The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (U.S. OSHA) has established a new electronic portal for employers to file web based reports of workplace injuries or illnesses.
Read the full article at HRUSA here: http://blog.hrusa.com/blog/us-osha-opens-injury-tracking-electronic-portal/
A Texas federal court struck down a rule that would have expanded those eligible for overtime pay. The Department of Labor’s rule would have required overtime pay to most salaried employees who earn less than $47,476 annually. This would have been a dramatic increase from the current salary level of $23,660. The rule was expected to have an extensive effect if implemented, to the tune of more than 4 million workers. The same court had blocked the rule from being enforced in November 2016, but had not yet determined whether the rule was valid. Over 55 business groups challenged the implementation of the rule, and were rewarded in the court’s August 31st ruling finding that the rule exceeded the Department of Labor’s authority.
On August 29, 2017, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued a memo to the EEOC advising that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is initiating a review and an immediate stay of the effectiveness of those aspects of the EEO-1 form that were revised on September 29, 2016. Those revisions included new requirements for employers with 100 or more employees (and for employers who are federal contractors with 50 or more employees) to provide data on the wages and hours worked by their employees. The OIRA’s memo made clear that the EEOC may continue to use the previously approved EEO-1 form to collect data from covered employers on the race/ethnicity and gender of their employees during the review and stay period.
The memo explained that, among other things, the OMB is concerned that some aspects of the requirement to collect wage and hour information, lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.
Following receipt of the OIRA’s memo, the EEOC immediately issued a statement that advised covered employers that the previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data on race, ethnicity and gender by occupational category will remain in effect, and that “[e]mployers should plan to comply with the earlier approved EEO-1 (Component 1) by the previously set filing date of March 2018.” Despite this current stay in the requirement to report pay data, the EEOC said that it remains committed to strong enforcement of federal equal pay laws and hopes the OMB’s decision “…will prompt a discussion of other more effective solutions to encourage employers to review their compensation practices to ensure equal pay and close the wage gap.”
The Labor & Employment attorneys at Weintraub Tobin will continue to follow the OMB’s review process and EEO-1 employers should stay tuned for further developments.
Beginning January 1, 2018, a Nevada employee who has been employed for at least 90 days and who is a victim of an act of domestic violence or whose family member or household member is a victim of an act of domestic violence (provided the employee is not the perpetrator), is entitled to a maximum of 160 hours of leave in one 12-month period.
Domestic violence is defined under Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 33.018 as follows:
Domestic violence occurs when a person commits one of the following acts against or upon the person’s spouse or former spouse, any other person to whom the person is related by blood or marriage, any other person with whom the person is or was actually residing, any other person with whom the person has had or is having a dating relationship, any other person with whom the person has a child in common, the minor child of any of those persons, the person’s minor child or any other person who has been appointed the custodian or legal guardian for the person’s minor child: (a) A battery; (b) An assault; (c) Compelling the other person by force or threat of force to perform an act from which the other person has the right to refrain or to refrain from an act which the other person has the right to perform; (d) A sexual assault; (e) A knowing, purposeful or reckless course of conduct intended to harass the other person; (f) A false imprisonment; or (g) Unlawful entry of the other person’s residence, or forcible entry against the other person’s will if there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to the other person from the entry.
The new Nevada domestic violence leave law is broader than the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as it applies to all private employers in the state of Nevada, not just those with at least 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite. If applicable, the Nevada domestic violence leave must be deducted concurrently from leave permitted under FMLA.
Read the full article at HRUSA here: http://blog.hrusa.com/blog/new-nevada-domestic-violence-leave-law-broader-than-fmla/.
On June 30, 2017, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee signed an ordinance, providing employees in the City of San Francisco with additional lactation rights. The “Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance,” will take effect on January 1, 2018 and applies to all City employees, including those who work part-time. The ordinance is similar to existing state and federal law, but contains additional requirements.
What Does The Ordinance Require?
Location Specifics
Employers must provide a lactation location other than a bathroom that is in close proximity to the employee’s work area. The location must be shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public. It must have the following features:
1) Safe, clean, and free of toxic or hazardous materials;
2) Contain a surface (e.g. a table or shelf) to place a breast pump and personal items;
3) Contain a place to sit;
4) Have a door that locks from within;
5) Be at least 50 square feet; and
6) Have at least one electrical outlet per lactation station.
The room must be located within 500 feet or two adjacent floors from the farthest employee it is designated to serve. The employer must also provide a refrigerator where the employee can store breast milk and access to a sink with running water
The lactation location can be a room that is also used for other purposes, so long as the employer provides notice that the primary use of the room is for lactation which takes precedence over other uses.
An employer may be exempt from the ordinance’s requirements if it can establish that the requirements would impose an undue hardship (significant expense or operational difficulty in relation to the employer’s size, financial resources, nature, location, or physical space).
Employer Policy
Employers must develop and implement a written Lactation Accommodation Policy. The policy must:
1) State that employees have a right to request lactation accommodation,
2) Identify a process by which an employee may request lactation accommodation, (including how an employee may submit a request, a requirement that the employer respond within 5 business days, and a requirement that the employer and employee engage in an interactive process to determine the appropriate lactation breaks and location);
3) If the employer is exempt from the ordinance’s requirements, the employer must state the basis for denial of the lactation accommodation; and
4) Prohibit retaliation against an employee for exercising her rights under this ordinance.
The Lactation Accommodation Policy must be distributed to all employees upon hiring and offered to any employee who asks about or requests pregnancy or parental leave. If the employer has an employee handbook or policies, the Lactation Accommodation Policy must be included.
Employer Record Retention Requirement
Employers are required to maintain specific records of requests for lactation accommodation made pursuant to the employer’s policy, for 3 years.
Enforcement and Penalties
San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) is charged with enforcing the law and giving notices to correct. After a one-year grace period, beginning January 1, 2019, the OLSE may impose administrative penalties up to $500 for each violation
Existing State and Federal Requirements
The ordinance combines and expands upon existing federal and state laws that already address lactation in the workplace. (See 29 U.S.C §207(r); Cal. Labor Code 1030-1033.) Among other expansions of the law, neither federal nor California law currently requires as many specific features of the lactation room, a formal written policy, or recordkeeping and retention.
Please consult legal counsel for details regarding the ordinance’s specific requirements. We recommend reviewing and updating your existing lactation accommodation policies before January 1, 2018.
