In early 2010, the relentless snow fell in Washington, D.C., crippling the city and surrounding suburbs and bringing the federal government almost to a grinding halt. For the first time in 30 years, the U.S. Postal Service failed to deliver mail on Saturday. With only essential personnel asked to report to work, the storm dubbed "Snowmageddon" by President Obama was a symbolic precursor to the avalanche of regulations that U.S. employers would expect from the Administration in the following months. While healthcare reform was narrowly approved by Congress, the mid-term elections clearly signaled that the prospects are dim for any new employment legislation during the coming term. Even so, this has not stalled the Obama Administration's agenda of strengthening employee rights in the workplace as evidenced by the ongoing efforts involving new and proposed regulations, informal directives and heightened agency enforcement efforts. The regulatory "reforms" during the second half of President Obama's first term promise to create the greatest workplace compliance challenge for employers within the last 100 years. Like the snow storms of 2010, the regulatory "avalanche" is making history.
The focus of this 2011 Littler Report is to provide employers with information to prepare and plan for regulations recently passed and those currently making their way through the agency rulemaking process. Part One of this Littler Report will set the stage and define the challenge employers will face in the coming years as the Obama Administration enters the second half of its term. Part Two of this Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the various regulatory activity that employers can expect from the various federal agencies as they relate to employment and labor law developments.
Of utmost importance to employers, is what to do to prepare for this avalanche of new regulations and the incumbent changes in business strategy and processes. Overall compliance with the coming regulatory avalanche is provided in Part Three, The Littler Seven Step Compliance Program. As expected with a 21st-century Compliance Program, technology-enabled solutions are an essential part of the Littler Plan. Additionally, practical compliance recommendations are provided following each section and summarized in Appendix A. When the sets of recommendations appear to overlap, the critical difference is that the Littler Seven is intended for those professionals who are responsible for multiple-agency compliance, while the recommendations following each section focus on the specific agency discussed.
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