Tim Weighs In On Bailouts, Layoffs and OSHA

Are you Sick of Bailouts, Politicians and Unions?

If you are like me, you find all the bailout and rescue plans going down very troubling. It's not how capitalism and the free market are supposed to work. And certainly politicians are not supposed to be picking the winners and losers in the business world.

Here's a section examining the financial crisis the New York Times has been running on the Web called The Reckoning.

This being said, what is equally disturbing is how our government wants the survivors to become more like those begging for handouts (and like those public sector employees). Think about what's coming down the pike in 2009:

1. Mandatory Health Care - The goal here is to force everyone in business to provide womb to tomb health care just like big auto. If you don't do it you'll be taxed.

2. Healthy Families Act - This will mandate paid time off for all your employees for virtually any reason and with little or no notice. Aside from the expense try running a business when you don't know who will be at work. Even Governor Strickland thought this was a bad idea, yet it promises to be back as a Federal issue soon.

3. Employee Free Choice - Unions in this country haven't done enough already to send jobs overseas so why not make it easier for unions to take over representation of all businesses. High on labor's list of priorities, this law if passed will eliminate secret ballots and allow unions to be certified when a majority of employees sign the cards now used to gauge only interest in voting on participation.

4. Minimum Wage - It keeps going up despite its impact on small business. In Ohio with our annual inflation adjustment it has now reached $7.30/hr effective January 01, 2009. The unemployment rate in Ohio is now at the highest level in about twenty years and the UC benefits fund is broke. Is it a coincidence that Ohio is now on the list of bailout beggars?

5. FMLA - Too complicated to go into detail about so just be aware that new FMLA regulations go into effect on January 16, 2009.

Had enough? I for sure have! Did you know that in Ohio businesses have over 50,000 rules and regulations to follow?

Ask yourself why our elected leaders are hell bent on running us out of business so they can take over? Perhaps the answer is in the question. Let your elected officials know how you feel. For a list of their names and contact information go to the Ohio General Assembly (here's state representatives) directories and the Ohio U.S. Congress directory.

Layoffs and Closures

With the recent problems facing our economy I'm sure most of us have had to layoff staff or close facilities. Before you do it might be a good idea to familiarize your self with the Worker's Adjustment and Re-Training Notification Act (WARN).

You can do this by visiting the winter 2008 edition of the Water Cooler at www.bricker.com.

OSHA Record Keeping

As our annual reminder to all those that use Staffing Services, all OSHA recordable injuries experienced by employees supplied by Staffing Companies must be recorded on the OSHA 300 Log of the party that provides the employees day to day supervision.

The details of this record keeping regulation are covered in Section 1904.31 of the act.