By Ted Knutson, Financial Advisor
Federal rules on the fiduciary responsibility of financial advisors to pension plans should be proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor within the next couple of months, a department official said today.
By John Hayward, Human Events
As we try to fathom how a few low-level rogue employees launched a national campaign to discriminate against groups that oppose Barack Obama’s policies, without any resistance from a long chain of experienced, highly compensated supervisors… and wonder where this rowdy band of cubicle gremlins ever got the idea to do such a thing… let’s remember that Obama’s political opponents just happened to fall under the scrutiny of agencies beyond the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations unit.
By Bruce Kennedy, MSN Money
As an overall trend, union membership rates in the U.S. are declining. The Department of Labor reports just 11.3% of America’s wage and salary workers were union members last year, down from 11.8% in 2011. Compare that with 1983, the first year comparable data became available: The overall U.S. union membership rate was 20.1%.
Now that IRS officials have been caught red-handed targeting conservative organizations, it is reasonable to ask whether officials at other federal agencies also need more careful oversight. In the IRS’s case, the problem was systematic and involved direct orders from superiors, but no fair estimation of politically-motivations affect agency decisions can ignore the fact that in most instances it would not be systematic or have such a clearly stated policy. Immigration decisions provide a useful case and point.
pobonline.com
NSPS has learned that the Obama administration’s Department of Labor reversed 50 years of precedent, first established by John F. Kennedy, and ruled that members of survey crews are now subject to the construction prevailing wage law known as the Davis-Bacon Act.
By Melanie Trottman, The Wall Street Journal
Senate Democrats are scheduled to go to bat Thursday for two of the labor movement’s top priorities: moving ahead on Tom Perez’s nomination as labor secretary as well as a full slate of nominees to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board.
By Carlyn Kolker, Thomson Reuters News & Insight
The Department of Labor is working with state agencies, zeroing in on certain industries and weighing in on private lawsuits, in an effort to end misclassification of workers, a top department lawyer said on Tuesday.
By Larissa Dudkiewicz, Patch.com
A Cranberry Township resident accused of stealing more than $13,000 has been indicted by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh.
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun
The fight over the federal minimum wage is coming to Baltimore.
By Edward Siedle, Forbes
Across the nation largely less-skilled older workers participating in multiemployer pension funds are at risk of losing the limited retirement security they had and slipping into poverty. Reductions or limitations on benefits–such as disability benefits–may spell doom for some older workers, particularly those with physically demanding jobs. Too frail to work, too poor to retire will be their fate.