Workforce Bulletin

We recommend this post that was recently published on October 1st, 2013 on the Management Memo blog: “Government Shutdown “Closes” NLRB: 1600 of 1611 Employees Furloughed,” by Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, and D. Martin Stanberry, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

The shutdown of the federal government that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday October 1^st has shut down all non-essential operations of the US government, including those of the National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB).

The Board’s Contingency Plan for Shutdown in the ...

By Casey M. Cosentino and Eric J. Conn

The federal government shut down all but essential operations on October 1, 2013, after Congress failed to reach an agreement on a budget or a continuing resolution for funding government operations.  As a result, OSHA (like most federal agencies) has furloughed more than 90% of its personnel and suspended most of its operations.

On September 10, 2013, with the government shutdown looming, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, David Michaels, issued a memorandum outlining OSHA's  “Contingency Plan for Suspension of Agency Operations ...

By Eric J. Conn, Head of the OSHA Practice Group at Epstein Becker Green

An industry contact recently asked me what five issues I expected OSHA would be focusing its enforcement efforts on for the balance of this year.  Here was my response:

1.  Emergency Exits & Exit Routes – A couple of months ago, OSHA issued an enforcement memorandum directing inspectors to scrutinize whether employers were providing and maintaining adequate means of emergency exit; i.e., unlocked, unobstructed, and clearly marked exit doors and exit routes in compliance with 29 C.F.R. 1910.36.  We ...

We recommend this recent client alert on Epstein Becker Green's website: "Special Immigration Alert: The Immigration Ripple Effect of a Government Shutdown," by Robert Groban, Jr., Pierre Georges Bonnefil, Patrick Brady, Jang Im, and Greta Ravitsky, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

The looming prospect of a Government shutdown will have a significant impact on the immigration process. Activities of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be largely unaffected because it is funded by the fees it collects. The shutdown ...

We recommend this recent client alert on Epstein Becker Green's website: "Special Immigration Alert: The Immigration Ripple Effect of a Government Shutdown," by Robert Groban, Jr., Pierre Georges Bonnefil, Patrick Brady, Jang Im, and Greta Ravitsky, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

The looming prospect of a Government shutdown will have a significant impact on the immigration process. Activities of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be largely unaffected because it is funded by the fees it collects. The shutdown ...

By Anna A. Cohen         

A common complaint from retail employers is that employees requesting FMLA leave often submit Certifications from health care providers that are incomplete (one or more of the entries are blank) or insufficient (the information provided is vague, ambiguous, or non-responsive).  Employers are not required to automatically grant a leave of absence upon receipt of a deficient Certification.  Rather, there are several things an employer can do to ensure that it is granting leave for a qualifying reason and for an appropriate duration.

If the Certification is ...

Following the announcement last week of the first ever Deferred Prosecution Agreement in an OSHA matter, the Editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter interviewed Eric J. Conn, Head of Epstein Becker Green's national OSHA Practice Group, who was involved in the matter, about OSHA enforcement trends in general, and OSHA criminal prosecutions in particular.

Based on that interview, Corporate Crime Reporter ran an article entitled Epstein Becker Partner Eric Conn On the Rise of OSHA Enforcement.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

"'OSHA enforcement is up in every measurable ...

By Lisa M. Watanabe

On September 12, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin warning employers that they cannot require their employees to receive wages on payroll cards. The CFPB's bulletin was issued amid the growing unrest among workers about the high and unexpected fees often associated with payroll cards.  Critics say that the fees may be so high that employees end up making less than the minimum wage.

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of employers (especially in the retail and food-service industries) who have adopted this ...

On September 13, 2013, the Obama Administration rejected the union movement's intense lobbying efforts to seek a waiver, so that their members would be able to receive tax subsidies in the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") Marketplaces for those of their members who will be offered "affordable coverage" from their employers.