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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor issued a bulletin on Oct. 1 to prepare for compensating federal employees, under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), who have been injured by COVID-19 shots after President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating it.The bulletin, number 22-01, appears to be a first of its kind as FECA has never been used to compensate employees for injuries from vaccines, according to the bulletin itself.“The FECA does not generally authorize provision of preventive measures such as vaccines and inoculations,” the bulletin states. However, for the COVID-19 jabs it provides “employees impacted by this mandate who...

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Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 4.8 million in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In June, employment in leisure and hospitality rose sharply. Notable job gains also occurred in retail trade, education and health services, other services, manufacturing, and professional and business services. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures...

Labor appointee was rehired after hit job was discredited Bloomberg Law finally apologized and retracted a September article that falsely accused Department of Labor appointee Leif Olson of anti-Semitism. Editor-in-Chief Cesca Antonelli told staffers she made the decision after "we spent the last few weeks reviewing our coverage and our editorial processes." The story "did not meet our editorial standards for fairness and accuracy." She did not elaborate on why the review took so long given immediate pushback from reporters and fellow attorneys. "We regret that lapse and have retracted the story," Antonelli said on Friday. "We are also strengthening...

Videos at link. The White House took a victory lap Friday after the Labor Department announced 304,000 jobs were created in January, some 139,000 more than economists anticipated. “Three hundred-thousand new jobs plus, 3.2 percent increase in wages, participation rates went up, hours worked went up, it doesn’t get much better than this,” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said in a video posted to the White House Twitter page. “I hate to say I told you so folks,” he added. “We’re going at 3 percent plus, and I don’t care, you can line up 8,000 pessimistas, and they’re wrong....

“Servers, and in particular women, can receive larger tips if they touch their customers, call customers by name, smile, crouch next to the table and engage in other similar behaviors. This puts workers who depend on tips in a difficult position when faced with inappropriate customer behavior,” ROC wrote. Chaisson called ROC “the Scientology” of the restaurant industry and supports the government proposal. “It is a pragmatic and sensible plan,” he said. The Trump administration’s pending policy change would reverse an Obama administration rule, which holds that tips are the exclusive property of waiters.

Just months after being slimed by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, Mitt Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot was informed that he was going to be audited not only by the Internal Revenue Service, but by the Labor Department as well. VanderSloot’s saga was told by columnist Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal last July. In April 2012, VanderSloot, who served as the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee, was one of eight Romney backers to be defamed as ”wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” in a post on the Obama campaign’s website. The post, entitled “Behind the...

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor, Alexander Acosta, said during a congressional hearing that he believed it is “not the intent” to replace American employees with cheaper, foreign ones under the H-1B visa program.

JoAnn Wise thinks she wasn’t treated well. In an op-ed published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Wise writes, “I already know what Trump/Puzder economics look like because I’m living it every day. Despite giving everything I had to [labor secretary pick Andy] Puzder’s company for 21 years, I left without a penny of savings, with no health care and no pension.” Wise worked for 21 years at Hardee’s, which is one of the chains Puzder leads as head of CKE. “In 1984, I was hired as a cashier at Hardee’s in Columbia, S.C., making $4.25 an hour. By 2005, 21...

A Texas judge Wednesday issued an order to block the Labor Department from enforcing its union “persuader rule.” Judge Sam Cummings granted a motion for summary judgement in favor of the National Federation of Independent Business and turned the temporary stay he ordered in June into a permanent injunction. In the one-page order, he said the rule “should be held unlawful and set aside.” The rule, finalized in March, would force employers to disclose outside consultants they hire to counter workers' union organizing efforts. It would require employers to report any action, conduct or communication undertaken — explicitly or implicitly,...

Only weeks after the White House made headlines with a directive urging prosecutors to get tougher on corporate crime, the Obama administration has moved to protect a convicted financial firm from punishment. The bank, Credit Suisse, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Barack Obama’s political campaigns. It also employs the Podesta Group, a lobbying firm with family connections to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to criminal charges for operating “an illegal cross-border banking business that knowingly and willfully aided and assisted thousands of U.S. clients in opening and...

Last month the Obama administration's Labor Department issued Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01, which tells pension funds what factors to use when choosing investments, including climate change. Only a few tax lawyers noticed, but with U.S. pensions at $9 trillion, this is a gross power grab that will hurt the retirees it claims to protect. This government is essentially saying: Don't you dare invest in anything that causes or is hurt by climate change, or you'll be sued for failing your fiduciary responsibilities. Energy, utilities and industrials are 20% of the market. How can pension funds now own any of them? Pushing...

The federal government shutdown has begun to paralyze the legal machinery that governs many of the relationships between U.S. employers and workers. The National Labor Relations Board, which reviews labor disputes and oversees union elections, is down to just 11 employees - with the other 1,600 sent home. Phones are going unanswered and some websites are frozen because of the shutdown, now in its third day. The NLRB's home page declares it is "currently closed due to a lapse in appropriated funds" and asks visitors to "click here to view our Shutdown Plan." At the 16,000-employee U.S. Department of Labor,...

The Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs plans to award up to $1 million in taxpayer dollars to increase gender equality at work in Morocco. The purpose of the grant is “to help build the capacity of civil society organizations,including non-governmental organizations and trade unions,in the Kingdom of Morocco to address working women's issues and empower women to more fully exercise their labor rights.” “Projects awarded funding will be expected to work with local organizations to enhance service delivery to women on matters related to their labor rights and interests and to raise public awareness of women's labor rights,”...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the fewest since January 2008. The decline shows the job market continues to strengthen. The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average slid 4,500 to 345,750. The July figures are typically volatile as the government adjusts for seasonal layoffs in the auto industry. Still, the trend in weekly unemployment claims in recent months has been positive. Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen more than 12 percent this year. That's coincided with average job growth...

With U.S. unemployment rates at historical highs and the nation’s debt a mind-boggling $16.8 trillion, the Obama administration has nevertheless made sure that an African youth empowerment initiative in Uganda gets millions from American taxpayers. The cash is being distributed via the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) even as the nation that should be the agency’s priority finds itself suffering through a painfully high 7.6% unemployment rate. This month the DOL announced that it is dedicating $3 million to help Ugandan youth develop marketable skills to secure decent work and to serve as civic leaders in their respective communities. It’s...

The last big economic indicator left to see before the election is the October jobs report, which is due on Friday. Or is it? The Department of Labor suggested this morning that the jobs report might be a little, er … delayed: The U.S. Labor Department on Monday said it hasn’t made a decision yet on whether to delay Friday’s October jobs report, the final reading on the labor market before next week’s federal elections. A Labor official said the agency will assess the schedule for all its data releases this week when the “weather emergency” is over. They’re not...

President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Labor Department has close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations and has sent representatives to functions organized by national parties for both ideologies. The pick of Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., a Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader considered to be one of the most reliably pro-union voices in the House, was hailed as a victory by communist and socialist leaders.

Full Headline: Obama’s Failed Stimulus Funded ‘Green Jobs’ Initiative Ads on MSNBC: Labor Department Unrepentant [...] According to a Washington Times report by Jim McElhatton, the U.S. Department of Labor allegedly paid a public relations company at least half a million dollars of their allotted stimulus money to produce over 100 commercials that publicized a new “green jobs” initiative back in 2009. Coincidentally, the advertisements could only be seen on MSNBC during The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which has since been canceled of course. A House panel led by Reps. John Kline (R-Minn.) and Phil Roe...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations: "The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations. The Obama administration is also deeply committed to listening and responding to what Americans across the country have to say about proposed rules and regulations. "As a result, the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of...