The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be conducting immigration-related compliance assistance webinars for employers throughout October.

The National Labor Relations Board announced on Oct. 5 that it has postponed the implementation date of its recently issued regulation requiring nearly all private-sector employers to post notices of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.  The Board has delayed the deadline for compliance from Nov. 14, 2011, to Jan. 31, 2012.  The agency stated that it plans to make no further changes to the rule or to the form or content of the required notice. 

As anticipated, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on Sept. 21 issued an Accounting Standards Update requiring employers that participate in multiemployer pension plans to provide additional quantitative and qualitative disclosures in their financial statements.  AGC is proud of the successful, painstaking efforts by AGC’s Tax and Fiscal Affairs Committee and the Construction Industry FASB Coalition, of which AGC was an active member, in getting the most dangerous provisions of the originally proposed standard removed, including disclosures about withdrawal liability and retiree health and welfare benefits (though the latter might be addressed in a future initiative).

From Facebook to Twitter, today’s social media has become the go-to way to stay in tune with what’s new and to keep in touch with friends and family. But how do these platforms affect your business and employee relations? This highly compelling webinar will demonstrate the ease with which social networking is available to employees, but will also exam the potentially harmful effects.

AGC of America (AGC) and the AGC Labor and Employment Law Council have submitted a comment letter opposing a proposed rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards that would broaden reporting requirements of labor relations consultants (including attorneys and associations) who conduct activities to persuade employees concerning their rights to organize or bargain collectively and of the employers who receive assistance from such consultants.  AGC also signed onto comments submitted by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW). 

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC), which processes prevailing wage determination requests for immigration purposes, recently announced a temporary suspension of new prevailing wage determinations. The suspension, which does not affect regular prevailing wage determinations, will allow the OFLC to focus its resources on reissuing approximately 4,000 H-2B prevailing wage determinations before a court-ordered deadline of September 30, 2011.

The National Labor Relations Board’s new poster notifying employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act is now available.  The poster can be downloaded in either of two formats from the Board’s website at https://www.nlrb.gov/poster.  Printed copies are also available from the agency’s regional offices.  Virtually all private-sector employers – whether union or nonunion – must begin posting the notice as of Nov. 14, pursuant to a final rule issued by the Board on Aug. 30.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a one-time extension of the deadline for covered federal contractors to file the VETS-100 and VETS 100-A reports because of technical problems with a newly proposed electronic reporting system.  The reports detail the number of qualified covered veterans in the contractors’ workforces, by job category and hiring location, as well as the number of new hires during the 12-month reporting period who are qualified covered veterans.  DOL had planned to begin accepting electronic submissions of the reports beginning on August 1, 2011.  The new system is expected to be available beginning on October 1, extending the reporting deadline to November 30.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced enhancements to its online enforcement database designed to improve public access to and understanding of the department’s enforcement actions.  The updated website includes a number of new features, including map displays of inspection and violation data, as well as the ability to view individual inspection records and the enforcement history of a particular company.

On June 7, 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”), the division of the Army responsible for investigating, developing and maintaining the nation's water and related environmental resources, issued a Procurement Instruction Letter to its contracting officers giving the authority to use electronic systems for processing certified payroll records in Corps construction projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act.  The letter was issued to offer guidance and to “encourage the use of an electronic, commercially available system to process and submit Davis-Bacon certified payrolls to the Government.”