Thursday, November 24, 2005

Employers warned to make sure comply with maternity leave

A legal secretary sued Perth law firm Cocks Macnish for discriminated on the grounds of pregnancy by dismissing her.

The law firm refused the secretary return to work after what she believed was maternity leave. After the investigation, the State Administrative Tribunal found that the law firm had no equal opportunity policies and treated the woman unfavorably.

The legal secretary was awarded $9,000 in damages and lost earnings.

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.
Two groups are seeking hike in Arizona's minimum wage.

Five Fifteen Isn't Working is working for a state constitutional amendment to implement a $5.95 Arizona minimum wage, beginning in July 2007, rising to $6.75 on July 1, 2008. The group needs to gather more than 180,000 signatures of registered voters by next July to qualify for the November 2006 ballot.

Arizona Minimum Wage Coalition, which includes labor unions, community activists and religious leaders, is the second group seeking for the minimum wage hike. It would need to submit signatures from at least 122,612 registered voters by July 6 to qualify the proposed "Raise the Minimum Wage for Working Arizonans Act" for the November 2006 ballot.

Once approved, the $6.75 minimum wage would take effect in 2007. The wage would be adjusted once each year according to cost-of-living index.

Farrell Quinlan, a spokesman for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, points out that the measures will face strong opposition from the business community.

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Employment Agency Settles Discrimination Suit

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused SPS Temporaries of Buffalo, an employment agency and two clients, Whiting Door of Akron and Jamestown Container of discriminating against employees based on race, sex, disability, age and national origin.

They have agreed to pay up to 580,000 dollars to settle this class-action discrimination lawsuit.

The victims could be hundreds or thousands.

However, none of the companies admitting guilty.

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Supreme Court Clarifies Wage and Hour Law under FLSA

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) requires workers are compensated for the time they spend walking to and from the production floor after donning and before doffing required safety gear.

The court also said the time spent waiting to doff the required safety gear is compensable under the FLSA. However, that the time waiting for the first piece of equipment was a "preliminary activity" and wasn't compensable.

The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to compensate employees for all work time, and a 1947 law that generally excludes from compensation the time employees spend traveling to their work stations. The FLSA also allows employers and workers to agree in a labor contract to exclude clothes-changing time from payment.

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Supporters Push For Higher Minimum Wage

A top Democratic legislative leader is joining a coalition of groups in advocating to increase New Mexico's minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.15 per hour.

Advocators are trying to build momentum for a statewide minimum wage initiative they plan to introduce in the 2006 legislative session. They say that the proposed wage rate will help the working poor in New Mexico.

Proponents are calling for legislation that would allow the state's minimum wage to be adjusted annually with inflation, but they say they support not having it pre-empt local wage levels in the state that are higher than the mandated state minimum wage.

About $123,000 people, one-eighth of the state's workforce who earn an hourly wage less than $7.50 will benefit from the increase.

Gov. Bill Richardson supports a higher minimum wage but hasn't decided how much increase he will propose to lawmakers next year.

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.

IL Dept. of Labor investigates Oberweis Dairy

Oberweis Dairy, chaired by Illinois gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, is under the investigation of Illinois Department of Labor recently. It is alleged that Oberweis Dairy has violated state and federal minimum wage laws by underpaying two people who hired to clean several of its suburban ice cream stores.

Jorge Ibarra and Rosa Ramirez, tow undocumented workers who are hired by the dairy company and subcontractor Pat Mar Janitorial Services, was paid an average of $3.23 an hour.

Illinois’ minimum wage is $6.50 an hour. The Department of Labor couldn't provide a timeline for deciding on the matter now.

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Inspector General's Report: Wal-Mart Gets "Significant Concessions"

According to a Department of Labor report released Monday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. received "significant concessions" from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

The department and Wal-Mart signed a settlement agreement last year over child labor violations, in which the retailer that promised Wal-Mart 15 days' written notice before any WHD inspections of Wal-Mart stores for child labor law violations. Some lawmakers and child advocate groups called this agreement a sweetheart deal."

These breakdowns resulted in WHD entering into an agreement that gave significant concessions to Wal-Mart – advance notification of future investigations and ability to avoid civil money penalties (CMPs) – in exchange for little commitment from the employer beyond what it was already doing or required to do by law," the report says.

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Wal-Mart calls for US Minimum Wage Hike

Wal-Mart Stores Chief Executive H. Lee Scott has urged Congress to raise the minimum wage, which has stuck for years at $5.15 per hour.

In a speech Scott delivered at an annual meeting of company analysts, he said," The US minimum wage of 5.15 dollars has not been raised in nearly a decade, and we believe it is out of date with the times." Scott also outlined a new health plan for employees and several energy conservation initiatives.

"We can see first-hand at Wal-Mart how many of our customers are struggling to get by," Scott said, noting that some "simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between paychecks."

Wal-Mart says its full-time hourly employees make an average of $9.68 an hour. U.S. retail workers, on average, were paid about $12.40 an hour in July, according to Department of Labor statistics.

Kennedy, the author of minimum wage hike's defeated Senate legislation, said," When even the head of Wal-Mart -- one of the most anti-worker companies in the world -- says that a minimum wage of 5.15 dollars an hour is out of date, we know its long past time for an increase."

You can find more information of labor law in www.postersolution.com, and community.poster4business.com will provide you the state, federal & OSHA labor law compliance information and services.