EMPLOYEE PRIVACY & SOCIAL MEDIA
The Employers CouncilPrivacy concerns in the workplace are quickly changing due to advances in technology. The law in this area is still developing and can be a source of much uncertainty for employers. Join the Council's newest staff attorney, Bob Coursey, at our next Legal Breakfast Briefing and hear how social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, You- Tube, etc.) is impacting employee privacy, discrimination claims, protection of confidential information, and more.
Bob will also cover tricky employee privacy matters like searches, monitoring, and off-duty conduct, as well as legal and practical issues you should consider when developing your company's social media policies and practices.
The briefing is on Wednesday, June 15th, from 8:00 to 9:30 AM at the Radisson Hotel in Salt Lake City. Contact the Employers Council for registration information.
ADA REQUIREMENT: INTERACTIVE PROCESS
The Employers CouncilDon't forget that, under ADA, evaluating potential reasonable accommodations requires engaging in an interactive process. The goal is to determine a reasonable accommodation that enables the employee to perform the essential functions of the job. Even if you can't imagine any reasonable accommodations, you should still meet and discuss possibilities. Don't make statements implying that it is the employee's duty to solve the problem alone.
An excellent resource for exploring possible accommodations is the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free and confidential service of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. The JAN Website is at http://askjan.org.
UTAH COMMISSIONER REACTS TO NATIONAL STUDY: “COLLEGE WORTH IT?”
Utah Business DailyThe Pew Research Center released a study titled, “Is College Worth It?” which raises some important issues that should be part of the public dialogue involving higher education, according to Utah’s Commissioner of Higher Education William A. Sederburg.
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(Does anyone else have a concern that only “55% said it was very useful in helping them prepare for a job or career.”? (TB)
Today in Manufacturing
The Boeing Co. has received a $962.5 million contract to build five C-17 aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Department said Monday ... continue
Today in Manufacturing
To encourage energy efficiency, Congress passed a law mandating that bulbs producing 100 watts worth of light meet certain efficiency goals ... continue
MEDICAL LIABILITY BILL PASSES HOUSE COMMITTEE:
NAM – Flagg Weekly CommunicationThe House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 12 reported out on a vote of 30-20 the session's major health care liability reform measure, H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011. For details, see the committee summary and this backgrounder. The bulk of the bill is liability reforms that reflect state actions, such as limits on damages. However, there is also a major section to preempt tort suits involving drugs and medical devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, federal preemption was the main point of contention during the two days of committee markup. One's mind boggles at Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and his Democratic committee colleagues arguing for states' rights. Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said in a statement: “After President Obama included medical liability reform in this year's State of the Union, the committee sent a letter to the president promising to work with him on this important issue. Three months later, we still have not heard back so the time to act is now. The medical liability system in this country is not a system at all. It is a fragmented patchwork of policies that jeopardize access to care and impose added costs to the American people and their government, through Medicare and Medicaid. It is time to enact real, comprehensive reform so we can finally have a medical liability system that works for our nation's patients and doctors.”
NAM FILES ‘GROUNDS ARISING AFTER' BRIEF AGAINST EPA:
NAM – Flagg Weekly CommunicationThe National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups have filed four petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging EPA regulations from 1978, 1980 and 2002 that are now a part of EPA's effort to regulate greenhouse gases from stationary sources of emissions. No one anticipated that these previously issued rules would now be used to mandate greenhouse gas permit requirements, but the EPA has adopted that interpretation. Our legal challenges were consolidated under the case, American Chemistry Council v. EPA. The NAM's Manufacturing Law Center entry further explains:
We also filed an administrative petition for reconsideration with EPA on the same rules. Our lawsuits and the administrative petition challenge each of the four older rules to the extent that EPA considers them to allow the regulation of pollutants such as greenhouse gases that are not subject to a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). Our administrative petition goes into great detail regarding the grounds for our request (see Related Documents below). The petitions below also contain the text of the regulations being challenged.
Our main brief on the merits was filed May 10, 2011. The brief focused primarily on the timeliness of the lawsuits and on the fact that EPA's interpretation of the Clean Air Act is unreasonable and creates absurd results.
We argued that Congress intended for EPA to require PSD permits only for facilities that can financially bear the substantial regulatory costs and which, as a group, are primarily responsible for deleterious emissions. The number of permits needed by facilities that meet these criteria was about 280 per year, a number consistent with congressional intent to limit the permit program to a manageable number. The greenhouse gas regulations, however, would require more than 81,000 PSD permits per year, according to the EPA, crushing EPA, state agencies and the economy.
There's much more at the entry. It's a good place to start if you want to catch up on the NAM's legal activities involving the EPA's greenhouse gas regulations.
Quick Manufacturing News
When lives are in the balance, failure is not an option, retired NASA Flight Control Director Gene Kranz reminded a standing-room only crowd at the opening session of the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo in Portland, Oregon on May 16. Click to continue
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U.S. trade rep: 'The president has always been unequivocal about the fact that keeping faith with America's workers is just as important for us as an administration as opening new markets and the enforcement of our trade agreements.' Click to continue
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Robust growth and expectations for a stronger currency attract growing number of overseas investors, analysts say. Click to continue
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