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Mar 2016USCIS Form I-9 expires 3/31/16
We’ve been monitoring the issuance of the new Form I-9 as the expiration date of the current Form I-9 approaches on 3/31/16. We have been advised that the Department of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) is waiting on the Office of Management and Budget to approve the new version of the Form I-9. Representatives at the USCIS have indicated that they’re hopeful that...
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Mar 20168th Annual Labor & Employment Seminar Reaches Record Number of Attendees
March 15, 2016 EL PASO, TX – ScottHulse Law Firm’s 2016 Labor & Employment Law Seminar, held on March 3, set a new attendance record for the annual event, which is now in its eighth year. The seminar, which was attended by more than 200 business owners, executives, managers, supervisors, human resource professionals, and in-house legal counsel, was hosted by the South-West Texas Small Business...
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Jan 2016Changes to Operation of Maquiladoras in Mexico
Several changes to the operation of Maquiladoras in Mexico. On December 23, 2015, the Miscellaneous Fiscal Amendment (“Miscellaneous Law”) was published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government in Mexico (“DOF”). Among the highlighted changes is that of extending the term of tax benefits for companies operating in Mexico under a shelter program, as long as they comply with the requirements detailed on the...
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Jan 2016Oil Export Ban Lifted; Implications for Eagle Ford
January 7, 2016 On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (H.R.2029.ENR) which lifts a long-standing ban on the export of crude oil from the United States, effective immediately. The repealed ban will affect energy markets in the United States, Mexico, and other international regions. For example, a study by Rice University, published in March 2015, indicates the repeal of...
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Dec 2015Department of Labor Changes Date on “Final Rule” for Salary Exemptions
December 23, 2016 We’ve been advising about the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) much-anticipated proposed rule changes that revise the regulations defining the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s Section 13(a)(1) salary exemptions for supervisors and managers and apply increased salary requirements for overtime exemptions applied to those employees. Here is the latest. The DOL initially anticipated that the “Final Rule” on salary exemptions would be...
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Sep 2015Executive Order Requires Federal Contractors to Provide Paid Sick Leave
September 9, 2015 On September 7, 2015, President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave per year. The executive order guarantees both full-time and part-time federal contract workers an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, for a total of up to seven days in a year. The leave includes...
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Sep 2015NLRB Issues Key Decision Affecting Temporary, Franchise, Contract, and Other Employees
September 1, 2015 In a significant 3-2 decision involving Browning-Ferris Industries of California, the National Labor Relations Board “refined” (changed) its standard for determining joint-employer status for purposes of representation by a union. The NLRB’s “revised and restated” position on this issue is that two or more entities are “joint employers of a single workforce if (1) they are both employers within the meaning of the...
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Jun 2015Department of Labor Releases New Family Medical Leave Act FMLA Forms
June 5, 2015 The U.S. Department of Labor has posted the new model Family Medical Leave Act notices and medical certification forms. One notable change is the reference to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) that states the following instruction: “Do not provide information about genetic tests, as defined in 29 C.F.R. § 1635.3(f), genetic services, as defined in 29 C.F.R. § 1635.3(e), or the...
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Apr 2015EEOC Issues Proposed ADA Regulations Regarding Employee Wellness Programs
Late last week, the EEOC issued new proposed rules for U.S. employers seeking to implement wellness programs with incentives for their employees. View the EEOC’s proposed regulations. These new proposed rules seek to reconcile two conflicting provisions in the law. The EEOC is seeking public comment on the proposed rules until June 19th. Wellness programs have been around for a long time. These programs are...
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24
Nov 2014Beware of the Background Check “Police”
In the past, we have discussed the increased dangers of conducting background checks on employees and potential employees, although background checks are important to any business seeking to hire quality applicants. In the last few weeks, two large class action lawsuits have been settled for many millions of dollars, based on alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as it relates to background...
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