Employment & Labor Insider

"Do this, don't do that, can't you read the rules . . ."*

Of course, the mega-topic this week was the U.S. Department of Labor's Final Rule on white-collar exemptions to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ellen Kearns, co-chair of our Wage and Hour Practice Group, wrote a great Client Bulletin on the Rule, taking a complex subject and explaining it in a pithy and readable way.

And if you're looking for a little wage-and-hour humor (does such a thing even exist?), be sure to read Steve Katz's post on the unique circumstances that the DOL's Final Rule creates for California employers.

But not everything this week was wage-and-hour related. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration came out with a Final Rule last week that will require employers to post their workplace injuries on a public website and will prohibit employers from having injury-reporting procedures that are not "reasonable." Our OSHA Practice Group has the story.

Finally, I wrote a bulletin on the Final Rules from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concerning wellness programs and the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. I didn't think the rules were too bad (considering that there is a conflict between the ADA and the GINA -- the laws that the EEOC is charged with enforcing -- and the wellness provisions of the Health Insurance Portability Accountability and Affordability Act and the Affordable Care Act), but apparently some lawyers think the EEOC could have done better. Let me know what you think.

*Apologies to the Five-Man Electrical Band.