Today’s post comes from the US Dept. of Labor.The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 gives employees and their representatives the right to file a complaint and request an OSHA inspection of their workplace if they believe there is a serious hazard or their employer is not following OSHA standards. Workers do not have [...]
OSHA is being prevented from fulfilling its mission. Today’s post comes from guest author Paul McAndrew, from the Paul McAndrew Law Firm.In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety & Health Act (the Act), which created the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). Among other things, the Act requires every employer to provide a safe workplace. [...]
Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman, from Jon L Gelman LLC.The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Jersey Shore Steel for four violations, including three failure-to-abate citations, at its Jackson facility. Proposed penalties total $115,400 after OSHA's follow-up inspection opened in April. "By not abating past violations, Jersey [...]
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, and youth employment standards. The FLSA establishes a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and requires overtime pay at a rate not less than 1.5 times the regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek for covered nonexempt workers'. [...]
North Carolina needs a Commissioner of Labor who is fair to workers'. Certainly cooperation between employers and employees is key. However, when thousands of workers' are not being paid their duly-earned wages, we have a problem. In 2014, the News & Observer published an article entitled “For Many Workers Cheated out of Wages, NC [...]
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” is a famous line uttered by a rebel in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2. While on its face the quote expresses an extreme distaste for lawyers, it has also been interpreted to praise lawyers as protectors of the rule of law who guard against [...]
In Raleigh, North Carolina, we see a lot of crickets, wasps, bees, lightning bugs, and an occasional cicada. What we don’t have – thank goodness – are scorpions. Those belong far, far away – preferably in other countries or in the Southwest. However, just a few weeks ago, an employee at a grocery store in [...]
Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or a supporter of some other party, don’t we all want fairness and a right to be heard? In North Carolina, those who control the legislature do not seem interested in due process rights. House Bill 2 (the bathroom bill) was passed and signed by the Governor in [...]
Last year, the Department of Labor (DOL) recovered nearly $247 million in back wages for more than 240,000 workers'. Since 2009, the DOL has recovered nearly $1.6 billion in back wages for 1.7 million workers'. These amounts are just a fraction of the amount owed to workers' because of wage theft (employers not paying workers' [...]
Mitragyna speciosa, aka “kratom,” is a tropical plant in the coffee family, native to Southeast Asia, historically used in Thailand for its medicinal qualities. Thailand banned kratom in 1943 due to abuse and now North Carolina, among other states, is seeking to set limits on the drug too. What’s the concern about kratom? According [...]