Mitt Romney’s maids’ salary half that of a typical housekeeper
For a woman with three houses and sixteen grandkids, Ann Romney doesn’t have very much help around the house, according to her 2010 tax return. IRS forms released Tuesday by Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign show that despite reporting income of $21.7 million, the couple paid only $20,603 in taxable wages for household help in 2010. This figure was divided among four women.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/mitt-romney-maids-salary-tax-returns-election-2012_n_1228843.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
Federal job discrimination complaints rose to all-time high last year
Federal job discrimination complaints rose to an all-time high last year, led by an increase in bias charges based on religion and national origin. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received nearly 100,000 charges of discrimination during the 2011 fiscal year, the most in its 46-year history.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/federal-job-discrimination-complaints_n_1227021.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
California considers outlawing discrimination against unemployed
Lawmakers are trying to make California the second state in the nation to ban hiring discrimination against the unemployed. A bill introduced Jan. 5 and sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Michael Allen wouldn’t allow unemployed job-seekers to sue for discrimination, but companies that violate the law would face investigation and fines of up to $10,000.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/california-umployment-discrimination_n_1224464.html?ref=email_share
Obama’s OSHA puts protecting workers from dangers of combustible dust on back burner
When we last left our friends at the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, they had no timeline to speak of for coming out with a new regulation aimed at protecting American workers from the increasingly obvious dangers of combustible dust. As best I can tell, OSHA has yet to convene that SBREFA (Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act) panel. So imagine my surprise when the combustible dust rule didn’t show up on this new list of OSHA’s rulemaking priorities.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2012/01/24/obamas-osha-puts-protecting-workers-from-dangers-of-combustible-dust-on-back-burner/
Anniversary of a death in a New York sweatshop
A year ago today, Juan Baten, a 22-year-old Guatemalan, was crushed to death while working in a Brooklyn tortilla factory. Mr. Baten was one of 35,000 workers in a little-known, but indispensable part of New York’s food system: a sprawling industrial sector of food processing factories and distribution warehouses that supply the grocery stores and restaurants where New Yorkers purchase their food. A year later, justice has still not been done in Mr. Baten’s case and New York’s food supply chain continues to rely on the systematic exploitation of recent immigrant workers, many from Latin America and China.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/24/anniversary-of-a-death-in-a-new-york-sweatshop/
Whistleblower says BP fired him for refusing to skew cleanup data
A leader in BP’s oil spill cleanup claims the company fired him for refusing to change data so that BP could claim the cleanup phase was over and it could begin restoration, which a BP vice president told him “would have an upward impact on BP stock prices.” August Walter sued BP America in federal court.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/24/43278.htm
Hire just one: Congress looks at philanthropist’s unusual jobs idea
Philanthropist Gene Epstein says he donated $250,000 to assorted charities on behalf of businesses that hired unemployed people starting in 2009. Now he’s trying to broaden his impact, attempting to sway Congress on a bill to encourage hiring the unemployed. Several members of the House of Representatives have taken an interest in Epstein’s idea, which would allow businesses to collect a new hire’s remaining weeks of unemployment insurance in a move similar to a measure introduced in the House last year by Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/hire-just-one-gene-epstein-unemployment-jobs-act_n_1224684.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
OSHA seeks fines from turkey processor
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is seeking $318,000 in fines from Jennie-O Turkey Store Inc. after an employee at a northwestern Wisconsin slaughterhouse lost his arm in an industrial accident. The worker’s arm got caught in a moving shackle line that should have been turned off as he cleaned a confined tunnel in which birds are stunned with carbon dioxide, an OSHA spokeswoman said Monday.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/osha-seeks-fines-from-turkey-processor-po3tg3c-137900983.html
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