August 16, 2009

Heat Illness Prevention Regulations Strengthened by Cal/OSHA

On July 31, California's Department of Industrial Relations' (DIR) Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) filed a proposal with the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to amend the state's heat illness prevention regulations, which follows the July 16 request by Governor Schwarzenegger to strengthen and improve the standards to protect outdoor workers from the hot summer sun.

Besides, the state budget just signed has authorized the spending of $1.5 million to expand upon the efforts already in place to educate workers and employers about the necessity of heat illness prevention. This was the expanding outreach to train outdoor workers and employers , and will help to expand Cal/OSHA's successful participation and partnership with industry, labor, and community groups.

Under the Governor’s leadership, California was the first state in the nation to develop a safety and health regulation addressing heat illness in 2005. Cal/OSHA issued permanent heat illness prevention regulations to protect outdoor workers in 2006. The Regulations address such topics as shade requirements, drinking water requirements, heat illness training requirements and other related subtopics. They require that the employer make shade available, provide drinking water, provide training to both supervisors and workers, and requires that the written heat illness prevention program include a plan for summoning emergency responders.

"Today we are moving to clarify amendments to the standards and to ensure that we provide the necessary measures to improve upon our first in the nation regulation to protect outdoor workers from the summer heat," said DIR Director John C. Duncan. "This package will, among other things, include a requirement for shade to be present at all times and a trigger for shade to be up when the temperature exceeds 85 degrees. It also makes it clear that employees have the right to take a rest in the shade whenever they feel the need to do so to prevent themselves from overheating."

August 06, 2009

QuikTrip to Pay $750,000 in Back Wage

Convenience store operator QuikTrip Corp. agreed to pay $747,729 in overtime back wages for 3,819 current and former convenience store workers ,following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Arkansas-Oklahoma District Office.

The Department of Labor said on Monday that they found Tulsa-based QuikTrip had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay its employees the overtime compensation they were legally entitled to receive. The chain did not pay additional overtime premiums due on performance-related bonuses. Among the states involved in the investigation were Missouri , Illinois , Arizona , Georgia , Iowa , Nebraska , Oklahoma and Texas .

An employer is not required by law to provide a bonus, but if a nondiscretionary bonus is paid, the bonus must be included as part of the employee's regular rate of pay for purposes of computing overtime. The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage and receive overtime at one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Effective July 24, 2009, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.

Mike Thornbrugh, QuikTrip spokesman, said that "We have an additional form of compensation, and that is an additional bonus that we pay based on customer service…What we did, and it's our fault, is we had a computer programming error that was paying some employees too much for that and others were not getting the appropriate amount. We obviously fixed the program and reimbursed employees who were not getting the proper amount."

"I am pleased that this case has resulted in almost $750,000 in back wages being paid to thousands of workers across nine states," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "I am committed to ensuring that every worker is paid the full wages he or she is due, and that those who work overtime receive the compensation to which they are legally entitled."