Insights

December 18, 2023
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Category: Biden Administration

President Biden Adds Global Labor Rights to His Pro-Union Action Plan

President Biden has launched another initiative to advance labor union rights, this time from a global perspective. In a memorandum entitled “Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally,” President Biden directed executive branch agencies “to pursue a whole-of-government approach to advancing worker empowerment and organizing, workers’ rights, and labor standards globally.” The memorandum has no immediate impact on...
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December 18, 2023
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Category: Data and Statistics

Latest Annual (2022) Drug Use Survey Shows Another Jump in Substance Abuse by Working Americans

The government’s most recent annual drug and alcohol use survey shows a continuing increase in substance abuse by full-time workers. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH or Survey), covering calendar year 2022, both the use of illicit drugs (including marijuana, which remains illegal nationwide under federal law) and alcohol abuse by full-time employees (FTEs) in...
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December 14, 2023
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Category: EEOC

Government’s Latest Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda Shows New Activity by the EEOC

This memo summarizes workplace-related regulatory priorities that the Biden Administration listed in its latest semi-annual regulatory agenda. This memo, as well as a chart prepared by our affiliated nonprofit membership association, the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), provide a user-friendly digest of regulatory developments that we are following. Notably, for the first time in several years, the agenda lists several new...
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December 13, 2023
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Category: Discrimination and Harassment

Eleventh Circuit Rules No Discrimination If Hiring Officials Didn’t Know Applicant’s Race

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in a non-precedential opinion in Tolley v. Mercer University that a white applicant for a professorship failed to prove race discrimination because he could not show that the university officials who rejected his application knew his race. Employment discrimination is about actual knowledge and real intent, not constructive knowledge and...
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December 12, 2023
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Category: FLSA

Six States Will Have Overtime Minimum Salary Thresholds Higher Than Fed as of 1/1/24

To be exempt from overtime pay under federal law, an executive, administrative, or professional employee must be paid a weekly salary of at least $684 (equivalent to an annual salary of $35,568), regardless of the employee’s job duties. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not preempt individual states from enacting their own more expansive wage and hour laws, however, and...
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December 12, 2023
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Category: Compliance Reporting and Recordkeeping

DOL Seeking Routine Three-Year Extension of Current VETS-4212 Report

The Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) announced November 28, 2023, that it will ask the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to allow it to keep using the current version of the Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report (VETS-4212) for three more years. Covered federal contractors must file the report with VETS annually. Public comments...
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December 11, 2023
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

Commerce Department Is Seeking Input From Private Sector Businesses on Their DEIA Efforts

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) wants to hear from companies about their diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts. In response to President Biden’s Executive Orders (E.O.) 13985 and 14091, which call for expanding federal government equity initiatives, the Commerce Department developed a set of draft Business Diversity Principles (BDPs) to describe the private sector’s best DEIA practices. DOC’s draft principles...
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December 07, 2023
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Category: Labor Relations

Fifth Circuit Reverses Biden-Era NLRB Ruling on Tesla’s “Team Wear” Policy

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has overturned a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that a team-wear policy of non-union automaker Tesla violated federal labor law. Tesla’s policy required employees to wear t-shirts emblazoned with the company logo. It allowed employees to wear stickers with union insignia on the shirts, but it did...
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December 06, 2023
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Category: Data and Statistics

FY 2022 USERRA Discrimination Complaints Up 17% Over Previous Year

Enforcement statistics released recently by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) show that discrimination complaints filed with the agency under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) for fiscal year (FY) 2022 increased by 17 percent over FY 2021, reversing a decade-long downward trend. USERRA protects the employment and reemployment rights of employees...
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December 05, 2023
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Category: Compliance Reporting and Recordkeeping

OMB Extends Approval of Current EEO-1 “Component 1” Form Through 2026

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has modified its prior one-year approval of a request from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to extend “Component 1” of the annual Employer Information (EEO-1) Report for an additional two years, until November 30, 2026. Earlier this year, OMB approved continued use of the Component 1 EEO-1 through August...
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