The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week announced a proposed new rule redefining the term “healthy” as relates packaged foods. With the publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register on September 29, concerned parties and the general public will now have 90 days to file formal comments with the agency. The…
Read More »Although it should come as a surprise to nobody involved in the franchise business model, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is resurrecting the Obama-era joint employer standard that caused much angst within the industry. The agency has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday of this week, that…
Read More »The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced its first proposed rule on the Optional Alternatives to the Physical Document Examination Associated with Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9). The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register last week, does not yet include a detailed plan for virtual inspection of Form I-9. Instead, the proposed rule…
Read More »As the labor shortage continues unabated, notwithstanding record low unemployment rates, efforts are underway to increase the limit on H-2B Visas. Along with others, the Travel Industry is urging the Biden administration to raise the cap following news early this month that the limit for the second half of the current fiscal year (FY22) had…
Read More »As we advised in a Membership Update earlier this week, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has completed its draft Vaccine Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) and sent it along to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget for final review. Once…
Read More »The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week published a proposed rulemaking that will revamp the agency rules regarding union representation elections. The first proposed rulemaking in an expected series of changes will reshape the current “blocking charge” which allows unions to stop decertification votes by alleging election interference. Under the NLRB proposal, decertification votes…
Read More »The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is implementing a new safety standard for all high chairs for public commercial establishments as well as residential (home) use, effective June 19, 2019. The new standard was drafted with the goal of addressing a number of perceived hazards, primary among them, increasing the rearward stability of high chairs…
Read More »The proposed DOL regulation on joint employer was officially published in the Federal Register on Tuesday of this week, triggering the start of the 60-day public comment period. The proposed joint employer regulation uses a four-part test to determine when a business should be held jointly libel for minimum wage and overtime law violations. Specifically,…
Read More »The Department of Labor under new Secretary Alex Acosta is inviting comments from businesses and other groups and individuals on the issue of the department overtime rule. Under the previous administration, the overtime threshold was more than doubled to $47,476, but enjoined by the court in November. Earlier this week, DOL sent a Request for…
Read More »Against the backdrop painted by these issues, both the US House of Representatives and the United States Senate have expressed concern over the prospect of the Obama administration passing a host of new lame-duck regulations before the President formally leaves office on January 20, 2017. In a letter signed by 22 republican leaders and sent…
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