Íæż½ã½ã of America (Íæż½ã½ã) and the Íæż½ã½ã Labor and Employment Law Council have submitted a comment letter opposing a proposed rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards that would broaden reporting requirements of labor relations consultants (including attorneys and associations) who conduct activities to persuade employees concerning their rights to organize or bargain collectively and of the employers who receive assistance from such consultants. Íæż½ã½ã also signed onto comments submitted by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW).Â
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC), which processes prevailing wage determination requests for immigration purposes, recently announced a temporary suspension of new prevailing wage determinations. The suspension, which does not affect regular prevailing wage determinations, will allow the OFLC to focus its resources on reissuing approximately 4,000 H-2B prevailing wage determinations before a court-ordered deadline of September 30, 2011.
The National Labor Relations Board’s new poster notifying employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act is now available. The poster can be downloaded in either of two formats from the Board’s website at https://www.nlrb.gov/poster. Printed copies are also available from the agency’s regional offices. Virtually all private-sector employers – whether union or nonunion – must begin posting the notice as of Nov. 14, pursuant to a final rule issued by the Board on Aug. 30.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a one-time extension of the deadline for covered federal contractors to file the VETS-100 and VETS 100-A reports because of technical problems with a newly proposed electronic reporting system. The reports detail the number of qualified covered veterans in the contractors’ workforces, by job category and hiring location, as well as the number of new hires during the 12-month reporting period who are qualified covered veterans.  DOL had planned to begin accepting electronic submissions of the reports beginning on August 1, 2011. The new system is expected to be available beginning on October 1, extending the reporting deadline to November 30.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced enhancements to its online enforcement database designed to improve public access to and understanding of the department’s enforcement actions. The updated website includes a number of new features, including map displays of inspection and violation data, as well as the ability to view individual inspection records and the enforcement history of a particular company.
On June 7, 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corpsâ€), the division of the Army responsible for investigating, developing and maintaining the nation's water and related environmental resources, issued a Procurement Instruction Letter to its contracting officers giving the authority to use electronic systems for processing certified payroll records in Corps construction projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act. The letter was issued to offer guidance and to “encourage the use of an electronic, commercially available system to process and submit Davis-Bacon certified payrolls to the Government.â€
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled in the second of two bannering cases brought by the San Diego Chapter Íæż½ã½ã, finding lawful a union’s display, at business locations of secondary employers, of banners announcing a “labor dispute†and seeking to “shame†the employers or to persuade the public not to patronize the employers. The ruling is the final Board decision in a series of bannering cases originating in 2003-2004. The Board first ruled a year ago, and in each case since then, that such activity did not constitute picketing and did not “threaten, coerce, or restrain†the secondary employers as proscribed by the National Labor Relations Act.
There is still time to register for Íæż½ã½ã’s 2011 HR Professionals Conference, Training, Education & Development (TED) Conference, and Federal Contracting Compliance Construction HR Workshop, but the hotel discount ends Friday, Sept. 9, so act fast.Both conferences will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Downtown Kansas City, Mo., with the TED Conference beginning on Oct. 3, lasting to midday on Oct. 4, and the HR Professionals Conference beginning on the morning of Oct. 4, and concluding at noon on Oct. 5.  There will be one joint session on the morning of Oct. 4 with a keynote address by Jay Forte, president of Humanetrics, LLC, on how HR and training professionals drive results in the workplace.New this year is the Federal Contracting Compliance Construction HR Workshop, which will be held Oct. 5-6, directly after the HR Professionals Conference.  This workshop is designed to help HR HRHHRRstaff responsible for compliance on federal and federally-assisted projects by providing practical information and best-practice advice from experts and peers experienced in the area.  Attendees can register for this workshop for a discounted price in conjunction with the HR Professionals Conference, or independently.Find complete session descriptions, schedule, registration, and hotel information at www.agc.org/HR_TED.
On August 15, 2011, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that “Self Check,†a free online service of E-Verify that allows individuals to check their own employment eligibility status, is now available in Spanish and accessible to residents in 16 additional states: California, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington. This announcement expands on the initial launch of Self Check in March 2011 for residents who reside in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Starting November 14, 2011, employers have yet another poster to post along with other employee notices. The new poster informs employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and is mandated by a final rule published by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the August 30 Federal Register. The rule establishes the size, form, and content of the notice, and remedies for noncompliance.