Inspirational Quote:
“Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life.” - Steve Jobs
5-16/2024. The Cleaning Authority - Fox Valley, Milwaukee, to pay $200,000 to settle EEOC sexual harassment retaliation lawsuit. The EEOC alleged that the company routinely subjected female workers to sexual harassment through unwanted sexual advances, unwanted touching, and sexual comments, causing a female employee to quit to avoid harassment, and employees who opposed the sexual harassment were fired in retaliation. In addition to the monetary settlement, the company is instructed to review, revise as necessary, and implement its anti-discrimination policies that prohibit sexual harassment and retaliation, provide in-person training on sexual harassment to employees with managers and supervisory employees receiving additional training, and assure an outside monitor is available to receive and review complaints of harassment and retaliation.
My Side Note: What could your organization do with $200,000+ instead of what this company had to spend it on? Think of all the money it took this company in legal fees, settlement amounts, in-person trainings, and hiring an outside monitor. In addition to the hard costs, what was the hidden cost with the bad publicity? Prevention measures can save a lot of money, headaches, and turnover. A good practice is to conduct quality sexual harassment training to all new employees upon onboarding and then corporate-wide each year, with added components for the leadership team. Relevant policies and procedures should also be reviewed regularly as well.
5-18-2024. The Internal Revenue Service reminds businesses that starting in tax year 2023 changes under the SECURE 2.0 Act may affect the amounts they need to report on their Forms W-2. Provisions potentially affecting the Forms W-2 are:
De minimis financial incentives
Roth Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE)
Roth Simplified Employee Pension (SEP)
Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
Optional treatment of employer nonelective or matching contributions as Roth contributions
My Side Note: Hopefully you've already provided your employees with their 2023 W-2's. If you are unsure if you have met all of the changes outlined in the SECURE 2.0 Act, it may be wise to review them and revise if necessary, filing with the W-2c, and W-3c for corrections.
5-15-2024. Zwaneberg Food Group USA, Inc., agrees to pay $1.7 million in federal penalties and invest $1.9 million in safety improvements at its Cincinnati plant to resolve hazards found during several investigations by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Agency inspectors determined the company exposed workers to hazards by allowing machinery to operate without required safety guards during production and not de-energizing equipment during sanitation operations, causing injuries to two temporary workers. As part of the settlement, Zwanenberg will make the following improvements:
Equipment analysis by an independent third-party auditor
Develop and re-write lockout/tagout procedures for all equipment
Enhance machine guarding
Train employees
Ensure each employee uses and applies their own HASP lock during 3rd shift sanitation
Transition most of its workforce to permanent employees within six months
Meet with OSHA at least quarterly
Retain 3rd-party consultant to audit all personal protective equipment, hazardous communication and lockout/tagout programs
Continue the company's recently adopted "pre=Startup Safety Review"
Conduct an independent audit of its safety training program
Implement a "Stop Work for Safety Program" including awards and recognition
Continue its "Near-Miss Reporting Program" and daily discussions of issues at production meetings
Implement a learning management system for all employees and schedule mandatory monthly computer-based safety training
Conduct on-board safety training for all new employees
Develop a corporate wide safety and health management system that includes input from management and workers and the creation of a safety committee.
My Side Note: Whether your business is a high safety risk environment or not, there is a lot to be learned here beyond the enormous amount of money this manufacturing plant had to shell out. Developing programs, having written procedures, training employees and holding them accountable are all included in the agreement. This case also alludes to the potential misclassification of temporary vs permanent employees and how it can come into play. It is also worthy to note the creation of a safety committee that can offer input on the safety culture. Some states may even mandate many of these conditions including having a working safety committee. I encourage you to check your state regulations. As example, if you are in Montana, the Montana Safety Culture Act was enacted by the 1993 MT State Legislature to encourage workers and employers to come together to create and implement a workplace safety philosophy, intending to raise workplace safety to a preeminent position in the minds of all Montana workers and employers.
Smile Moment… :)
What did they give the guy that invented the door knocker? A No-bell prize. :>
Message:
This document is abbreviated, and highlights added to summarize content. and is not intended as legal advice. I don’t make any express or implicit warranty regarding the sufficiency, accuracy or completeness of the material. I encourage you to obtain independent legal advice before implementing any new policy or practice that you are unsure of.
Please contact me at your convenience if I can assist you with your leadership development or workforce training needs, Human Resources (HR) practices consulting, or HR projects.
Cheers!
Deborah
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