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Monday, October 20, 2014

Mediterranean Diet and Workplace Health Promotion

A recent report indicates that promoting healthier dietary habits at work significantly pays off by reducing: diabetes, cancer and heart related disease. The findings were published shortly after a recent Harvard School of Public Health program and it is co-authored by program co-chair Stefanos N. Kales MD.

Analytical and experimental studies confirm relationships between the consumption of certain foods and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Mediterranean diet patterns have long been associated with a reduced risk of major diseases and many favorable health outcomes. Data from observational, longitudinal, and randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that Mediterranean-style diets can improve body mass index and body weight, reduce the incidence of diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome risk factors, decrease cardiovascular morbidity and coronary heart disease mortality, as well as decrease all-cause mortality.

Recently, efforts have attempted to improve dietary habits in the workplace, by modifying food selection, eating patterns, meal frequency, and the sourcing of meals taken during work. Evidence supporting the Mediterranean diet and the potential cardioprotective role of healthier diets in the workplace are reviewed here, and promising strategies to improve metabolic and cardiovascular health outcomes are also provided.

Mediterranean Diet and Workplace Health Promotion, Maria Korre, Michael A. Tsoukas, Elpida Frantzeskou, Justin Yang, and Stefanos N. Kales , Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep. 2014; 8(12): 416.
Published online Oct 10, 2014. doi: 10.1007/s12170-014-0416-3
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Protecting Workers from being Destroyed by the Work Schedule

Senator Tom Harkin

Today's post comes from guest author Paul J. McAndrew, Jr., from Paul McAndrew Law Firm.

I wrote the post below as an editorial in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Because The Scheudles That Work Act is of national importance I want to make sure this issue receives the attention that it deserves by promoting awareness of it as broadly as possible. I hope you'll take the time to read my editorial and pass it along to concerned citizens in your area.

Workers deserve some certainty in their work schedules. Why? Because we all have need to plan for child care, time for school, transportation, or simply time to pay bills and manage the household. It’s basic fairness.

But don’t you, a friend or an acquaintance work a job with unpredictable and irregular work schedules? You’ve probably noticed that irregular and on-call scheduling are increasingly common. It’s especially common in the fastest-growing areas of our economy---- cleaning, janitorial, retail and restaurant work.

These scheduling practices can devastate the worker and her/his family. The practices demand the worker choose between his job or his family. They often lead to the worker being fired.

Vermont and San Francisco have already passed laws to help employers and workers avoid this devastation.

Senator Tom Harkin has now proposed The Schedules That Work Act to help workers balancework duties with family duties. The Act helps both workers and employers by:

  • Protecting all employees from retaliation for requesting a more flexible, predictable or stable schedule.
  • Creating a process under which an employer considers a worker’s schedule request in a way that’s sensitive to the needs of the worker and her/his family. For example, schedule requests based on caregiving duties, health conditions, pursuing education or the need to meet the demands of a second job, must be granted, unless the employer has a good business reason for denying it.
  • Compensating retail, food service, and cleaning workers for at least four hours of work if an employee reports to work when scheduled for at least four hours but is sent home early.
  • Providing that retail, food service, and cleaning employees receive work schedules at least two weeks in advance. Though schedules may later be changed, one hour’s worth of extra pay is required for schedules changed with less than twenty-four (24) hours’ notice.
  • Providing workers an extra hour of pay if scheduled to work split shifts or non-consecutive shifts, within a single day.

Kudos to Senator Harkin! Some politicians and billionaire-driven PACs parrot “Iowa values” as a campaign slogan. Senator Harkin, on the contrary, uses those values to create legislation like the ADA and The Schedules That Work Act.

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Walmart Workers Demand $15 Wage in Several Protests

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



As retail workers step up demands for higher wages and more stable working hours, a trade organization has warned that many retailers cannot afford to pay more, intensifying a debate over fair pay in a struggling industry.
Labor activists have long denounced retailers like Walmart for employing an army of low-wage, part-time workers to staff their stores. As retail sales flounder in an uncertain economy, those activists — and even a growing number of retailers — are linking those sluggish sales to the retailers’ own low wages.
On Thursday, organizers of a group called Our Walmart took to the streets in New York, Washington and Phoenix to draw attention to their campaign to change labor practices in retailing and other low-wage industries like fast-food restaurants. By not paying their workers a living wage, the activists say, such businesses squeeze the very people they hope to sell to.
“I can’t afford anything,” said LaRanda Jackson, 20, who earns $8.75 an hour working on the sales floor at a Walmart in Cincinnati. “Sometimes I can’t afford soap, toothpaste, tissue. Sometimes I have to go without washing my clothes.”


Ms. Jackson was among 14 Walmart employees and 12 others who were arrested and charged with civil disobedience Thursday after staging a protest outside the Manhattan residence of Alice Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, demanding that Walmart set a base pay of $15 for all its workers — much like the...
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The Long Arm of Failure

Today's post was shared by WorkCompCentral and comes from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

How far do failed New York self-insurance trust issues go?
Answer: All the way across the nation to the West Coast.
In a lawsuit recently filed, California-based Waste Connections Inc. says it was duped because New York based Hudson Valley Waste Holding Inc. failed to disclose nearly $5 million in assessments by New York regulators for liabilities stemming from the Team Transportation Workers' Comp Trust, that failed in 2010.
Waste paid $300 million for Hudson Valley in 2011.
In 2005, the New York Workers' Compensation Board calculated that the trust equity ratio was 78.6% and deemed it to be underfunded as of Dec. 31, 2004. While the group's equity ratio improved to the point that the board stopped classifying it as underfunded as of Dec. 31, 2007, by July 29, 2010, it was once again declared underfunded.
In October 2010, the trustees held a meeting in which they voted to close the trust effective Jan. 1, 2011.



An audit was conducted by the board after it took control of the trust in 2012 and the analysis found the trust had a deficit of $32.5 million, plus interest.
The amount owed by the Hudson Valley companies consequently became $4.9 million. As of July 1, 2014, interest totaling $49,000 had accrued, and continues to accrue until the deficit is fully paid, according to Waste's complaint.
A Workers' Compensation Board report sent to lawmakers in June says the Team Trust has 120 open claims. The trust had 193 open claims when the board took it over in 2012.
Hudson Valley has not...
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Sunday, October 19, 2014

Virginia Dietrich, NJ Judge of Compensation

Today's post is shared from nj.com

Virginia M. Dietrich, 62, a NJ judge of Workers' Compensation, died suddenly and peacefully on Oct. 15, 2014. Born in Trenton, Judge Dietrich was a lifelong resident of Mercer County.

She obtained both her undergraduate and law degrees at The Catholic University of America. Judge Dietrich began her legal career as a law clerk to Mercer County Superior Court judges and then practiced law for 25 years with her father, J. Raymond Dietrich, from their office in Ewing. In her law practice, Judge Dietrich specialized in workers' compensation, matrimonial, and real estate law.

In 2002, Governor Donald DiFrancesco nominated and the New Jersey Senate confirmed her appointment as a judge of Workers' Compensation. She soon was appointed an administrative supervisory judge and at the time of her death she was the chief administrative supervisory judge, reporting to the director of Workers' Compensation. 

Judge Dietrich possessed a generous spirit towards those in need. Early in her legal career, she served many weekends at a homeless shelter in New York City. As an attorney, she represented many individuals of limited economic means on a pro bono or reduced fee basis. As a judge, she was determined to make certain that injured workers received the full compensation to which they were entitled under the law. She extended her generosity of spirit to family members and friends. Judge Dietrich was immensely proud of her seven nieces, whom she loved dearly.

Her experiences as a young lawyer, when there were relatively few female attorneys, informed her advice to them to strive to be exceptional women. They took her advice to heart and returned her love. Judge Dietrich possessed a sharp intellect. She would often read as many as seven books in a week. She was a two-time "Jeopardy!" champion. Family members will miss lively debates with her on political and cultural issues. For 25 years, Judge Dietrich taught law courses as an adjunct professor in the School of Business of The College of New Jersey. For many years, she served as a trustee of the Trenton Public Library.

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Saturday, October 18, 2014

California Prop. 46, Inspired By Tragedy, Pits Doctors Against Lawyers

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

This story is part of a partnership that includes KQED, NPR and Kaiser Health News. It can be republished for free. (details)
Troy and Alana Pack had spent the day at their neighborhood Halloween party in Danville. Ten-year-old Troy went as a baseball player, and 7-year-old Alana was a good witch. In the afternoon, they changed out of their costumes and set out for a walk with their mother. Destination: Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors.
“Alana, she liked anything with chocolate,” says their father, Bob Pack. “Troy, for sure, bubble gum ice cream, ’cause he liked counting the bubble gums that he would get.”
Bob and Carmen Pack with their children Troy and Alana, who were killed by an impaired driver. Bob has been pushing for California's Prop 46 to be passed.
Bob Pack stayed home. His family made it only half a mile down the road before his phone rang: “I received a call from a neighbor screaming there’d been an accident. And I raced down there.”
An impaired driver had veered off the road and hit Troy and Alana head-on. Pack was doing CPR on Troy when the paramedics arrived.
“I remember telling them I love them, and hang on. Just praying that they could hang on,” he says
Troy and Alana were pronounced dead at the hospital. In the months after their death, Pack’s wife, Carmen, retreated into her Catholic faith. Bob Pack was angry.
“I think, for me to get through, I needed action,” he says, “and I needed to...
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FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide

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

Five days a week for 10 years, Agostino Scalercio left his house before 6 a.m., drove to a depot to pick up a truck, and worked a 10-hour shift delivering packages in San Diego. He first worked for Roadway Package System, a national delivery company whose founders included former United Parcel Service (UPS) managers, and continued driving trucks when (FDX) bought RPS in 1998. FedEx Ground assigned Scalercio a service area. The company, he says, had strict standards about delivery times, the drivers’ grooming, truck maintenance, and deadlines for handing in paperwork, and deducted money from his pay to cover the cost of his uniform, truck washings, and the scanner used to log shipments.
FedEx Ground didn’t pay overtime or contribute to Scalercio’s Social Security benefits. That’s because since acquiring RPS and introducing its ground service, the FedEx unit has treated drivers as independent contractors, not employees. “The saying around the building was, ‘It’s their sandbox. We only get to play in it,’ ” says Scalercio, who no longer drives for FedEx Ground but is one of hundreds of current and former drivers suing the FedEx subsidiary, seeking back pay for overtime worked and for paycheck deductions. (The parent company is not a defendant.)Scalercio earned about $90,000 a year from FedEx, he says, but...
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