This New York Times article discusses an important employment issue that may become more prevelant: whether and how employers may test and discipline employees for using legal prescription drugs.  As the article relates, drug testing like this is regulated in part by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In North Carolina, two other state statutes can come into play.  First is the Controlled Substance Examination Regulation, N.C. Gen. Stat. 95-230 et seq., which specifies some of the required procedures for drug testing.

Second is the statute protecting against workplace discrimination against persons for the lawful use of lawful products, N.C. Gen. Stat. 95-28.2.  Under the law, an employer generally may not discriminate based on an employee’s “lawful use of lawful products if the activity occurs off the premises of the employer during nonworking hours and does not adversely affect the employee’s job performance or the person’s ability to properly fulfill the responsibilities of the position in question or the safety of other employees.”

Categories: General News Tags: ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, Controlled Substances, Discrimination, Drug Testing, Labor and Employment, New York Times, North Carolina

Several recent articles highlight both the continuing pressure on workers’ wages as well how decreasing wages helped cause the Great Recession in the first place.

This article points to a troubling reality that even for those unemployed people fortunate to find a new job, that new job often means a decrease in wages and living standards.

This article describes how the entire annual increase in health care costs is being borne by employees with employer health insurance instead of being borne by the employers.  This is but one example of the skyrocketing cost of health care over the years has eaten away at any wages gains for the working class.

Finally, this extremely insighful op-ed by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich describes how the generation-long erosion of working class wages helped fuel the debt boom that ended in the Great Recession.  Unless and until serious measures are enacted to improve the wages of the working class, we will not experience a sustainable recovery or return to general prosperity.

Categories: General News Tags: Great Recession, Health Care, Health Insurance, Labor and Employment, New York Times, Robert Reich, Wages

A strike at the Mott’s apple juice plant in New York highlights a significant issue besides the pay for these particular workers, as noted by this New York Times article: “The union movement and many outsiders view the strike as a high-stakes confrontation between a company that wants to cut its labor costs, even as it is earning record profits, and workers who are determined to resist demands for wage and benefit givebacks.”

The parent company here, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, is not alone in making large profits even as workers earn less and less.  Our economy, however, cannot start growing again on a sustainable basis unless workers’ wages increase.  The Great Recession shows that families need higher wages to prosper in the long run instead of relying on more and more debt.

Categories: General News Tags: Great Recession, Labor and Employment, New York Times, Strike, Unions, Wages

Judge Jim Wynn was finally confirmed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last week.  Judge Wynn was first nominated for the court in 1999. His confirmation comes after months of being held up in the Senate by Republican obstruction after President Obama re-nominated him last year.  (Republicans, however, are still holding up the confirmation of North Carolina Judge Albert Diaz to another seat on the Fourth Circuit.)  Judge Wynn was sworn in on Tuesday, and officially resigned from his seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.  Judge Wynn’s former seat on the Court of Appeals will now be up for election in November.

Categories: General News Tags: Fourth Circuit, Judge Diaz, Judge Wynn, NC Court of Appeals, North Carolina, President Obama, Senate

Prompted by a stark pattern on the U.S. Supreme Court, David Leonhardt of the New York Times addresses the continuing burdens on working parents that still mostly fall on women.  Because employers do not make reasonable accommodations for parental leave, parents who take time off often suffer long-term drops in pay and position, or stop working altogether.  Paid parental leave would help to address this issue.  And, he notes, “With Australia’s recent passage of paid leave, the United States has become the only rich country without such a policy.”

But, given implacable opposition from the business community on this issue, “a more realistic immediate idea may be the recent British law giving workers the right to request a switch to a part-time or flexible schedule. Employers can still say no, but the establishment of a formal right seems to have made a difference. So far, about 90 percent of requests have been approved.”

Categories: General News Tags: Family and Medical Leave, Labor and Employment, New York Times, Paid Leave, Parental Leave, Pay Disparities, Work and Family Balance

The New York Times has this article about the Obama Administration’s effort to enforce the child labor and wage and hour laws on farms, and describes the effort in North Carolina in particular.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) contains several exceptions for farmworkers, but sometimes-ignored restrictions of child labor are apparently now being more vigorously enforced.

Categories: General News Tags: Child Labor, Fair Labor Standards Act, Farm Workers, FLSA, Labor and Employment, Minimum Wage, North Carolina

The New York Times has a series of interesting articles regarding how California’s workers’ compensation system handles the cases of former NFL players.  Check it out here, here, here, and here.

Categories: General News Tags: California, NFL, Workers' Compensation

The New York Times has a very useful article on COBRA, and how it is affected by the recently-enacted health care reform act.  It starts:

“If you’ve recently joined the ranks of the unemployed or are worried that you soon will, you may be wondering if the sweeping new health law will help you. Will you, for instance, still be able to get health insurance under the government-mandated Cobra program? If so, for how long? And at what price?”

Categories: General News Tags: COBRA, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Unemployment Benefits

On the heels of Mike’s talk to the North Carolina Legislature’s Joint Study Committee on Work and Family Balance, the Center for American Progress has published an excellent new report, “The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict.”  The paper describes how the typical workplace today is deeply out of sync with today’s workforce because of dramatic changes over the past few decades in incomes, working hours, and patterns of family care.  Moreover, our employment laws have failed to keep up with these changes, and offer little support or protection for working families.  The report calls for:

• Short-term and extended leaves from work, including paid time off for family and medical leave and paid sick days.
• Workplace flexibility to allow families to plan their work lives and their family lives.
• High-quality and affordable childcare so that breadwinners can concentrate on work at work, and
• Freedom from discrimination based on family responsibilities.

Check out the full report or the executive summary for more details.

Categories: General News Tags: Childcare, Family Responsibility Discrimination, FMLA, Labor and Employment, Paid Leave, Work and Family Balance

The NPR program Fresh Air broadcast a story on January 11 titled “Wounded in Wars, Civilian Face Care Battle At Home.”  It is based on the reporting on T. Christian Miller and his series of articles, “Disposable Army.”  The story discusses what happens to military contractors who are injured while working abroad, and the incredible difficulties they face trying to obtain workers’ compensation under the Defense Base Act.   Definitely worth checking out.

Categories: General News Tags: Contractors, Defense Base Act, Military, NPR, Workers' Compensation