HR-OneSource - HR-News

Union Membership Increases for the First Time in 25 Years

In 2007, "U.S. unions increased their share of membership among workers" for the "first time in the past quarter of a century," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual union membership report. The number of workers belonging to a union rose by 311,000 to 15.7 million, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent. Some highlights from the 2007 data are:

The largest increase in union membership was in health services, where unions added 142,000 members, a 0.9 percent increase from 2006 to 7.9 percent.

In the private sector, union membership grew by 133,000, and union density grew to 7.5 percent in 2007, the first time private-sector density grew since 1979. In construction alone, more than 96,000 members were added last year, bumping the union membership rate in that industry to 13.9 percent, up from 13 percent in 2006.

Workers in the public sector had a union membership rate nearly five times that of private sector employees.

Education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate among all occupations, at 37.2 percent, followed closely by protective service occupations at 35.2 percent.

Wage and salary workers ages 45 to 54 (15.7 percent) and ages 55 to 64 (16.1 percent) were more likely to be union members than were workers ages 16 to 24 (4.8 percent).

Click here for the rest of the article.

FLSA's Agriculture Exemption Precluded Plaintiff from Receiving Overtime Pay

In this case, a service truck driver sued his employer, an agricultural cooperative association, and related entities, alleging failure to pay for overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The United States District Court granted summary judgment for the defendants. On appeal, the 11^th Circuit affirmed, holding that:

Click here for the rest of the article.

2008 Iowa Employment, Training and Benefits Conference

The 2008 Iowa Employment, Training and Benefits Conference will be held on April 23 at Prairie Meadows in Altoona from 8:15 a.m. until 4 p.m. This one-day premier conference will feature powerful and informative concurrent sessions presented by leading human resource and training consultants, attorneys and benefit consultants on the most critical employment issues likely to affect Iowa employers in 2008.

2008 Iowa Employment, Training & Benefits Conference

Wednesday, April 23rd

8:00 a.m. – 4:05 p.m.

Prairie Meadows Conference Center, Altoona

Click here for the rest of the article.

A “Good-Faith” Workplace Investigation

Everett Young, an African American, worked as an investigator at Dillon Companies' King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado. According to his employer's timekeeping procedures, he was supposed to complete all time records in a manner that reflected the true hours he worked. His shift was scheduled to run from 2:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.

Dillon began investigating Young because of allegations that he was abusing telephone privileges during work hours. Its investigation included reviewing store security videos. As part of that review, his supervisor, Jon Lesley, saw images on the videos indicating that he left the store two hours before the end of his shift on January 11.

Lesley investigated Young's timekeeping records. He was required to "punch out" at the end of every shift through an electronic timecard system and record his hours in a transfer log on the last day of each workweek.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Approaching Deadlines for Human Resource/Payroll Professionals

Click here for the rest of the article.

Latest Department of Labor Numbers

Click here for the rest of the article.

Inside this Issue: