Vigilant Blog
News, trends and analysis in employment law, HR, safety & workers' comp
Oct
20
2022
EEOC updates its mandatory EEO poster
On October 19, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the replacement of its mandatory “EEO is the Law” poster with a new one titled, “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal.” At long last, the revisions incorporate information from the temporary supplement to the “EEO is the Law” poster, which federal contractors…
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Oct
06
2022
WASHINGTON: New rules published on long-term care
The Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) published new rules last week for implementation of the WA Cares Fund, Washington’s new long-term care insurance program. Washington employers will remember that this fund was hastily “paused” by Governor Jay Inslee and the legislature in January, and then modified in the 2022 legislative session to delay the…
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Oct
06
2022
Safety and Health
WASHINGTON: Fall protection rules updated
The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) has issued revisions to its unified fall protection rules, which take effect on November 1, 2022. The unified rules, originally published in 2020 (and reported here), merged all industry fall protection standards and aligned them with federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.…
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Oct
06
2022
WASHINGTON: Minimum wage and exempt salary increase in 2023
The state of Washington has announced increases in the minimum wage rate and the exempt salary thresholds for employees, effective January 1, 2023. These increases impact several state wage requirements that you’ll want to be aware of if you have employees in Washington. The cities of Seattle and SeaTac also have…
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Oct
06
2022
WASHINGTON: COVID-19 state of emergency to end October 31, 2022
Governor Jay Inslee has announced that he will end Washington’s declared public health emergency (PHE) due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) on October 31, 2022. As he previously announced, 12 health care related orders will end on October 27. The remaining COVID-19 emergency proclamations, including the state of emergency, will be rescinded at the…
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Sep
15
2022
Q&A: Employees usually have right to display union insignia at work
Question: We have a dress code policy that requires production employees to wear either a plain t-shirt, or a t-shirt with the company logo. One of our employees came to work this morning wearing a t-shirt with the union logo. Can I require them to change? Answer: Probably not. The company…
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Sep
15
2022
WASHINGTON: L&I updates agriculture pesticide safety rules
Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) made minor changes to the existing agriculture pesticide safety standards found in WAC 296-307, which take effect on September 26, 2022. As a part of this process, L&I collaborated with the Washington State Department of Agriculture to ensure the existing rules met federal Environmental Protection…
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Sep
15
2022
WASHINGTON: L&I updates safety rules to protect temps
The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) recently issued new rules confirming existing workplace protections for temporary workers. The rules align with RCW 49.17.490, a Washington statute that already requires staffing agencies and worksite employers to comply with specific health and safety standards for temporary workers in manufacturing and construction…
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Sep
15
2022
Federal contractors get portal to report construction subcontracts
Federal construction contractors now have a one-stop option to comply with their obligation to notify the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) within 10 business days of awarding a subcontract worth more than $10,000 for work on a federal or federally assisted construction project. The OFCCP recently launched the…
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Sep
15
2022
OFCCP extends deadline to object to EEO-1 release to 10/19/22
On 9/15, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) extended the deadline from September 19, 2022, to October 19, 2022, for multi-location federal contractors to object to the release of their EEO-1 Reports to a news organization. As we previously reported, an investigative reporter has filed a Freedom of…
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