Free Republic

The federal agency that insures pension plans said yesterday that its deficit had grown from $3.6 billion to $11.2 billion in just a year and that it would try to deal with the escalating problem by overhauling its own investments, among other measures. The agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, said that two consecutive years of record failures by corporate pension plans and continuing adverse market conditions left it with a shortfall much greater than a year earlier, which had been the previous low point in the agency's 30-year history. People briefed on the new investment plan say the agency...

<p>The Labor Department is giving employers tips on how to avoid paying overtime to some of the 1.3 million low-income workers who would become eligible under new rules expected to be finalized early this year.</p> <p>The department's advice comes even as it touts the $895 million in increased wages that it says those workers would be guaranteed from the reforms.</p>

A federal judge in Washington issued a one-year injunction yesterday stopping the Labor Department from requiring labor unions to submit vastly expanded new financial reports -- a rule that would have gone into effect today. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said the Labor Department sprung a complicated and expensive reporting requirement on nearly 5,000 unions in October, two months before they would have to begin complying. She said meeting the new rule would cause unions "irreparable harm." Kessler also ruled that there would be no discernible harm to the public interest in keeping existing reporting rules, "especially when that status...

<p>The Bush administration, under fire for its handling of the economy, has quietly killed off a Labor Department program that tracked mass layoffs by U.S. companies.</p> <p>The statistic, which had been issued monthly and was closely watched by hard-hit Silicon Valley, served as a pulse reading of corporate America's financial health.</p>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Eric Christensen April 22, 2002 (703) 689-2370 (703) 689-2373 (fax) info@landmarklegal.org http://www.landmarklegal.org (Herndon, VA)...Landmark Legal Foundation today filed an unprecedented complaint with the U.S. Labor Department charging the National Education Association (NEA) with concealing the union’s use of millions of dollars in tax-exempt teachers’ dues and fees for political activities since at least 1994. The federal Labor and Management Reporting Act (LMRDA) requires labor unions to report their revenues and expenditures annually to the Department of Labor on a form LM-2. Unions must report their financial activities in sufficient detail to accurately reflect the union’s operations....

Twelve-year-old Brian Glennon planned to spend his summer calling balls and strikes for 8-year-old batters, earning $10 a game from the Darien Youth Club baseball league. But thanks to an anonymous complaint, Brian and 35 other young umpires have been fired before the first pitch. Citing child-labor laws, the Illinois Department of Labor told the league in March to stop paying umpires who are not yet 14. "It kind of stinks," said Brian, who completed umpiring classes during the winter to qualify for the job, "because there's absolutely no point to it if you're not going to get paid." Parents...