EEO-1 Reports due March 31, 2018

After more than a year off from filing annual EEO-1 Reports, covered employers must once again submit data on the race/ethnicity and gender of their workforce, sorted into 10 job categories. For many years, September 30 was the annual deadline, but the 2017 report was moved to March 31, 2018,…

Affirmative Action  

New OFCCP webpage highlights Native American program

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has unveiled a new webpage highlighting its efforts to support the employment of Native Americans by federal contractors. The agency’s Indian and Native American Employment Rights Program (INAERP) has been around since 2013, but wasn’t widely publicized. Most of the webpage is geared toward…

Safety and Health  

No real winners in battle over intoxicated employee’s death after party

A New York appellate court recently ruled that a cancer treatment center wasn’t liable for the death of its 48-year-old employee who became extremely intoxicated at an annual department holiday party. The case serves as a sobering reminder, however, of the human consequences of a holiday event gone wrong. The party was…

Safety and Health  

ALERT: OSHA extends electronic filing deadline to December 15, 2017

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced that it is postponing its December 1, 2017, deadline for electronic filing of summary injury and illness data, to December 15, 2017. OSHA’s electronic reporting requirement currently applies to employers in Idaho, Oregon, and Montana. Employers in California and Washington don’t have to…

Affirmative ActionHarassment & Discrimination  

OFCCP secures significant settlements from federal contractors

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) hustled to wrap up major financial settlements from federal contractors as the federal government’s fiscal year drew to a close on September 30, 2017. The settlements were the result of the OFCCP’s focus on hiring, placement (“steering”), and compensation practices during random affirmative action audits. Below…

Affirmative ActionHarassment & Discrimination  

OFCCP audit results in $3.22 million payment by B&H Foto

Following an affirmative action audit by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), federal contractor B&H Foto & Electronics Corp. has agreed to pay $3,220,000 in back pay and interest to affected workers. The OFCCP alleged that the company systematically discriminated against applicants and employees in its warehouse in Brooklyn Navy…

Q&A  

Q&A: Don’t make any employment changes in light of DACA rescission

Question: I understand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program was rescinded. One of our employees obtained work authorization through the DACA program. Do I need to fire her?

Wage and Hour  

Overtime rule that would have increased salaries of exempt workers is dead

It appears that the Obama-era overtime rule that would have nearly doubled the minimum salary for white-collar workers exempt from overtime is now completely dead, thanks to a court decision and a Department of Labor (DOL) legal filing. As we previously reported, a federal district court in Texas put a…

Wage and Hour  

Alert: OMB revokes pay data portion of EEO-1 Report

To the relief of employers across the country, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has yanked approval for the controversial new pay data portion of the revised EEO-1 Report that would have taken effect in 2018. The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs informed the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity…