Legalized Marijuana: Medical Group Urges Congress to Consider Implications for Workplace Safety
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine is calling on Congress to make workplace safety “a primary consideration” when considering federal legislation that would legalize marijuana use.
In a statement sent to every member of Congress in October, ACOEM notes that 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the drug for medical and/or recreational use. The physician-led organization contends that the patchwork of laws to address marijuana use and workplace safety is “detrimental” to workers, employers and the general public.
“While there is much not known about marijuana, what is known is that marijuana can cause impairment, which will interfere with safe and acceptable performance in the workplace,” ACOEM President Stephen Frangos said in an Oct. 9 press release.
15 Major Companies Announce Effort to Tackle Cybersecurity Workforce Recruitment Issues
Fifteen major companies, including the Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, and PwC, announced Wednesday they are joining together to change their cybersecurity job descriptions and requirements to attract more talent to the 3 million cybersecurity job openings that are expected to be available over the next two years.
Specifically, the companies — which are part of the Aspen Cybersecurity Group — are focused on nixing requirements that candidates have four-year bachelor’s degrees and gender-biased job descriptions.
“A bachelor’s degree is actually not a good proxy for whether you have the talent,” Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Cyber & Technology Program John Carlin told CyberScoop. “There’s plenty of talented people out there but we need to figure out better ways to identify them and train them.”
Court Orders EEOC to Continue Collecting 2017 and 2018 Pay Data
The EEOC must continue collecting EEO-1 Component 2 pay data—broken down by job category, race, sex and ethnicity—for 2017 and 2018 even though the deadline for employers to file the information has passed
The EEOC “must continue to take all steps necessary” to complete the data collection by Jan. 31, 2020, according to an Oct. 29 order issued by Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“The order does not create any new or additional pay-data reporting obligations,” explained Laura Mitchell, an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Denver. So, employers that already properly submitted their data don’t need to take any additional steps.
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