OSHA has ordered Union Pacific Railroad Co., headquartered in Omaha, to reassign a Beverly, Iowa, welder to his former position, reimburse the welder for travel expenses, and pay compensatory damages associated with personal hardship following a whistleblower investigation.
The commission's programs aim to prevent, reduce, and eliminate water, solid waste, air, and pesticide pollution through standard-setting, monitoring, permitting, and enforcement activities.
The new law is geared for performance and transparency: Preference will be given to projects that can be started and completed expeditiously, and EPA intends to move designated funds to states as quickly as possible.
"Knowledge is the most portable and the most valuable resource in any worker's toolkit. Laborers and others will be able to carry the information obtained here to any jobsite," said Paul Mangiafico, director for OSHA's Boston North area.
"OSHA should promulgate a number of exposure standards including silica, beryllium, diacetyl and combustible dust. But we need to acknowledge that the standard-setting process has become excruciatingly slow and cumbersome," writes Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, one of many contributors to a special newsletter produced for the new administration.
Women who have been through sexual harassment at the workplace tend to leave the organization. That's according to a study that was carried out at the University of Haifa. "It is a matter of having no other outlet and not an act of control and power," the researchers stated.
"In spite of advances since Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was enacted 44 years ago, race discrimination still remains one of the most pervasive problems in today's workplace," said Spencer H. Lewis, director of EEOC's New York District Office.
Half of respondents estimated the average annual nursing home stay is between $20,000 and 60,000 per year, when the national average cost of one year in a nursing home is more than $75,000.
"Keeping workers engaged and productive is always a daunting challenge. However, it's even more crucial in this type of economic environment when organizations are striving to do more with less and employees are paying closer attention," said Ilene Gochman, global practice leader for organization effectiveness at Watson Wyatt.
A survey of human resources executives at 229 firms across Indiana found that about 67 percent of respondents were willing to pay a higher salary of 1 to 4 percent to attract new employees with emerging media skills.
"This employer's ongoing recalcitrance delayed but did not derail our efforts on behalf of the employee," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York.
"Monsanto Aviation has gone above and beyond in establishing a culture of workplace safety," said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City.
In 2008, government workers were nearly five times more likely to belong to a union than were private sector employees.
The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), recently announced guidance on the duties of employee benefit plan fiduciaries in light of alleged abuses involving Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
Among its recommendations, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information urges all health research institutions take strong measures to safeguard the security of personal¬ly identifiable health information and advises the Department of Health and Human Services to support the development and use of new security technologies and self-evaluation standards.
The Department of Labor recently announced a $22 million grant to assist approximately 7,400 workers affected by financial industry layoffs in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey Tri-State area.
Today's data show the unemployment rate for disabled working-age Americans in January 2009 was 13.2 percent -- 59 percent higher than the unemployment rate for non-disabled Americans in the same month, 8.3 percent.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced that he has created a team at the Department of Transportation to coordinate the department's role in President Obama's economic recovery program. The team will ensure that economic recovery funding is rapidly made available for transportation infrastructure projects and that project spending is monitored and transparent.
The results also exposed a growing emphasis on "personal responsibility" and a potential blind spot related to generational differences.