Gary Lovio

The bombings and criminal manhunt in Boston and the massive explosion in the town of West, Texas compel employers to consider the physical crises that can hit their facilities and the impact they can have on the organization and the lives of its employees.

An apparently chastened Steve Arwood, head of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency, has assured the state Senate that the agency would once again show up at hearings to support employers who contest fraudulent unemployment comp claims over $3,500. The question remains, however, as to how the now-much smaller agency plans to pull it off. Last fall, the agency laid off 450 of its workers—about one-third of its entire manpower—due to budget cuts.

Under Michigan law, employers cannot discriminate against people on the basis of weight, but this discrimination appears rampant in the U.S.  According to studies at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, up to 50% of all Americans are considered overweight.  Being overweight is linked to coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer and is estimated to cause 310,000 - 580,000 deaths and cost $71 billion annually in health care.  According to the center, if current trends continue, every person in the U.S. will be obese by 2230.  Not good news.

Michigan House introduces bill to increase minimum wage to $10 per hour:  Democratic lawmakers have introduced more legislation to raise Michigan's minimum wage to $10 an hour over three years. The current state minimum wage is $7.40 per hour.

If 2013 happens to be the year for putting together your next five-year strategic outlook, talent is sure to be part of the discussion.  Having just survived a five-year period unlike any other since the 1930s, many employers are starting to think about moving forward for the first time in a long time.

ASE has been writing and reviewing employee handbooks for many years now. Until recently, the policy environment was relatively stable and when policy changes became necessary they usually came at a reasonably manageable pace. Most changes were driven by new laws or new issues but typically came months or even years apart. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which came in the early 90s, is an example of an important law that drove much policy change. But companies were able to develop and implement the policy changes driven by FMLA in a fairly planned, thoughtful way.  

Every time you look, unemployment insurance taxes keep rising. How much does fraud play into the equation?

Jerilyn Saxton was fired by St. John Hospital in November after the hospital discovered she was collecting unemployment insurance while working nearly full time as a patient care technician. In a not-dissimilar but higher profile case reported recently in the press, Lansing-area radio personality Jo Anne Paul, the wife of state Treasurer Andy Dillon's communications director Terry Stanton, also was allegedly collecting unemployment while working. 

If they haven’t already, employers in Michigan and its neighbor states may soon begin to feel surrounded and under siege by the forces for mandated paid sick leave, which are now coming at them from both the left and right coasts. In fact some legislators in Lansing want to figuratively turn the state into a fortress, complete with figurative moat, drawbridge, and ramparts, to give employers the wherewithal to hold out indefinitely against the oncoming hordes.

U.S. Steel conducts random drug and alcohol testing on its probationary employees in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Basic Labor Agreement (“BLA”) between U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO (“USW”).  Newly hired employees receive a copy of the BLA at orientation and must sign an acknowledgement of their “obligation to maintain a safe and healthy workplace free from the devastating effects of alcohol and other drugs.”  Because of the protective gear that employees wear, it is extremely difficult for supervisors to identify cause for reasonable suspicion as to the fitness of the employee. In practice, probationary employees are tested on a random basis, and only positive test results are reported to U.S. Steel.

I recently read an op/ed piece in the online version of Forbes magazine entitled, “It's Time For Companies To Fire Their Human Resource Departments.”  Well, that sparked my interest for two reasons.  First, I work for a trade association that represents the Human Resource profession, so the headline was a bit alarming to put it mildly.  Second, like the author of that article, I too have been accused of writing articles with incendiary headlines for the sole purpose of getting more “clicks” and “opens” for our newsletter.