Shutdown Shelved (For Now). In a rare demonstration of unity, Congress punted on this week’s government funding debate out of respect for the funeral of President George H.W. Bush (more on the former president’s legacy...more
Agencies Propose HRA Expansion. On October 23, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed regulation to expand the use of health...more
10/29/2018
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Congressional Committees ,
EEO-1 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Federal Contractors ,
Harassment ,
Health Insurance ,
Justice O'Connor ,
OFCCP ,
OIRA ,
Pay Data ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Plan (QSEHRAs)
PAID Persists. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division’s (WHD) Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) pilot program was set to expire this month, but it has been extended for another six months....more
10/12/2018
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Construction Industry ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Information Reports ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Welcome to the inaugural issue of our new quarterly newsletter, Ogletree Deakins Compass. We hope you enjoy the publication, which contains some of the familiar features of the Employment Law Authority, but also has a few new...more
10/4/2018
/ Association Health Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Health Insurance ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Judges ,
Marijuana ,
Multinationals ,
New Legislation ,
Nominations ,
OFCCP ,
Opinion Letter ,
Paid Leave ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
USCIS ,
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) ,
Wage and Hour
Kavanaugh Update. The Buzz predicted that the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh would be all-consuming, but even we underestimated how contested his nomination would become. Regardless of the outcome, the political...more
9/24/2018
/ Appropriations Bill ,
Brett Kavanaugh ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OIG ,
OSHA ,
Purple Communications ,
Recusal ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings
NLRB Issues Joint-Employer Proposal. Whoa. Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) published a proposed rule regarding its joint-employer standard. The proposed rule would undo the Board’s 2015 Browning-Ferris...more
9/17/2018
/ Brett Kavanaugh ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Comment Period ,
Construction Industry ,
Federal Contractors ,
H-2B ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process
September to Remember. Congress returned this week, and Capitol Hill policymakers are girding themselves for a busy month of September. Indeed, October 1—the start of the new fiscal year—looms large, so Congress will have...more
9/10/2018
/ Brett Kavanaugh ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Facebook ,
H-1B ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Opinion Letter ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Twitter ,
USCIS
SCOTUS Nominee Hearing. The Senate Judiciary Committee has set September 4, 2018, for the start of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. This is less than one month before the Court’s next term kicks...more
OSHA Record-Keeping Proposal Released. On July 26, 2018, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a pre-Federal Register version of its proposed rule to amend its 2016 injury and illness recordkeeping...more
Rulemaking for Me, but Not for Thee. Late last week, senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman John Ring asking him...more
The Buzz returns renewed and reenergized from last week’s highly successful Workplace Strategies conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where approximately 800 employer representatives gathered with Ogletree Deakins lawyers to...more
5/21/2018
/ Anti-Commandeering ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Joint Employers ,
Memorandum of Understanding ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Proposed Legislation ,
SCOTUS ,
Tenth Amendment ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour
Labor Secretary’s Year in Review. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta was sworn in approximately one year ago this week (on April 28, 2017). Now that he has survived one year as secretary of labor, the Buzz thinks it is an...more
EEO-1 Extended. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has extended, until June 1, 2018, the deadline for covered employers to file EEO-1 forms. The previous deadline was March 31, 2018....more
It’s spring recess in D.C., and the Senate and House will be off for two weeks. While the recess means lighter traffic, it doesn’t mean that the labor and employment policy machine grinds to a halt....more
4/2/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OIG ,
Persuader Rules ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
If, like the Buzz, your bracket is already busted, please take a break from the games and spend a few minutes reading about what happened in labor and employment policy in D.C. this week.
Fiduciary Rule Vacated. On March...more
Washington, D.C., in December is known for its holiday parties, where lobbyists and Hill denizens gather to stab food with toothpicks and knock back cheap—and sometimes not-so-cheap—drinks. Despite all this partying, people...more
12/18/2017
/ Ambush Election Rules ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Holidays ,
Joint Employers ,
Lilly Ledbetter ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Tip-Pooling ,
USCIS
“Zombie” ACA Repeal-and-Replace Effort Suddenly Resuscitated. Opponents of Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal-and-replace efforts no doubt forgot the vitally important “double tap” rule, and now the zombie legislative effort is...more
9/25/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
EEO-1 ,
FOIA ,
H-1B ,
Health Insurance ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OMB ,
OSHA ,
Repeal ,
Silica
EEO-1 News . . . Maybe. Rumors are rampant that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may soon take action on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) changes to its EEO-1 form, which will...more
8/21/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Arbitration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Electronic Filing ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Health Insurance ,
OFCCP ,
OMB ,
OSHA ,
Persuader Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Special Meetings ,
Subsidies
On May 23, 2017, President Trump released his Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget proposal—a more detailed and developed version (it’s nearly 1300 pages long) of the so-called “skinny” budget that was released in March of 2017....more