A bill in Congress could make it harder for workers to keep employers from getting access to their personal medical and genetic information and raise the financial penalties for those who opt out of workplace wellness programs. House Republicans are proposing legislation aimed at making it easier for companies to gather genetic data from workers and their families, including their children, when they collect it as part of a voluntary wellness program.
Category: Employment / Labor Law
Uber’s work environment sounds even worse than we thought
A former engineer’s claims of sexism at Uber is apparently only the tip of a much deeper problem inside the company’s culture, according to a scathing report published on Wednesday. Another Uber manager allegedly groped co-workers’ breasts during a Las Vegas company retreat that featured cocaine-sniffing employees and a joyride in an employee-commandeered shuttle bus, the report claims.
Will your pension be there when you need it?
Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and supporters rally outside the Capitol in Washington. Millions, including these protesters, are at risk of losing their retirement savings if the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation becomes insolvent.
How The Department Of Labor Organized Against Andrew Puzder
A Senate committee will begin hearings this week on the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, fast-food magnate Andrew Puzder. And like most Trump cabinet nominations, Puzder is controversial.
Trump’s Executive Order Could Cost Retirement Portfolios Big Time
Last Friday, the president sent out a mandate that could hurt long-term investors. Here is what happened and how to protect savings.
It’s too late for Trump to stop this financial rule
President Trump on Friday signed a memo asking the Labor Department to review the fiduciary rule, which requires brokers working with retirement savers to put the interest of their clients ahead of their own. Rules and regulations exist to let us know what behaviors we should expect from the people we do business with.
What Trump’s Action on Advisor Rule Means for Retirement Savers
The future of the fiduciary rule , which was intended to benefit retirement savers, is in doubt after President Donald Trump called for its review Friday just two months before it was to go into effect. to be fiduciaries, meaning they must act in the best interests of their clients over their own.
Weighing The Lesser-Known Risks Of Talking Politics At Work
Can you get fired for airing your political beliefs in the office? What about on social media? The answers can get complicated. In the days after the election, conversation shifted at work from upcoming projects to the outcome.
Union membership down nearly 40 percent in Wisconsin
Union membership in Wisconsin has declined nearly 40 percent since legislation was passed that gutted collective bargaining for public workers, according to federal data. The percentage of public and private workers who were union members was about 8 percent, or 219,000 people, in 2016, down by 136,000 members from 2010 levels, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Union membership down nearly 40 percent in Wisconsin
Union membership in Wisconsin has declined nearly 40 percent since legislation was passed that gutted collective bargaining for public workers, according to federal data. The percentage of public and private workers who were union members was about 8 percent, or 219,000 people, in 2016, down by 136,000 members from 2010 levels, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Investment advice? Or sales pitch? New rule will make that clear for investors
Saving small amounts of money can build up enough to invest. There are plenty of ways to get around the minimum investment hurdle at mutual funds.
How one womana s fight is helping workers decades after Santa Susana radiation exposure
Bonnie Klea, a former secretary for the Department of Energy who worked at the Santa Susana Field Lab, recently scored a victory on behalf of thousands of workers. Based on documents Klea filed beginning in 2007, the federal government decided that those who were employed by the DOE to work at the Santa Susana Field Lab and related offices from 1948 to 1988 should be compensated for illnesses they may have suffered as a result of working there.
How one womana s fight could help workers decades after Santa Susana radiation exposure
Bonnie Klea, a former secretary for the Department of Energy who worked at the Santa Susana Field Lab, recently scored a victory on behalf of thousands of workers. Based on documents Klea filed beginning in 2007, the federal government decided that those who were employed by the DOE to work at the Santa Susana Field Lab and related offices from 1948 to 1988 should be compensated for illnesses they may have suffered as a result of working there.
What’s In Store For Freelancers Under President Trump?
When American freelancers were asked which presidential candidate they supported this summer, 45% sided with Clinton, while 33% preferred Trump, according to a survey commissioned by Upwork and the Freelancer Union. Now that Trump is set to become the 45th president of the U.S. this month, some believe that his victory may ultimately prove beneficial to the country’s 55 million freelance, contract, and contingent workers.
Sears closing store and auto center in Hudson Valley
A Sears department store in the Hudson Valley is closing in the new year, putting nearly 100 people out of work. The Middletown Times Herald-Record reports that 96 jobs in the department store and auto center located at Galleria at Crystal Run will be lost, according to a notice published on the state Department of Labor website.
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Claims examiner Penny Erney, who is undergoing chemotherapy, packs up her cubical at Office of Unemployment Compensation in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. Erney is one of about 500 workers at the state Department of Labor and Industry were … spending their last day on the job Monday, before being laid off because of a funding dispute between the Wolf Administration and Senate Republicans.
Older workers get boost from federal training program, but do they get jobs?
But its lofty title and mission – helping unemployed, low-income individuals age 55 and older get temporary jobs and training at nonprofits or government agencies – hasn’t shielded the U.S. Department of Labor program from criticism. The department in October awarded $140.6 million in Senior Community Service grants to 19 nonprofit groups, including almost $10 million to Chicago-based Easterseals and $2.4 million to National Able Network, funds that will cover services Feb. 1 through June 30. The hope is that individual participants develop the skills to land permanent, and unsubsidized, jobs, including in the private sector.