A new rule from the US Department of Labor requires employers that operate in industries with high hazard rates to provide their injury and illness data directly to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) via electronic submission beginning on the first of January 2024.
These new requirements will apply to all companies or organizations that fall within the high-hazard industry category and have at least 100 employees. Those companies and organizations must now provide to OSHA data accounting for all of their Form 300 work-related injury log as well as their Form 301 injury and illness report on an annual basis. It is also now required that companies make these submissions using their legal company name in order to improve the consistency of the data and subsequent analysis.
You can find this announcement here.
In Groff v. DeJoy, the Supreme Court reinterpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to require employers to make all reasonable accommodations unless the employer can show that the accommodation would lead to “substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.”
This new standard clearly heightens the burden placed on employers to deny accommodations relative to the previous standard.
You can read more about this case here.
There will be an updated Form I-9 available from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services beginning on August 1, 2023, which can be found here.
The most recent prior version of I-9 (Revision 10/21/19) will still be accepted until October 31, 2023, at which point the soon-to-be-released update (known as Revision 08/01/223) will be the only valid and acceptable version of the form. Employers need not fill out a new version of the form for current employees that already have properly filled-out and submitted forms processed in the system unless reverification is necessary at some point after October 31, 2023.
The new version of the I-9 form can also be accessed, filled-out, and submitted electronically via tablets and mobile devices now, as well.
New Regulations Supporting the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
A joint effort between several executive agencies has produced some analysis and guidance to help companies comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA).
While these proposed regulations crafted in support of the MHPAEA are still in flux and will likely evolve some in response to stakeholder feedback and comments that are collected over the coming months, some of the main goals are improving employee access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse and ensuring that those mental health and substance abuse treatment options are comparable in availability and quality of care for all employees.
The guidelines also emphasize the importance of employers’ obligation to create satisfactory Nonquantitative Treatment Limitation (NQTL) comparative analysis reports.
You can read more about this topic here.
August is National Breastfeeding Month in the US and the US Department of Labor announced a new nationwide campaign to increase awareness of the challenges faced by nursing workers in trying to express breast milk during working hours.
The Pump act was enacted at the close of 2022 and significantly builds upon the foundational protections for nursing employees that were established in the Fair Labor Standards Act and expands those protections to include workers in industries like agriculture, service and hospitality, transportation, and education.
Under the Pump Act, for a period of at least 1 year following the birth of the baby, employers are required to provide applicable employees both work breaks and privacy sufficient to express breast milk while on the job. The Pump Act also outlines the remedies available to employees if the rights provided to them under the Pump Act are violated by their employer.
You can read more about the Power to Pump Campaign here.
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