Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

 

Announcements

You can always check out my website for upcoming speaking engagements that are guaranteed to be of value to business owners. More details about the events and Human Resources 4U can be found on my website.

 

Attention: Have you taken the HR4U mini-Human Resources audit, yet?

 

OSHA Publishes Final Hazard Communication Standard

OSHA has released the final revised Hazard Communication Standard. The final standard became effective, in part, on June 26, 2012, with a built-in transition period and a fully effective date of June 1, 2016.

 

Chemical manufacturers and importers, and employers with hazardous chemicals in their workplace have had to manage differing international and national rules and regulations governing the classification and labeling of hazardous materials, and a lack of consistent specifications for safety data sheets. In an effort to create an internationally consistent hazard communication system, the United Nations adopted the GHS – a uniform system of defining, classifying and communicating hazardous chemical information on labels and safety data sheets. OSHA’s revised Standard harmonizes the Hazard Communication Standard with international law and requires employers to convey hazardous chemical information using a standard and uniform set of criteria.

 

Key Revisions:

• The key revisions to the Standard include:
• Disclosure of voluntary threshold limit values (TLVs) established by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH);
• Disclosure of carcinogen status from nationally and internationally recognized lists of carcinogens;
• Creation of a new category of hazards – “Hazards Not Otherwise Classified”;
• Inclusion of combustible dust in the definition of “hazardous chemical”;
• A requirement that labels contain a signal word, pictogram, hazard statement and precautionary statement for each hazard class and category;
• A new format for safety data sheets with 16 specific sections; and
• Training for employees on the new labels and safety data sheet format.

Delayed Effective Dates

 

FedEx Agrees to Pay $3 Million to Settle a Bias Case

The DOL has reached a $3 million settlement with the ground delivery unit of FedEx to resolve allegations that the company discriminated against 21,635 job seekers at two dozen FedEx facilities in 15 states.

 

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs reached the agreement with FedEx Ground Package Systems after saying that it had found evidence of discrimination in hiring on the basis of sex, race and national origin. The office monitors employment practices at the nation’s 200,000 federal contractors, which employ roughly a fourth of the nation’s work force.

 

Under the settlement FedEx has agreed to make wide-ranging changes to correct any discriminatory hiring practices and to extend job offers to 1,703 of the people rejected for jobs as part-time package handlers as those positions become available.

 

The DOL first uncovered evidence of discrimination at FedEx seven years ago during a regularly scheduled review, finding discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and Native Americans compared with similarly situated white applicants. Women also faced discrimination and were sometimes automatically ruled out for posts requiring the lifting of heavy objects.

According to the DOL because of the 4,000 regular audits her office does each year they can find evidence of bias even when applicants had not filed complaints and did not realize they had faced discrimination.  She said that of the 21,635 rejected applicants covered by the settlement, 61 percent were female, 52 percent African-American, 14 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian and 1 percent Native American.

 

As an example, a department spokesman said that the audit of a FedEx facility in Grove City, Ohio, found that discrimination had affected 3,898 applicants. The department found that 29.8 percent of the 6,178 men who applied were hired, compared with 18.7 percent of the 2,277 women. It found that 33.2 percent of the white applicants were hired, 21.9 percent of the blacks, 18.7 percent of the Hispanics and 15.7 percent of the Native Americans.

 

The evidence was based on not just statistical discrepancies, but also interviews with applicants and FedEx officials. “This agreement will make a difference not just at the affected facilities but throughout the country so that this kind of hiring discrimination doesn’t happen anymore,” the DOL said.

 

Sierra Restroom Solutions Settles EEOC Racial Harassment, Retaliation Case

Nevada-based Sierra Restroom Solutions, a supplier of onsite portable toilets, has agreed to pay $50,000 to an African-American driver to settle a federal racial harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

 

According to the EEOC, the driver endured racist comments, epithets and harassment from his supervisor and his coworker during the one and a half years he worked for Sierra Restroom Solutions. His supervisor used the N-word to refer to the driver in conversation with others, and in another instance, made fun of white employees for performing worse than the driver on a work-related test. In addition, his co-worker flaunted a swastika tattoo and talked about the need to keep the white race “pure.” After the driver complained to his supervisor a second time that month about his co-worker’s racist behavior, he was fired just two days later.

 

Racial harassment is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which also forbids retaliating against an employee who opposes such conduct. After an investigation by the EEOC and after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement through conciliation, the EEOC filed the suit.

 

Factoids

• Businesses are projecting a 14% increase in spending for leadership development. First and mid-level managers will get about 60% with an average cost of $1700 to $2700, senior leaders about 22% with an average cost of about $6000.
• 8% of job applicants said they “embellished” their resume, of those, 27% say they were fired when the falsehoods were discovered.
• When senior business leaders were asked “do employees feel they know “what’s really going on’ at your company, only 8% said “yes, most of the time” and 36% said “no, hardly ever.”

 

Quote

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.”

~Dick Cavett~