EEOC Flouts FLSA, Makes Employees Sick

Turns out that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) borrowed a page out of the private sector and reclassified employees as exempt when they should've remained non-exempt employees eligible for overtime pay--a clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Affected employees didn't like being awarded comp time instead of time-and-a-half and filed a complaint; an arbitrator has just ruled in their favor. EEOC Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru mumbled something about employees' working too many flexible schedules and promised to look into matters. I didn't read anything about back pay's being awarded, however.

Meanwhile, the EEOC recently relocated to a new building in an area north of Union Station that isn't as, well, developed as the old location, and employees are sick over the move--literally.

Seems that the new building has a formaldehyde leakage problem, and it's causing people headaches, dizziness, nausea, coughing and breathing problems. Tests show that the level of formaldehyde is well below OSHA standards, so maybe it's the lack of trendy restaurants in the area that's really causing the problems.

Nothing that a good, long lunch on comp time couldn't remedy.

The Never-Ending Regulation Mill

Anyone out there ever try keeping up with all the workplace regulations foisted on us business owners by the federal and state (and sometimes local) governments?

Try reading through the latest iteration of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that came out Nov. 17, 2008.

You need a guidebook to wade your way through it, so why bother? Don't we have better things to do, like surviving in a challenging economy?

Fortunately, we don't have to spend hours and days pouring through these gov regs, as I call them.. There are a bunch of Web sites, blogs and newsletters that can help yus cope with complying with workplace regulations.

I have several such sites bookmarked on my browser, but I also rely on Personnel Concepts to keep me informed, which they do quarterly, and daily on their site. They do the research and then keep me up to date.

There are other providers out there that I've checked into, but Personnel Concepts seems to have been around longer and honed their skills better.

More on keeping up in future posts.