Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wage and Hour Division

Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from www.dol.gov

Executive Order

On February 12, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13658, “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors,” to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for workers on Federal construction and service contracts. The President took this executive action because boosting wages lowers turnover and increases morale, and will lead to higher productivity overall. Raising wages will improve the quality and efficiency of services provided to the government. The Executive Order directed the Department of Labor to issue regulations to implement the new Federal contractor minimum wage.

The Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on June 17, 2014. The NPRM proposed standards and procedures for implementing and enforcing Executive Order 13658 and invited public comment on the proposed provisions. The Department received many comments from a variety of interested stakeholders, such as labor organizations; contractors and contractor associations; worker advocates, including advocates for individuals with disabilities; contracting agencies; small businesses; and workers.

After carefully considering all timely and relevant comments, the Department has published a final rule to implement the provisions of Executive Order 13658. The final rule issued by Secretary of Labor Tom Perez is an important milestone in raising the minimum wage for workers on Federal contracts.

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11 New Products Added to List of Goods Produced by Child labor, Forced labor

Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from blog.dol.gov

A nine-year-old girl sits on a cracked floor in the suffocating heat and humidity of a five-story garment factory. She is almost finished trimming loose threads from shirt sleeves when her 11-year-old friend comes to collect the sleeves, which will be sown into shirts. As they briefly share a laugh, the supervisor smacks their heads and screams at them to get back to work. This day is not much different from any other.

Boy harvesting scallions, Mexicali, Mexico (Stolen Childhoods)
Boy harvesting scallions, Mexicali, Mexico (Stolen Childhoods)

A twelve-year-old boy walks between the long rows of vanilla orchids on a large plantation, hand-pollinating the flowers. He works in sweltering heat during school breaks, and reports to the fields each day after school, working until late at night.

Another boy kneels next to a wooden loom many times his size, reaching up to weave yarn through its threads.  When he finishes, he will eat a meager meal and go to sleep next to the loom, alongside the seven other boys who also live and work there. He is only 10 years old, but he can barely remember his parents through the fog of the drugs his employers provide to keep him docile. Four years ago, his impoverished family took an advance payment from a recruiter in exchange for his labor, and he has remained bonded to this loom ever since.

Although the details of their exploitation may differ, the stark reality of the estimated 168 million child laborers and 21 million forced laborers around the world are the same:  their lives are…

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Why Living Wages are Important for My Workers, Business & the Community

Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from blog.dol.gov

Editor’s Note: The author, Molly Moon Neitzel, is the owner and CEO of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, a company comprised of six ice cream shops in Seattle serving homemade, locally sourced ice cream.

Molly Moon's Grand Opening - University Village
Molly Moon’s Grand Opening – University Village

When I first decided to open an ice cream shop, I knew that one of my goals would be to pay all of my employees a living wage. So I wrote it into my business plan, along with a few other things that were important to me, like paying 100% of the health insurance premiums for my employees and making sure all my product and packaging was compostable. I had my share of critics; there were plenty of people who said I was crazy, and that I would never be able to make a profit.

Seven years later, my company has grown from one shop with 7 employees in 2008 to six ice cream shops, with just under 100 employees during our busiest months. What I’ve learned is that taking care of my employees and paying a living wage is absolutely the right thing to do, and it’s also good business strategy.

Having a healthy, robust group of employees has a great impact on our community, and goes beyond just writing paychecks. It helps us recruit top talent, and it makes for a more loyal workforce and lower turnover which reduces training costs. Incorporating values into business strategy can also help your marketing plans. I know that, as a customer, I choose to spend money with businesses that share my values and I think my…

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Seattle church leaders back in court for lawsuit against pot shop

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.kirotv.com

Uncle Ike's Pot Shop
Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop

Lawyers for a Seattle church suing to shut down a pot store next door will be back in court on Friday.

The Mount Calvary Church in the Central District is resisting the location of Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop.

The church’s lawsuit claims the pot shop lied about how close it would be to a park and a teen recreation center.

The church says it’s trying to keep marijuana away from children.

The lawsuit says Uncle Ike’s lied on the business application about not being near places where youngsters hang out.

The church also said the City of Seattle and State Liquor Control Board never gave them proper notice to fight the pot shop’s application.

KIRO 7 tried to get a comment from the owner of Uncle Ike’s on the alleged lie on their application and to talk about the lawsuit, but the owner did not want to comment.

 The church said it will have a large group at the downtown courthouse Friday morning.

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Sailors Can Sue Tepco in U.S. Over Radiation, Judge Says

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.bloomberg.com

U.S. Navy personnel who were exposed to radiation from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima plant during earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in 2011 can sue the power station’s operator in California, a court ruled.

U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino in San Diego denied the request by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) to dismiss the class-action lawsuit based on jurisdictional issues and have it heard in Japan instead.

“Although Japan is an adequate alternative forum, the balance of the private and public interest factors suggest that it would be more convenient for the parties to litigate in a U.S. court,” Sammartino wrote in her Oct. 28 ruling.

The sailors and their families claimed the company known as Tepco, Japan’s biggest power utility, was negligent in the design and operation of the Fukushima plant, according to their amended complaint filed in February. They’re seeking to create a fund exceeding $1 billion to monitor their health and pay for medical expenses, on top of unspecified damages.

Tepco had argued the U.S. military had contributed to the plaintiffs’ harm, limiting the utility’s liability.

Tepco spokesman Satoshi Togawa declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In Japan, an inquest committee has recommended that local prosecutors indict former Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and two executives over negligence claims leading to the disaster. Prosecutors in Tokyo said this month they would decide on charges by Feb. 2.

The…

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Working Together to Strengthen the Economy

Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from social.dol.gov

October was another solid month of job growth, as our economy added 214,000 jobs and continued its strong, steady recovery. It was the ninth month in a row with greater than 200,000 new jobs (after revisions), and private employers have now created 10.6 million new jobs over the last 56 months. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent, compared to 7.2 percent a year ago.

Thanks to the ingenuity and innovation of both our workers and our businesses, as well as strong leadership by President Obama, we have climbed out of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. GDP is now significantly higher than it was before the recession. Consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2007. Rising home values are creating greater economic security for millions of people. For the first time in 20 years, the United States produces more oil than it imports. More people have access to affordable health care, and more students are graduating from high school.

But clearly there is still unease in American households from coast to coast – and it comes from a very real place. There is still widespread economic inequality. Wages haven’t kept pace with productivity. We are in the middle of the strongest run of private-sector job growth in 16 years, but we need the same broadly-shared prosperity that we had in the late 1990s. Today’s rising tide is only lifting some boats, while too many others are struggling to stay above water. We have to do more.

On Tuesday, the American…

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Silver Buildings: New Buildings for Older People

Today’s post was shared by Gelman on Workplace Injuries and comes from www.nytimes.com

Today’s post is shared from nytimes.com/

SAN FRANCISCO — I HEARD about the new building for months before I saw it. Part of a leading medical center, its green architecture and design were getting a lot of attention, as was its integration of top-notch modern medicine with health and wellness spaces inspired by cultures from around the world. My father’s doctor had moved there, and driving to his appointment we looked forward to experiencing the cutting-edge new building firsthand.

Outside, I unloaded the walker and led my 82-year-old father through the sliding glass doors. Inside, there was a single bench made of recycled materials. I noticed it didn’t have the arm supports that a frail elderly person requires to safely sit down and get back up. It was a long trek to the right clinic and I was double-parked outside. Helping my father onto the bench, I said, “Wait here,” and hoped he would remember to do so long enough for me to park and return.

He nodded. We were used to this. It happened almost everywhere we went: at restaurants, the bank, the airport, department stores. Many of these places — our historic city hall, with its wide steps and renovated dome, the futuristic movie theater and the new clinic — were gorgeous.

The problem was that not one of them was set up to facilitate access by someone like my father.

That may have been intentional. A few years earlier, I’d heard about a new community center where the older…

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Former workers, whistleblowers shed light on nuclear site safety setbacks

Today’s post was shared by Gelman on Workplace Injuries and comes from america.aljazeera.com

RICHLAND, Wash. – On the banks of the Columbia River, miles of open land sit undeveloped behind barbed wire fences. A handful of mysterious structures dot the landscape, remnants from the early days of the Cold War. Passing by the old Hanford nuclear production complex can feel like a journey into the past.

Known simply as Hanford, workers here produced plutonium for the world’s first atomic bomb and for many of the nation’s current nuclear warheads. The site was first developed in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project and ceased plutonium production nearly 50 years later, leaving behind 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste. Spanning 586 square miles, it is now ground zero for the largest cleanup project in America.

For 27 years, Mike Geffre was part of that effort, working in an area known as the tank farms: 177 massive underground storage tanks, which hold up to 1 million gallons each of the country’s most toxic nuclear waste. 

A crack in the shell

First built in the 1940s, many of the original single-shell tanks leaked and contaminated the local groundwater. But starting in the 1960s, the federal government built stronger double-shell tanks that were supposed to hold the waste securely until it could be treated and sent to a deep geological repository for final keeping. Geffre, who maintained instruments used to monitor chemical and radioactive waste, spent much of his time looking for leaks in the supposedly unleakable tanks.  

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Florida Statute Deeming Workers’ Compensation an Exclusive Remedy Declared Unconstitutional by 11th Circuit Trial Court

Today’s post was shared by Workers Comp News and comes from www.jdsupra.com

On Wednesday, August 13, 2014, 11th Circuit Trial Judge Jorge E. Cueto entered a Summary Final Judgment Order declaring the exclusive remedy provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) unconstitutional. In Julio Cortes v. Velda Farms LLC (Case No. 2011-13661-CA-25 in Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County; also captioned Florida Workers’ Advocates, Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group, Elsa Padgett v. State of Florida, Office of the Attorney General), petitioners asked the court to decide if injured workers should have the right to pursue damages outside of the workers’ compensation system, thereby negating the exclusive remedy principle. Judge Cueto agreed and further stated that the current workers’ compensation law did not provide adequate benefits compared with the tort system. Petitioners included Florida Workers’ Advocates (FWA) and the Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG). WILG is a national organization of attorneys representing injured workers. FWA is an organization of attorneys representing injured workers in Florida.

The complaint for damages was originally brought by an employee against an employer based on the alleged negligence of the employer. The affirmative defense of workers’ compensation immunity under Fla. Stat. §440.11 was timely raised. The complaint was later amended to add Count IV, seeking declaratory relief that Fla. Stat. §440.11 (the exclusive remedy…

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Communication Towers

Today’s post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

Prior to the 1980s, communication and broadcast tower erection, servicing and maintenance was a very small and highly specialized industry. Over the past 30 years, the growing demand for wireless and broadcast communications has spurred a dramatic increase in communication tower construction and maintenance.

In order to erect or maintain communication towers, employees regularly climb towers, using fixed ladders, support structures or step bolts, from 100 feet to heights in excess of 1000 or 2000 feet. Employees climb towers throughout the year, including during inclement weather conditions.

Some of the more frequently encountered hazards include:

  • Falls from great heights
  • Electrical hazards
  • Hazards associated with hoisting personnel and equipment with base-mounted drum hoists
  • Inclement weather
  • Falling object hazards
  • Equipment failure
  • Structural collapse of towers

In 2013, OSHA recorded a total number of 13 communication tower-related fatalities. In the first half of 2014, there have already been nine fatalities at communication tower worksites. This represents a significant increase in fatalities and injuries from previous years, and OSHA is concerned at this trend. OSHA is working with industry stakeholders to identify the causes of these injuries and fatalities, and to reduce the risks faced by employees in the communication tower industry.

Compliance Assistance

  • No more falling workers. OSHA focuses on protecting cell tower employees after increase in worksite fatalities….

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