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Who is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)?

The National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB” or “Board”) is a federal agency that oversees and protects an employee’s union activity and employee rights. The NLRB investigates unfair labor practice complaints made against both employers and unions, typically via employee or union member complaints. As an employer it’s important to understand your organizations legal rights … more »

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and Audits

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws applicable to businesses, job seekers, workers, retirees, contractors, and grantees. These laws set basic labor standards.  Employers who violate these basic labor standards may be subject to a DOL audit.  The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) administers and enforces laws … more »

Who is the Department of Labor and What Do They Do?

The Department of Labor (DOL) is a cabinet-level federal agency with three overall functions that support the American labor force. Martin J. Walsh was sworn in as the 29th Secretary of Labor on March 23, 2021. He and his agency aim to protect the rights of workers and retirees, provide job training, and provide statistics … more »

Creative Remote Employee Benefits

While the number of employers that have allowed employees to work remotely has grown in recent years, the pandemic forced the work-from-home concept into reality for many organizations. As such, countless employees have grown used to the benefits of working from home, such as saving time on their commute and having a better work/life balance. … more »

Remote Work Arrangements: A New Norm?

Remote work, telework, telecommuting, and work from home (WFH) are just a few titles that different employers have used to describe employees who are not working within their physical workplace. While working from home has become popular this past year during the pandemic, many organizations, especially those with employees in more than one country, utilized … more »

What Laws Does the EEOC Enforce?

The EEOC enforces several federal laws to include: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – This law makes it illegal to discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race*, color*, religion*, national origin*, or sex*. It is also unlawful to harass an applicant or employee because of his/her race, … more »

Who is the EEOC and Who is Considered to be a Covered Employer?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also known as the EEOC, is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal for employers to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic … more »

Paid Sick Leave Beyond the Pandemic

Throughout 2020 and into the beginning months of 2021, organizations have been focused on complying with COVID-related leave per the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The FFCRA, which expired on December 31, 2020, required covered employers to provide employees up to two-weeks (80-hours) of paid sick leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. While … more »

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Classification: Exempt or Nonexempt?

Correctly classifying a position within an organization as exempt (salaried), or nonexempt (hourly) with regards to minimum wage and overtime is often something that is overlooked. While misclassifying employees is relatively common among many organizations, it poses a significant risk to organizations in the form of costly fines, negative exposure, and time-consuming law suits. The … more »

What is Employee Relations and How is it Affected by the Tensions of this Last Year?

Employee relations is an often-used and overarching term that has different implications for different people in the workplace. To employers with unions, it may be synonymous with labor relations. To non-union employers, employee relations may be a constructive strategic tool, or it could solely focus on negative reactive issues such as theft, harassment investigations, or … more »

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New Focus HR is a human resources consulting and training company that services all organizations. Our expert team collaborates with businesses to attract, motivate, retrain and retain their biggest assets, employees. While engaged with an organization, our focus is to find solutions that improve the company’s internal HR-related practices while increasing results at the same time! Our focus. Your results.

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