EXCLUSIVE: VA Asks For Meeting With Whistleblowers To Find Out How They Face Retaliation

The Department of Veterans Affairs is reaching out to whistleblowers for a meeting on the challenges they've faced when exposing wrongdoing at their facilities, following the establishment of an office to protect whistleblowers. Whistleblowers Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez from the Phoenix VA and Sean Higgins from the Memphis VA have been contacted by the Central Whistleblower Office for a conference call meeting Friday, which comes just over a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection at the VA, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Senate votes to repeal Labor Department rule on state-run retirement plans

The U.S. Senate voted narrowly on Wednesday to repeal an exemption from strict federal protections that former President Barack Obama's Labor Department had given to state-sponsored retirement savings plans for lower-income workers. The exemption, championed by states such as California but opposed by the mutual fund industry, had freed the state-run plans from the strict compliance requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.

VA office could hurt, not protect, whistleblowers

President Donald Trump is correct to hold federal employees accountable, even as he and his folks make every effort to squirm away from a steady flow of ethical quandaries. His executive order on "Improving Accountability and Whistleblower Protections" would create an office in the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify barriers to bouncing bad workers from an agency whose ethical reputation was shredded during a scandal over the cover-up of long patient wait times.

Sandra Sunderland Bodil Tvede James Liese Susan Liese Carolann…

SANDRA SUNDERLAND, BODIL TVEDE, JAMES LIESE, SUSAN LIESE, CAROLANN DONOFRIO, JOHN DONOFRIO, JACQUELINE GLUCKMAN, BARBARA DRUMM, JOHN VIRGADAULA, THE FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF, INC., Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. BETHESDA HOSPITAL, INC., d.b.a. Bethesda Memorial Hospital, d.b.a. Bethesda Hospital West, BETHESDA HEALTH, INC., Defendants - Appellees.

Reversing decades of interpretation: Court expands LGBT worker rights by attacking originalism

An appeals court ruled in support of LGBT rights this week, reversing decades of interpretation that largely allowed companies to discriminate against workers on the basis of sexual orientation. In their groundbreaking decision, nine of 12 judges in an en banc panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said that gay and lesbian workers are protected under Title VII.

Equal Access

COURT BATTLE School board member Timothy Nonn is suing the district he was elected to serveover charges they are not meeting his needs as a disabled person. newly elected trustee at the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District is suing the district in federal court this week over what he says is an ongoing violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act .

Weighty Issues: Obesity And The But-For Test Under The ADAAA

Obesity is still a hot topic both in our health conscious culture and in our courtrooms where we continue to see ADAAA claims based on the notion that an employer fired an employee because the employee was obese . After the ADA was amended, there was some question about how the courts would treat obesity under the ADAAA, especially claims alleging that the employer regarded the employee as disabled.

President Trump Orders Review of DOL Fiduciary Rule and Addresses…

On February 3, 2017, President Trump took actions aimed at alleviating some of the regulatory burdens on the financial services industry. Through a Presidential Memorandum , President Trump ordered the DOL to "examine the Fiduciary Duty Rule to determine whether it may adversely affect the ability of Americans to gain access to retirement information and financial advice" and prepare an updated economic and legal analysis concerning the impact of the rule, while taking into account several enumerated considerations.

White House says it wona t roll back LGBTQ protections

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he won't roll back federal workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people, giving a rare nod of approval to President Barack Obama's work on the issue. In a statement released early morning, the White House said Obama's 2014 executive order prohibiting LGBTQ workplace discrimination would remain intact "at the direction" of Trump.

Whistleblower protections expanded to include government contractors

A bill to strengthen protections for employees who blow the whistle on fraud, waste and mismanagement in government contracts has gained congressional approval and now will head to the president's desk to be signed into law. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, permanently expands whistleblower protections to nearly all contractors and subcontractors for the federal government, except for those who work in the intelligence community.

New House education chairwoman Virginia Foxx favors rolling back Obama regulations

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., listens to testimony at a House Education Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 2016. A worker, right, installs lights on the 2016 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.

Overtime pay battle stumps employers

A federal judge's injunction of President Barack Obama's attempt to expand overtime pay for 4.2 million workers has left some employers unsure of how to allot future salaries while their employees wonder how they will be paid. The regulation was scheduled to go into effect today, but U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III issued an injunction on Nov. 22, to the U.S. Department of Labor's dismay.