labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A new Pennsylvania law holds the employer responsible when an employee uses a work computer for child porn. Every employer needs to be aware of this change, because it highlights a recent trend under federal and state law of holding employers responsible for crimes of child exploitation by workers.

A Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling requires the employer to act when notified of employee use of a company computer or a company network to view child pornography — even a single image viewed one time, even if the employee claims the site was accessed accidentally.

More states are placing the burden on employers to eliminate such conduct by employees, even on company laptops that the employee takes home.

By law, IT workers in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota must report the discovery of child pornography on any work computer to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. An employer who fails to report such images is subject to fines and even jail time.

Employers should consider implementing an Internet policy that any employee who downloads or views child pornography on a work computer or network is immediately terminated.  In one recent ruling, the appeals court found that the employer has a duty to report even a single incidence (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security recently outlined new restrictions for employers who receive stimulus finds to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

The most recent regulations were announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on March 20, 2009.

Employers who receive TARP funds will need to provide additional statements to the U.S. Department of Labor showing that they have made good-faith attempts to fill the positions with qualified American workers. In addition, the employers are not permitted to pay the foreign workers less than American workers with the same skills.

The new regulations are generated under the Employ American Workers Act or EAWA, a portion of the ARRA signed on February 17, 2009. The new provisions are in effect only until February 17, 2011 (unless extended by law.)

H-1B visas are granted to highly-skilled, temporary foreign workers for a maximum of 6 years. The visas are granted to just 65,000 workers per year, although an additional 20,000 visas are granted to workers with a master’s degree or equivalent. Many of the H-1B visas are granted to workers in (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor or DOL announced on January 15, 2009 that Sandia Corp. has agreed to pay more than $2 million in back wages for unpaid overtime.

In an interesting wrinkle, the Albuquerque employer apparently tried to avoid overtime payments for non-exempt employees by setting no fixed payroll week.

Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay an employee overtime when the employee works more than 40 hours in the payroll week.

Information on the FLSA requirements for overtime are included on the federal minimum wage poster that every employer must prominently display in the workplace.

By not having a fixed payroll week, Sandia averaged the employees’ hours over two or more weeks. Under the FLSA, an employer can establish any fixed payroll week that the employer likes. The payroll week can run from Sunday to Saturday, or from Monday to Sunday, or from Thursday to Wednesday. Under some circumstances, an employer can change the payroll week, as long as employees are given advance notice.

However, the employee’s workweek must be a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, (more…)

An amendment to Executive Order 12989 added by President George W. Bush on June 9, 2008,  will require all federal contractors to use the E-Verify system. The proposed regulations were published in the Federal Register on June 12, 2008. The presidential directive requires that federal contractors and their subcontractors use an electronic system to verify employment eligibility for all new hires.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff designated E-Verify as the verification system of choice.

Under the new regulations, federal contractors and sub-contractors must (more…)

A Florida law that went into effect in July permits employees to keep guns in their locked cars at work. Under the new law, employers can no longer prohibit guns on their property. A Florida worker who has a valid permit to own a gun and carry a concealed weapon, can have that gun in his or her car in the parking lot while at work, eating at a restaurant or shopping in a mall.

Florida employers do not have to permit the employees to bring guns into the workplace. That’s still a matter of company policy.

The Disney Company is (more…)