The Department of Defense has published its final rule addressing protections for federal contractor employees who disclose information to government officials regarding waste, mismanagement, danger to public health or safety, Read more

The Internal Revenue Service will be auditing the employment taxes paid by 5,000 randomly selected for-profit and non-profit employers beginning in November, a Littler Mendelson attorney recently warned. Read more

The U.S. Dept. of Labor reportedly will eliminate the Employment Standards Administration effective November 8, 2009.

According to CCH, the reorganization abolishes the ESA organization and name, but will maintain the four component programs of ESA: the U.S. Read more

Senior executives and corporate directors want to know the extent to which companies have benefited from implementing effective ethics and compliance programs, but such information is in short supply, according to a recent report by The Conference Board.

In late 2007, The Conference Board surveyed the mem Read more

Construction, supply, and service contractors receiving federal monies under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be subject to compliance audits, including affirmative action programs, according to plans submitted by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Read more

The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s $104.5 billion budget request for 2010 includes a plan to hire 997 new employees, including about 670 investigators. Read more

The Dept. Read more

The Internal Revenue Service has released its 2009 “dirty dozen” list of tax scams, including schemes involving disguised corporate ownership, phony wages, and abuses in retirement plan arrangements, including Roth Individual Retirement Arrangements.

According to the IRS, some taxpayers form corporations and other entit Read more

Businesses in the City and County of Honolulu affected by the recent storms and flooding in December may qualify for a delay in filing their federal taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
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The new Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination provides guidance and instructions for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigations and analysis of charges alleging discrimination based on religion. The information in its previous compliance manual on religious discrimination is rendered obsolete.
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The Dept. of Homeland Security and the Dept. of Justice have issued final rules increasing the civil monetary penalties for employers who violate federal immigration law in hiring, recruiting, referring or employing workers; and for paperwork violations. Read more

In FY 2007, the U.S. Dept. Read more

The proposed $50.4 billion budget for the U.S. Dept of Labor contains a $16.7 million increase in funding for wage and hour enforcement, including 36 new investigators. The DOL budget request also increases the funding for federal and state safety and health inspections by $17.9 million. Read more

Twenty large unionized companies in Hawaii have filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking to overturn and enjoin the enforcement of a new Hawaii statute which makes it unlawful for employers who have more than 100 employees and have collective bargaining agreements covering their employees to “bar or discharge from employment, withhold pay from or demote an employee because the employee uses accrued and available sick leave,” and which also prohibits those employers from requiring written verification from a physician indicating that the employee was ill when the sick leave was used until an employee uses three or more consecutive days of sick leave. The disputed law was passed by the 2011 State Legislature, signed by the Governor and became effective July 1, 2011. The statute prevents large unionized employers from disciplining employees who engage in sick leave abuse. Read more

Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Inc. and president Mordechai Orian is ordered by Dept. of Labor Administrative Law Judge William Dorsey to pay $153,000 in back wages to 88 temporary agricultural workers from Thailand employed in Hawaii, plus $194,000 in civil money penalties, and is barred for three years from the H-2A agricultural program for committing significant violations of the H-2A program. Read more