Briefs: Nursing Moms Get Rooms from DOD.

Braun Consulting News
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Recently the Pentagon has joined over 300 corporations in devoting space and facilities for nursing mothers to extract breast milk. Supervising Nurse Shirley Baldwin said employee response was considerably greater than expected when the facility, open to all ranks, was announced July 30th. Three hospital-grade pumps are available, along with a refrigerator to store the milk.

Congress and many state legislatures are considering measures to encourage breast-feeding among working mothers. Minnesota already requires employers to make reasonable efforts to provide time and facilities for mothers to extract breast milk.

A report by the Merit Systems Protection Board released recently said that "bad apples" in federal workplaces have a much greater impact on their agencies' performance than numbers suggest, and agencies must do a better job selecting supervisors with a knack for human relations. The report suggests that agencies should examine how well their employee selection methods identify good performers in the first place.

The board, which handles federal personnel disputes, said problems with performance management stem less from the legal system than from factors such as organizational culture, management support for supervisors' decisions, and selection of employees and supervisors.

The Los Angeles College of Chiropractic is rolling out a discount program for pet related expenses for its workers. A service provided by "PetAssure" of Dover NJ provides a flat 25 percent discount for most veterinary care within a nationwide network of providers. For an organization with 250 workers or fewer, the discount plan would cost each employee $85 a year, according to PetAssure. This benefit is expected to please employees and prospective employees... finally, a program for a major, but often overlooked, group of employee dependents: pets.

Employees who undergo drug or alcohol testing required by their employer must be paid for that time under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a recent opinion letter issued by the Department of Labor's Office of Enforcement Policy.

When an employer stipulates that an employee must meet certain requirements to begin or continue work, the time spent fulfillment those requirements, "is regarded as indispensable to the performance of the principal activity the employee is hired to perform."

Activities like physical exams and drug and alcohol testing would fall into that category. Even if the testing takes place outside of normal working hours, the testing time must be counted as compensable hours worked.

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and should not be construed as legal advise or opinion.
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