Labor Law Updates

As anticipated, 2015 has ushered in ​a series of employment law rulings, regulations and trends. At the halfway point of the year, here are eight of the biggest changes employers have faced so far this year:

Although the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970 requires businesses to provide workplaces “free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm” to employees, roughly three million workers are seriously injured – and another 4,500 workers are killed – on the job every year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Every worker should be paid for the hours they work. This may seem obvious, but it isn’t always the case. Workers across the nation are routinely denied wages they’ve rightfully earned, which can lead to the recovery of large sums of back pay later. In fact, since 2009, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has collected $1.3 billion in back wages for more than 1.5 million workers nationwide.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released a new version of the “It’s the Law” Job Safety and Health poster. This particular poster, which must be displayed by all covered employers, informs workers of their rights and employers of their legal obligation to provide a safe workplace. Due to some conflicting information about the 2015 change, however, you may be questioning how to handle the new posting.

In mid-February 2014, President Obama issued an executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contractor workers from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. Later, on March 13, he issued a presidential memorandum instructing the Secretary of Labor to propose revisions to “modernize and streamline” the existing overtime regulations.