Posts Tagged ‘Ford & Harrison’

90 New Regulations…coming soon from the Department of Labor

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

dolWage and hour law continues to be a hot topic for our clients. Just when we  have learned how to deal with that last batch of new regulations on paying employees, record-keeping and employee classification the  Department of Labor will be proposing 90 new regulations in the coming months. A complete list of the regulatory agenda can be found at http//www.dol.gov/asp/regs/unifiedagenda/fall_2009_agenda.pdf. The  DOL has named 12 “specific strategic outcomes” it is seeking with the package.

The outcomes include “increasing workers’ incomes and narrowing wage and income inequality”; “securing safe and healthy workplaces, wages and overtime, particularly in high-risk industries”; “assuring skills and knowledge that prepare workers to succeed in a knowledge-based economy”; “helping workers who are in low-wage jobs or out of the labor market find a path into middle-class jobs”; and ensuring workers have a voice in the workplace.” Facilitating unionization is the point of another rule that will be proposed. The Office of Labor-Management Standards will draft a regulation requiring greater disclosure by employers of consultants that they hire to advise them on union organizing campaigns.

If you are looking for updates and guidance on wage and hour law, attend one of KPA’s free webinars- Essentials of Wage and Hour Law for Dealerships, Advance Wage and Hour Law or California Wage and Hour Law presented by leading employment and labor attorneys, John Boggs of Fine, Boggs and Perkins and Jim Hendricks of Ford & Harrison, LLP.

Additional informationon the OSHA regulations that are part of the agenda can be found on Patric’s post from December 11th.

HR software and compliance surfacing as a top priority?

Friday, December 4th, 2009
minimum-wage-ordinance

minimum-wage-ordinance

Wage and hour law has certainly been top interest the last few weeks. In my last blog I wrote about the Department of Labor hiring 250 new wage and hour investigators. At the same more than 700 people registered for our educational Wage and Hour webinars. And our very happy sales director Todd Hotham informed me this morning that last month 24 dealerships signed up for our online HotlinkHR software which is specifically designed to help avoid the most common HR and Wage and Hour Law mistakes.

Fact is that employers today are highly vulnerable with the increased awareness by workers of their rights, the complexity of wage and hour law (Fair Labor Standards Act) and the stated goal by the Department of Labor of increased enforcement. In fact, both webinar speakers, leading labor lawyers John Boggs of Fine, Boggs & Perkins, and Jim Hendricks of Ford & Harrison, empasized that Wage and hour litigation — specifically FLSA overtime collective action — far outpaces employment discrimination class action filings. In fact, there are more wage and hour lawsuits pending in the federal courts than all other employment claims combined.

I’d like to hear your feedback on this topic: are wage and hour law and methods to migitate associated risks surfacing to be a top priority?

Please leave me your comments below.