And speaking of reverting back to earlier requirements, remember the EEO-1 reports that President Trump was phasing out? Well, the resurrected EEO-1 Component 1 reports for 2021 are due by May 17, 2022. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a week ago that the EEO-1 Data Collection platform is now open. All private sector…
Read More »In another move undoing a favorable change made by the Trump administration, the Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) has published a proposed rule that would also restore and expand a former rule regarding the electronic filing of injury and illness reports by covered employers. The proposed rule was initially adopted under the Obama administration back…
Read More »Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a law making some significant changes to the overtime exemption rules in the Buckeye State. SB47, which the legislature passed last month, exempts certain activities from overtime pay if they are preliminary or postliminary to the principal word activities. For example, traveling to or from the actual place…
Read More »National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo yesterday issued a memorandum advising regional NLRB offices that she will be asking the Board to find that mandatory employee meetings held by some companies to persuade their workers to reject unionizing is a violation of federal labor law. In her 3-page memorandum, Abruzzo contends that…
Read More »Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear a case challenging a set of California restrictions on animal housing. Approved by voters in 2018, Proposition 12 banned the production or sale in California of pork and other animals raised using conventional animal husbandry methods. Currently, 96 percent of the…
Read More »At the request of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is developing a study on issues involving franchising up to and including the FTC Franchise Rule and its enforcement. In that vein, the GAO has asked DDIFO to assist getting franchisee volunteers to participate. The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that conducts research for…
Read More »Last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the independent contractor statute also applies to the franchisor-franchisee relationship and does not conflict with the FTC Franchise Rule 7-Eleven franchisees may in fact qualify as employees under the state ABC test. With its decision in Patel v 7-Eleven, Inc. the court in some ways “threaded…
Read More »Potentially significant changes are on tap for the tip credit rules in a number of jurisdictions around the country. Pennsylvania has already adopted a significant change that will quadruple the tip income requirement necessary for an employer to use the tip credit. Currently, the Pennsylvania minimum wage law requires employers paying the tipped minimum ($2.83…
Read More »The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week announced that it was ending the temporary COVID-19 policy allowing employers to accept expired documents when verifying work eligibility on the Form I-9 over the next month. Beginning on May 1, 2022, employers must return to the pre-COVID norm where only unexpired documents may be accepted.…
Read More »The Small Business Administration (SBA) this week announced that it was extending the deferment period for COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) borrowers to 30 months from the time when the loan was first approved. The EIDL program provided nearly four million small businesses with more than $350 billion in emergency funding during the COVID…
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