6 Months on Capitol Hill in 2017

During the sixth month of the calendar year, we like to reflect on adjustments the Federal Government may have already made, or intends to make, to Human Resources related areas for the rest of 2017 and beyond. With a Republican Administration in place for the next four years, we anticipate possible rollbacks on previous decisions. In addition, certain hot topics such as equal pay, healthcare, and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) will remain in the spotlight.

Affordable Care Act (ACA), American Health Care Act (AHCA), & Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA)
After much discussion, the American Health Care Act of 2017 passed the House of Representatives with a margin of 217 to 213 this past March. On June 22nd, the Senate released an amendment instead of accepting the House version. Highlights from this amended bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), include:

• Delaying the “Cadillac tax,”
• Removing individual & employer mandate penalties and alleviating employee tracking/reporting requirements,
• Increasing health savings account (HSA) contributions, and
• Withdrawing the limit on contributions to health flexible spending accounts (FSA)

As of this writing, it remains to be seen what will happen with the state of healthcare in the US.

U.S. Department of Labor
In April, the Senate confirmed Alexander Acosta for Labor Secretary. He shared with Senators that he wishes to put the interests of workers first: “As a former prosecutor, I will always be on the side of the law and not any particular constituency.” Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee Chairman, noted of the new Labor Secretary that “[he] understands how a good-paying job is critical to helping workers realize the American dream for themselves and for their families.” With time and action we will be able to assess future decisions and actions from the U.S. Department of Labor.

One pressing matter is the Final Rule injunction made in November 2016. According to the United States Department of Labor’s website, “On April 19, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a request by the Department of Justice for an extension of time of sixty days, until June 30, 2017, in which to file its reply brief. The additional time was requested on behalf of the Department of Labor ‘to allow incoming leadership personnel adequate time to consider the issues’.”

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) & Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The General Counsel seat is vacant for both the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It is expected that the Trump administration will elect Republican members to these positions. With many seats in the EEOC expiring later in 2017, we also should anticipate a Republican majority EEOC board by the end of 2017.

Some anticipate that the current Republican administration will result in more in-house or contracted mediators instead of investigators when charges are filed with the EEOC. The same pattern was seen in a previous Republican administration (Bush I) and, in a later Republican administration, included reconciliation (Bush II).

Equal Pay and LGBT Worker Protections
Equal pay continues to be a hot topic for human resources and Capitol Hill. In March of 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that would revoke the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order of 2014. The 2014 order safeguards workers by requiring businesses that receive federal contracts to stay close to labor and civil right laws. It also removed wage transparency rules and barred forced arbitration clauses for sexual harassment cases.

LGBT advocates believe this order rolls back their rights and breaks a previous commitment to the community to not change such existing policies. The executive order President Trump signed revokes the requirement that federal contract seeking companies prove federal compliance with laws banning discrimination based on sexual identity or orientation. It is believed this order will make it difficult for victims to make substantial claims of worker mistreatment.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
The Senate moved to repeal an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) rule that sanctioned employers for “failing to make and maintain injury and illness records beyond the 6 month statute of limitations set by OSHA.” President Trump signed the repeal on a rule stemming from a case involving Volks Constructors.

We look to learn more about the current Republican administration’s plans surrounding the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Anticipated adjustments include extended time off for new parents and other child care policies.

Your Perspective
Are there other topics or decisions made on Capitol Hill that you think will affect HR policies and practices in 2017 and beyond? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below!

The Vicious Cycle of Unemployment

For some it may seem easier to get a job if you're unemployed. Intuitively, the unemployed have more time to interview, are willing to accept lower salaries and have future employers who know they can start right away. But the large amount of unemployed in this recession has proven one thing: being unemployed is not a recipe for success in this economy. And the problem then becomes if you are unemployed and that prevents you from getting hired that the more this occurs, the further the unemployed fall from employability in many employer's eyes--it becomes a vicious cycle of unemployment.

This was recounted in a recent article on Yahoo! (H/T Wendy) which says that it's gotten so bad and so prevalent that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is trying to get "unemployed" as another factor you can't discriminate against a candidate: "With the number of Americans who have been out of work for six months or longer at a whopping 6.2 million, and with 4.7 unemployed workers for every job opening, advocates for the jobless say this growing form of hiring discrimination creates another hurdle for the increasingly desperate ranks of the unemployed. 'At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise,' Christine Owens, who runs the National Employment Law Center, told the EEOC."

The article hints that it may also be a case of racial or age discrimination as many more of the unemployed are African American or older, the former of which would also violate civil rights laws. This is not an issue that is going away and yet many job postings online still prohibit those who are unemployed for applying. Do the skills actually go away? Does the fact that everyone was downsizing mean those laid off are actually the weakest link? Probably not but it gives employers a good excuse when the volume of resumes continues to pile up.

At the very least, articles like this should give HR professionals some pause and to rethink their hiring practices. Because while this is an employers market, the last thing you want is to get in trouble with the government because of your hiring practices.

Back From Vegas With Great Links

Just got back from a quick vacation in Las Vegas with a picture from the top of THEhotel at Mandalay Bay from my Blackberry (to the right) and some great links (below):

-Yahoo! HotJobs starts us out with some truth about resume lies and some advice to people looking for jobs about how to make the truth sound better (H/T Wendy). There is some good advice in here for Human Resources about how to treat resumes and how other people define "embellishment".

-This is not something for Texans to be proud of from WFAA:

In one of the largest civil rights investigations ever undertaken in Texas, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared that at least 100 African-Americans worked in a hostile environment and were subjected to racial graffiti, nooses, and symbols of hate while employed by Turner Industries in Paris, Texas.

-Harvard Business Review asks if all employees are knowledge workers? One bolded point from the article: "Perhaps the single greatest lesson from Japanese auto manufacturers is that all employees are ultimately knowledge workers and that the role of the firm is to both encourage and support problem-solving by all employees."

-Lastly, Simply Hired Blog has the winners of their Dream Job Contest. I like the most creative: "Rainbow Chaser and Pot of Gold Location Expert, also skilled in the identification of Silver Linings"

The HR Impact of Sterling Cooper in 2009

If you don't watch AMC's hit show Mad Men, you should start immediately. It's a fabulous show about a fictional 1960s Madison Avenue advertising agency named Sterling Cooper and the trials of tribulations of the agency and the main character, Don Draper.

One of the things that's great about the show is how they keep everything authentic for the time. That means that people drink, smoke, and take part in a lot of other activities that make Human Resource professionals cringe today, including excluding all minorities (and Jews), gender discrimination, and sexual harassment. But how much of what takes place in Sterling Cooper would not be allowed to go on today? Halogen Life did a great look at that and determined that while the drinking and the smoking may fly in certain states and certain companies, the sexual harassment and discrimination would not (H/T Jay for the article). Here are their conclusions:

• Smoking - A smoke-filled Madison Avenue boardroom couldn’t legally exist today as New York, along with 22 other states, has laws banning smoking in the workplace, but unless the federal government or your city steps in, you’re free to light up in your office in over half of the states.

• Drinking - For white-collar workers, there’s nothing legally wrong with knocking a few back in the office, per se. Federal law only deals with alcohol consumption in the workplace if it would threaten the health and safety of other employees or the public — like if the employee must drive or operate machinery. Obviously providing drinks to those under 21 can land you in hot water, but unless you happen to live in a particularly “dry” community where the sale and possession of alcohol is regulated, you’re probably in the clear. Office worker bees who don’t have those concerns are free to imbibe, so long as the boss approves.

• Discrimination - Up until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employment discrimination was only prohibited by state and federal governments. Private businesses were free to hire and fire on any criteria they chose. Though actual change was slow coming, the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibited businesses with over 15 employees from discriminating based upon race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

• Sexual Harassment/Gender Discrimination - While women were covered in the discrimination provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee didn’t explicitly forbid sexual harassment as discrimination until 1980. Today, in the era of mandatory sensitivity trainings, Sterling Cooper would be hit with lawsuits faster than you can cry “sexual harassment.”

• Their conclusion? - It’s unfortunately fathomable that the kind of womanizing and discrimination rampant at Sterling Cooper could still occur today, but if you’re looking to inject a little bit of a Mad Men-esque feel to your work day, be safe and stick with the scotch. And maybe a smoke — outside.

Our conclusion? Show Mad Men at work...during training sessions of what NOT to do in the workplace. There are many more aspects of the show that would garner the attention of Human Resources such as women not being promoted past secretary status (save a token promotion for Peggy). Although romanticized on the show, some aspects of Sterling Cooper are best left in the 1960s, especially if your company wants to avoid fines and lawsuits.

Primary Colors

We're in the middle of the presidential primaries...and we're lobbying you to make Astron Solution's Blog your primary source for HR news...

First, a report from the Society for Human Resources Management says that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is having HR issues of their own: click here

Next, from blog "McArthur's Rant", a New Year's Resolution for Human Resources: click here

From the Dallas Morning News, word that as the government cracks down on workplaces, ID theft has increased: click here

Moving on to the Republican American, we find an interesting story about when the head of HR doesn't get a performance review: click here

HR Daily Advisor gives five key steps to HR professionals to avoid termination-based lawsuits: click here

Lastly, Collaborative Thinking has a blog entry that says that socializing at work is no longer a waste of time: click here