What is OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program?

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OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has a protection program that enforces the provisions of more than 20 statutes that protect employees who report violations of workplace safety, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws.

The included statutes cover many areas, specifically worker participation in health & safety activities, reporting work related injuries, illness or fatality as well as reporting a violation of the statutes. The protection afforded to employees by these standards ensures that these individuals who blow the whistle are not subjected to adverse action by their employer. Adverse action can include being fired or laid off, blacklisting, demoting, denying promotions, reducing pay, intimidation among other “disciplinary” measures.

As an employee management partner and outsourced HR solution one of our key roles is to maintain the most up to date knowledge on all things compliance – especially whistleblowing. This is one area where our partners are skilled and experienced. They can help a company build their whistleblowing program to ensure that it meets regulations, provides a safe and secure process for employees and also protects the employer.

Need some help? Contact Employer Solutions Plus to get yourself out of the seas of compliance!

What is Whistleblowing?

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The term whistleblowing has received a lot more spotlight in recent years due to the collapses of the mortgage and banking industries as well as with the rise of social media. It is defined as raising a concern about a wrong doing within an organization. The concern must be a genuine concern about a crime, criminal offense, miscarriage of justice, dangers to the health and safety of an environment and/or the cover up of any of these things. It is officially called “making a disclosure in public interest”. Corrupt business practices are often unearthed by whistleblowers before they are found by regulatory agencies.

Whistleblowing can be nerve racking for the individual who is submitting the information. Often they are worried about repercussions, their own reputation and their ability to continue to maintain gainful employment. Many of us have hear the mantra “nobody likes a tattle tale” for the majority of our lives however when it comes to blowing the whistle on corrupt or inappropriate business practices, fear of being a “tattler” needs to take a back seat to doing the right thing.

The first whistleblowing law was enacted on July 30th, 1778 by the Continental Congress after two Navy corpsmen blew the whistle and were subjected to severe retaliation by then commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. Since then, the policies surrounding whistleblowing and protection of those who do it have been changed and modified to suit current times.

Most companies have enacted their own policies and procedures to ensure the protection of whistleblowers. Employer Solutions Plus can help you design yours or help you find a great partner (such as a PEO) that offers support as one of its many benefits! Contact us today for a consultation.

Be sure to stay tuned! Our next blog will feature an overview of the OSHA Whistleblower Protection Program.

What is the Federal Register?

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The Federal Register is the daily newspaper of the Federal government that contains Federal Agency Regulations, Proposed Rules and Public Notices, Executive Orders, Proclamations and other Presidential Documents.  It is coordinated and published by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) every business day.  The paper is distributed by the Government Printing Office on microfiche and on the internet.

Our blog features many posts on compliance and regulation – because in this day in age it is a hot button topic that is ever changing.  The Federal Registrar is where these regulatory changes are published on a day to day basis.  It is officially the most daunting newspaper to read and sift through to find out what is important to you and what you can skim past.

According to the .gov website, if you fall into any of these categories, reading the Registrar should be implemented in your daily business practices.

  • If you need to know about the day-to-day operations of the Federal Government
  • If your business is regulated by a Federal agency
  • If you are an attorney practicing before a regulatory agency
  • If your organization attends public hearings or meetings or applies for grants
  • If you are concerned with Government actions that affect the environment, health care, financial services, exports, education, or other major public policy issues

We know what you’re thinking – so exactly when am I going to have time to do this?  We have an answer – you don’t need to…if you choose a PEO.  PEOs are on top of all federal notices, rules and proposed rules so that their clients don’t have to be.  We know that what is important to a business owner is focusing on their employees, on their bottom line and on growing their business.  By selecting a PEO, you can offload the stress of regulatory compliance management on a seasoned, experienced team.

Contact us today for a consultation on ways Employer Solutions Plus can help you manage your operations more efficiently!

Current Employment Statistics

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At Employer Solutions Plus we know how critical it is to stay on top of current topics, statistics and reports that come out of the Department of Labor. We know that employers are also interested in this information but that navigating the reports, outputs and government speak can be exhausting and often pushed to the back of the to-do list.

Need a quick update? You’re in luck! This week we are spotlighting highlights from the latest reports on employment statistics, published May 16,2014. These reports are important as they give us insight into state-wide and national employment trends.

  • Regional and state unemployment rates were generally lower across the United States during the month of April. 43 states saw decreases, two saw increases and five had no change.
  • The national jobless rate fell to 6.3% percent, which was 1.2 percentage points lower than April of 2014.
  • Texas led the way in job growth, adding over 64,100 jobs over the month.
  • Illinois lost the most jobs month over month seeing 6,800 jobs lost.
  • The west continued to lead the way in regional unemployment, 7.0%
  • The south continued to have the lowest regional unemployment at 6.9%

Employment trends are important pieces of data for you and your business. Staying abreast of unemployment numbers on a local, regional and national level helps you understand the labor markets available to you as a business owner.

Stay tuned in to our blog for changes in the Consumer Price Index and other HR related topics! Contact our team if you have any questions.

Compliance: Does Federal Law Require Lunch Breaks?

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As a business owner, one of the most challenging issues you face is compliance with government regulations. From taxes to lunch breaks – the government lays out fairly stringent requirements for businesses to comply with. On one hand, this is great; many of them protect you as an employer. On the other hand, it requires quite a bit of time, energy and research to ensure you maintain compliance.

As a PEO broker, one of the most common questions we receive about compliance is regarding breaks and what the laws are surrounding them. The Department of Labor has very specific requirements regarding breaks, times and what is considered as compensable and work time.

Federal Law does not require breaks, for time or meals to be provided however the Fair Labor and Standards Act does classify what is considered compensable time. According to the dol.gov website:

Rest and Meal Periods: Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry (and promote the efficiency of the employee) and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be counted as hours worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer’s rules, and any extension of the break will be punished. Bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work time. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals. The employee is not relieved if he/she is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating.

We understand that the vague nature of these regulations can pose a lot of confusion for employers and employees alike. Navigating the compliance scene is something that can easily be transferred to a PEO who specializes in this area.

Contact Employer Solutions Plus to find out how you can streamline your business processes!

How to Verify Education and Employment

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It has become a common employment practice to conduct background checks on potential employees. Some background checks are more extensive than others but at the most basic level, verifying education and employment are critical to ensuring you are getting what you are about to be paying for.

We wanted to share with you the process for completing these checks:

Education Verification:

Verifying an individual’s educational background may seem simple and straightforward – right? The truth is it consists of far more than just being able to pick up the phone and call their alma mater. The first step is to ensure that you obtain written consent to pursue this information from the employee. Once you have that, you will likely need to provide this to the educational institution who will likely only verify if they attended, not that they graduated, their GPA or provide a transcript. The schools are generally prohibitive from allowing individuals access to additional records or files and often charge fees for obtaining what information they are willing to provide. This can take as little as 3-5 days or weeks, depending on what you require and the policies.

Employment Verification:

Could you pick up the phone and call the references? Certainly. However if you are calling on behalf of the company as a third party vendor you are likely to get more honest and accurate information than if you call saying “I’m <Joe/Jane>’s new boss, I’d like to verify their history and references. Having a third party presents a level of trust and anonymity that is not present when you just pick up the phone yourself. It can take a significant level of effort to get people on the phone these days, taking away from valuable (and profitable) time you could be spending elsewhere.

Both processes are fairly tedious, require effort, follow up and also financial investments. And then what happens if the facts don’t check out? You have wasted all of those efforts. A simple way to circumnavigate this tedious process is to outsource it to a third party.

Employer Solutions Plus is an experienced HR solutions provider and we can help you choose the perfect partner for outsourcing employment, education and additional background verification in an efficient, effective and affordable manner. Consider us your HR “easy” button!

Contact us today for a consultation!

What is Back Pay?

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Back pay is utilized when there is a discrepancy with an employee’s compensation. The actual amount is referred to as back pay – the sum of what the employee should have been paid, less the amount paid out. There are several instances where an employee may be eligible for back pay.

  1. Retroactive Increase. Perhaps an employee had been performing tasks above and beyond their normal job requirements to prove they were ready to take on more responsibility. The successful completion of these tasks resulted in a promotion, at which point the employer provided the employee with back pay at the new rate for the time that he or she had truly been in the new role.
  1. Terminations & Lay Offs. If an employee was fired or laid off and did not receive compensation they are owed and/or were fired under false pretenses, in certain circumstances they are eligible to pursue back pay. If approved in court, the company will be ordered to pay back pay and possibly damages and court costs as well.
  1. Incentives. Many start-ups will leverage back pay as an incentive for employees. Since these businesses generally are working with a fixed amount of capital yet seeking talent at the upper echelon of the spectrum, they need to get creative with salaries. By promising back pay under certain pretenses, the employer may get a higher quality candidate who is intimately bound to the financial success of the company. It results in a mutual benefit should the company see success.
  1. Error in Payroll Processing.
    If there was a clerical error in processing payroll that resulted in an employee receiving less than they should have, the company will be required to provide that individual with back pay for the time the issue occurred.

We love to share tidbits about the business world – covering topics that may or may not present themselves in your workplace is something that we feel is valuable. We hope you do too! Stay tuned in to our blog for other informative pieces and check out our archive to see topics we have covered in the past!

Have a topic you want covered? Shoot us a note!