SHPS, a leading provider of health advocacy and health benefit solutions, announced that its comprehensive examination of employee wellness as an integral component of a total population health management strategy will be included in the upcoming publication of Human Resources 2008: Answers To The Top 25 HR Questions In 2008, a book published by Thompson Publishing Group, Inc. Successful Wellness Programs: What Separates Best-in-Class From All The Rest focuses upon today's solutions moving beyond health awareness toward behavioral theory and quantifiable results.

Integated talent management solutions firm Authoria, Inc., announced that Ahold USA, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Genuine Parts, Phillips-Van Heusen, Starbucks, and Toys R Us are some of the marquee retail organizations that have leveraged Authoria Talent Management to reduce employee turnover, sell higher-margin products and services, increase profitability, and improve customer satisfaction. The Knowledge Infusion white paper Do or Die: The Talent Management Imperative in Retail is available free, for a limited time.

RedPrairie Corporation, a consumer-driven optimization company, announced it has created a next generation employee self-service application. This new browser-independent application will allow employers to more effectively communicate with their employees. The enhanced employee self-service capability provides employees with the ability to confirm their work schedules, check hours worked, submit time off requests, and receive other job-related information with a secure, easy-to-use web portal interface. With this solution, employees can also access work schedules through a WAP-enabled (Wireless Application Protocol) device, such as a mobile phone or PDA.

In Depth
Labor Department continues crackdown on companies sponsoring foreign workers. From The National Law Journal.

The U.S. Department of Labor has continued its crackdown on companies trying to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residence, recently announcing its third action in a little more than a month.

The DOL has said it is auditing the applications by one law firm, supervising a part of the process by another law firm and has debarred for three years applications from a software company.

"It's incredibly unusual," said Charles H. Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). "You'll definitely see more of this because of a change in leadership in the solicitoršs office at the Department of Labor." Gregory F. Jacob, the solicitor of labor at the DOL and its chief legal officer, was nominated for the position by President Bush in September 2007 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December.

Jacob said that once the department eliminated its backlog of paper applications last fall, it concentrated on increasing the number of audits, some of which have brought to light problems with applications.

"Now we are seeing indeed this is here," he said. "We are vigorously enforcing and making sure we are adhering to our statutory mandate." On July 8, the DOL said it has initiated 'supervised recruitment' for all permanent labor certifications filed by Pittsburgh-based Cohen & Grigsby.

The same day, the department announced it debarred for three years LawLogix Group Inc., a company that provides software to businesses that use the online labor certification process, from filing the applications.

The announcements follow a June 2 notice that all permanent labor certifications by New York's Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy will be audited.

Companies must go through the permanent labor certification process when sponsoring a non-U.S. citizen employee to ensure there are no Americans qualified for the job.

A chilling effect?
A number of lawyers said the recent efforts by the DOL could have a chilling effect on companies looking to sponsor foreign workers as well as the immigration firms involved in this work.

"The government is beginning to interfere in the client-attorney relationship and privilege," said Philip J. Kleiner, senior partner at New York's Barst & Mukamal, which specializes in immigration issues. "This is going to create a nationwide scare for companies that must have foreign workers and have decided they need to go through the labor certification process." AILA officials have met with Jacob and said they hope they can work with the DOL to better clarify the permanent labor certification process.

"Ultimately there will be an understanding worked out here, or the Department of Labor will face serious challenges on its position in federal court," said Kuck of the AILA, who is also managing partner of Atlanta's Kuck Casablanca & Odom. The recent efforts taken by the DOL could diminish the growth of U.S. companies, he added.

In several press releases, the DOL has said it uses tools such as audits and supervised recruitment to ensure that regulations are being followed and that U.S. workers are being properly considered for jobs.

"The department takes seriously its statutory responsibility to ensure that American workers have access to jobs they are qualified and willing to do," Jacobs has stated in press releases.

More to come
A number of lawyers have agreed that more enforcement could be coming.

"I don't think there is any question you're going to see more announcements and certainly you're going to see more use of the tools the Department of Labor has," said Kathleen Campbell Walker, immediate past president of AILA and an immigration partner in the El Paso, Texas, office of Austin, Texas-based Brown McCarroll.

In the case of Fragomen - which, with more than 250 attorneys and 1,200 professional staff, is considered the largest firm dedicated to corporate immigration - the DOL has said that some of its attorneys may have improperly advised clients about when they can contact attorneys during the process.

Fragomen has said that its attorneys have done nothing wrong. Jacob said that audit could take months.

In Cohen & Grigsby's case, the DOL said it will have to approve in advance the firm's recruitment efforts during the application process to ensure that U.S. workers are fully considered for the positions.

The step was initiated as a result of concerns identified in last year's audit of the firm, the DOL said. The firm was audited following a video widely distributed on the Internet in which a lawyer from the firm talked about how the goal in the recruitment process is not to find a qualified U.S. worker.

In a written statement, the 128-attorney firm said it has cooperated and will continue to cooperate fully with the DOL and believes the department's concerns will be eliminated after the review.

"Cohen & Grigsby maintains that it has complied and continues to comply fully with all applicable laws and regulations governing permanent labor certification applications," the firm said.

As for LawLogix, the DOL alleges that the company last year filed more than 100 applications "apparently for the sole purpose of testing the parameters of the department's electronic processing system." Jacob said the company put in some "very odd applications" for jobs such as pizza tossers or those with salaries of more than $1 million. The debarment affects the company's ability to sponsor foreign workers, not any of the companies that use LawLogix software in the process, he said.

LawLogix answered multiple requests for comment by saying "someone should be in touch probably sometime next week" in an e-mail. No one was made available by the afternoon of July 14.

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