President Obama's 2010 Legislative Initiatives
EFCA tends to “steal the show” when we talk about the workplace related legislation. EFCA is only the beginning. Obama and the legislature are contemplating so much more that will impact employers. The following outlines briefly the other pending legislation that could reach Obama’s desk in 2010.
Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460)
This Act would provide employees with one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees can accrue up to 56 hours a year and hours can be carried over. Accruement would begin on the first day of employment and employees would be eligible to use after 60 days of employment. Employers with sick leave policies that allow for same amount of sick time would be exempt.
Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (H.R. 3721)
This Act would require employees to prove that age was a motivating factor, rather than a deciding factor, to be successful in age discrimination claims. In addition, a little noticed provision within the proposed legislation would apply the motivating factor standard to claims filed under any federal law that protects against discrimination or retaliation, other than claims filed under a law that currently has its own provision regarding the required burden of proof.
Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12, S. 182)
This Act would, among other things, reinstate the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) discarded Equal Opportunity Survey, which the agency used to gather certain employment information from federal contractors and subcontractors related to the their Affirmative Action Programs, personnel activity and compensation. This Act would also add additional investigative methodologies for the OFCCP to use in performing compensation analysis.
Federal Oversight, Reform and Enforcement of the WARN (FOREWARN) Act, (H. R. 3042, S. 1374)
This bill seeks to amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and would drastically alter what is required of employers when they are forced to shut down a facility or make layoffs. The bill proposes that employers with at least 75 full-or part-time employees (down from 100 under the current version of WARN) would be covered by the WARN Act. A covered “plant closing” would be one affecting at least 25 workers (down from 50), and a covered “mass layoff” would be one that affects at least 25 workers (down from 33% of full-time workers, amounting to at least 50 workers).
Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act, (H.R. 1644, S. 969)
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), unions cannot organize supervisors. This bill would dramatically limit which workers the NLRA classifies as supervisors. The bill would restrict “supervisor” status to those employees who spend at least 50% of their time at work exercising traditional supervisory functions and would eliminate “assigns” and “responsibly directs” from the definition.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017, S. 1584)
This bill would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
FMLA Inclusion Act (H.R. 2132)
This bill would extend leave protections under FMLA to allow employees to care for domestic partners, same-sex spouses, parents-in-law, adult children, siblings or grandparents.
Family Leave Insurance Act (H.R. 1723)
This bill would create an insurance program funded through employer and employee payroll tax contributions to provide for up to 12 weeks of paid FMLA leave.
Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1274)
This bill seeks to remove legal obstacles which prevent many employers from providing increased flexibility to their employees who are covered by the overtime provisions of the law. This bill mandates compensatory time options and requires employers to consider employee requests for flexible work options.
Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (H.R. 6111, S. 3648)
This bill would strengthen enforcement and penalties for employers for misclassifying workers as independent contractors. The bill would impose a maximum fine of $10,000 per violation for an employer who “repeatedly or willfully” failed to accurately classify a worker. Where an employer’s misclassification accompanied violations under the FLSA’s maximum hours or minimum wage requirements, a worker could recover double his or her liquidated damages.
Increase in Minimum Wage
President Obama has pledged to seek an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 per hour by 2011.