Employment Law News

Labor Dept. Launches New Compliance Assistance Web Portal

WASHINGTON—Today the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its new Compliance Assistance Web Portal, designed to help members of the regulated community understand and comply with federal employment laws and regulations administered by DOL.

“Today's employers and workers are demanding access to accurate, easy-to-understand employment law information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week” said Veronica Stidvent, assistant secretary for policy. “This new and improved Compliance Assistance Portal enables users to quickly and easily navigate DOL's wide range of regulatory and compliance information any time, day or night.”

Located at dol.gov/compliance, the redesigned Compliance Assistance Portal is an enhanced, more user-friendly version of the department's previous compliance assistance Web site. A central gateway to “all things compliance assistance,” the intuitive portal directs users to easy-to-navigate information including e-tools, fact sheets on a variety of employment law issues, regulatory text, frequently asked questions and a wealth of additional compliance assistance information provided by DOL's agencies. In addition, users will find links to the compliance assistance mailbox, compliancehelp@dol.gov, and to a compliance assistance e-mail subscription service which updates subscribers by e-mail every time there is significant compliance news.

The portal also features an improved navigation scheme to allow searches for compliance information “by topic” and “by audience;” users need not know the name of a particular law to locate key information. Unlike the previous compliance assistance Web site, the new portal also guides users to information outside DOL's jurisdiction. For example, even though DOL doesn't regulate certain equal opportunity laws, it will direct a user to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when appropriate. The site will also inform the user if there is no federal law that covers a particular issue.

As always, the Compliance Assistance Portal directs users to the department's celebrated collection of compliance assistance tools, including DOL's Toll-Free Help Line and the elaws Advisors, interactive online tools that help clarify employment laws. In addition, it links to DOL's online Employment Law Guide which has been updated to reflect new and revised regulatory information.

Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao established DOL's Compliance Assistance Initiative in June 2002. A complement to enforcement, the effort aims to protect the wages, health benefits, retirement security, safety and health of America's workforce by preventing employment law violations.

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	Did You Know?
	About Wrongful Termination employment Wrongful termination is a term that generally refers to a person being fired illegally. Many terminations that people think of as "wrongful" aren't illegal. In most states, employment is "at will". This means that the employer can fire the employee for no reason or any reason. However, there are two main reasons why a termination may be illegal- discrimination and contracts.