region. Faced with seemingly insurmountable clean up and rebuilding jobs, a boom-town economy and a huge labor shortage, many employers seem to have forgotten the most basic federal labor laws.

A number of companies from New Orleans to Houston have been fined – sometimes millions of dollars — for minimum wage violations since 2005. Abuses were so widespread that the DOL formed a special task force dedicated to wage and hour compliance in the Gulf Coast.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the seminar is scheduled the day before the federal minimum wage will increase by 70 cents.

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