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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Malala Yousafzai: By the Book

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

The activist and co-author of “I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World” relished “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the first book she read in the hospital when recovering from an attack by the Taliban. New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor will continue the conversation with Malala Yousafzai at a Times Talk this evening; click here to watch it live or afterwards.

What book are you reading right now?

I’ve been reading “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck, which is on the school curriculum. It’s a short book, but it is filled with so much. It really reflects the situation of 1930s America. I was fascinated to learn how women were treated at the time, and what life was like for poor itinerant workers. Books can capture injustices in a way that stays with you and makes you want to do something about them. That’s why they are so powerful.

What’s the last truly great book you read? 

“The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho. I like it because it is hopeful and inspiring. It tells the story of a boy who embarks on a journey to find a treasure, but as he goes along, he learns from every part of his journey and every person he meets. In the end, he finds his treasure in a very interesting place. His story tells you that you should believe in yourself and continue your journey.  

Who are your favorite contemporary writers?

Deborah Ellis (author of “Parvana’s Journey”)...

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Workers Need Adequate Protection from Ebola, Infectious Diseases


By Alberto Grant, Jr., Airway Terminal Cleaner, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York

Dozens of New York area airport workers took part in an awareness training provided by SEIU trainers and healthcare professionals. The training came as workers have revealed their lack of training to deal with infectious diseases in light of the Centers for Disease Control's updated advice on preventing the spread of Ebola in our airports.
I was really glad to know that we would be getting this training, because I don't think we are getting what we need to keep ourselves safe at the airport.
A lot of us are worried about this because we know there's a risk of passengers coming through who have Ebola. The equipment we have is just not good enough to deal with that. Also, this training is more than we've gotten so far from my company. They told us yesterday we should wash our hands and use gloves, and we could get gloves if we asked. I've been working here for a while and just like some contractors, they don't like to buy good equipment.
When we clean the bathrooms, we are exposed to everything, so I am really glad to know that I'm getting this training. In the past, contractors have told us just to wash our hands and use gloves. Cleaning kits are not readily available to protect against the various bodily fluids we encounter every day. Sometimes all we have are paper towels to wipe down the bathrooms.
That can be a real problem because we have to deal with some tough things -- vomit,...
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Scott Walker: I Don't Think Minimum Wage 'Serves A Purpose'

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from talkingpointsmemo.com



V2zq6tczkzigfsiphtkzWisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) seemed to argue that the minimum wage doesn't "serve a purpose."
The topic came up during an interview with an editorial board on on Tuesday.
"Well I'm not going to repeal it but I don't think it serves a purpose because we're debating then about what the lowest levels are at," Walker said during a televised interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I want people to make — like I said the other night — two or three times that."
Walker went on to say that the policies his administration has been pushing are meant to raise Wisconsinites above the minimum wage level.
"The jobs I have focused on, the training we've put in place, the programs we've put in place is not for people to get minimum wage jobs," Walker continued. "It's the training whether it's in apprenticeships, whether it's in our tech colleges, or our UW system —it's to try and apply the training, the skills, the talents, the expertise people need to create careers that pay many many times over."
That comment came less than a week after Walker was asked at a debate on Friday about the minimum wage. He refused to give a straight answer on whether it should be increased and instead said that he wanted to create "jobs that pay two or three times the minimum wage."
Walker's opponent, Democratic candidate Mary Burke, meanwhile said she strongly supports raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
The TPM...
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Two Groups Complete Inspections of 1,700 Bangladesh Garment Factories

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

Two big groups of retailers and apparel brands have completed a major step toward advancing garment-factory safety in Bangladesh: They have finished inspecting nearly 1,700 factories in that country.

A European-dominated group — the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, with 189 corporate members, including H&M and Carrefour — said on Tuesday that it had found more than 80,000 safety problems in the 1,106 factories it inspected.

The other — an American-dominated group, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety — completed inspections in July of the 587 factories that its 26 members, including Walmart, Gap and Target, use in that country.

The groups are working with Bangladeshi factory owners to promote safety and finance improvements, like fireproof doors or fire-sprinkler systems, that are required for garment factories 75 feet or taller in Bangladesh.

“We have found safety hazards in all factories, which was to be expected,” said Brad Loewen, the chief safety inspector of the Bangladesh Accord. “The safety findings have ranged from minor to significant.”

Ian Spaulding, a senior adviser to the Alliance, said: “Inspections were the easy part. Now comes the hard part.”

The Alliance estimated that it would cost $250,000 on average for safety improvements at each factory. Alan Roberts, the Accord’s executive director for international operations, said the cost for some factories would be $1 million.

All...

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Impact of minimum wage hike likely a wash, UNL economist says

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.omaha.com

minwagegraphic

LINCOLN — A ballot proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage would make a big difference for Katherine Doiel and Gary Tharnish.

For Doiel, Initiative 425 would mean bringing home another $10 to $15 a week from her job as an assistant convenience store manager in Lincoln.

“That goes a long ways. That’s food on the table,” she said.

For Tharnish, it would mean hiring one fewer part-timer and doing more work himself at his longtime Lincoln flower shop. He also would look for ways to cut other expenses.

“Will I survive if the minimum wage goes up? I will, but it’s hard,” Tharnish said.

But the measure would make little difference for most Nebraskans or the state’s overall economy, according to a leading Nebraska economist.

Scott Fuess, a labor economist and chairman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s economics department, said raising the minimum wage would neither drive up unemployment nor boost consumer spending significantly.

“This is no big deal,” he said. “One way or another, the day after the election, the economy is not going to zoom ahead and it’s not going to crash.”

Nebraska voters will decide Initiative 425 in the Nov. 4 general election.

If passed, the proposal would increase the state’s minimum wage in two steps. It would go from the current $7.25 an hour to $8 an hour for 2015, then to $9 an hour in 2016.

Nebraskans for Better Wages — backed by some of the...

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Misclassification of Workers Yields Penalties

Today's post is shared from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com/
A lot of employers try to lower their workers' compensation costs by fudging the numbers on their payroll reports, or paying workers "under the table," or misclassifying their jobs.
Some employees take advantage of the no-fault design of the system to make claims that didn't occur, or inflate the severity of the claim.
And there are some people on the claims side that try to "meet the numbers" by denying, delaying and otherwise obfuscating claim realities and legal obligations.
But the penalties meted are different depending upon your place in the system and don't necessarily reflect the crime.
For instance, WorkCompCentral did an analysis of California Department of Insurance fraud statistics.
Between Jan. 1, 2013, and July 10, 150 individuals were convicted of defrauding workers' compensation carriers out of $8 million; $6.7 million, or 83.75%, came from 30 of the 77 convictions for premium fraud, such as misreporting payroll, classifying workers as independent contractors or operating without mandatory workers' compensation insurance.
The CDI data does not have an estimated loss for the remaining 47 of those convictions, but if extrapolated against the "known" losses, then the total for that time period is $17.5 million of losses attributable to employers.
$1.3 million out of that "known" $8 million is attributed to false claims filed by 67 of 73 individuals. Losses for the remaining six of those false claim cases were not included in...
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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Against Rules, Dallas Worker With Ebola Boarded Plane

Yet another health worker has contracted Ebola. As President Obama abruptly cancelled travel plans to hold a special meeting about the potential fatal epidemic in the US, the question remains open as to whether the workers' compensation system is able to handle an outbreak in the US. This post is shared from nytimes.com





DALLAS — A second nurse at a hospital here tested positive for Ebola on Wednesday, the third case of disease confirmed in Dallas in the span of 15 days and the first to heighten fears far beyond the city.

The nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, 29, took a flight earlier this week from Ohio to Texas, a trip that federal health officials said should not have been taken.

Ms. Vinson was part of the medical team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital that cared for the Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan after he was admitted on Sept. 28 and put in isolation.

“Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. “The C.D.C. guidance in this setting outlines the need for what is called ‘controlled movement.’ That can include a charter plane, that can include a car, but it does not include public transport.”

Though she traveled on Monday, the day before she reported symptoms on Tuesday, Ms. Vinson was among a group of workers at Presbyterian who were being monitored after the diagnosis on Sunday of the first nurse, Nina Pham, 26. Although Ms. Vinson’s temperature did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she reported to health officials that her temperature was 99.5.

Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight Monday and her first report of...


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