bal

Global cotton prices steady amid marginal decreases in key markets

Global cotton markets saw slight declines and stabilisation in recent weeks, with NY/ICE December futures trading between 67–75 cents/lb since June, now at 71 cents/lb. The global A Index dipped from 85 to 83 cents, while China's index dropped from 101 to 97 cents due to a weaker yuan. Indian and Pakistani spot prices also declined, but both rupees remained stable against the dollar.




bal

MMWR: Current Cigarette Smoking, Access, and Purchases from Retail Outlets Among Students Aged 13–15 Years — Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 45 Countries, 2013 and 2014

Data regarding smoking, quantity and access to cigarettes by youth in 45 countries during 2013 and 2014.




bal

Lucidworks shares results from a global survey about GenAI adoption, fears, and strategies in 2024

Sinoway defines GenAI as it applies to the business environment as an extension of how AI and machine learning have been used for decades, which had been primarily numeric. GenAI now allows for the same applications, but with text, video, and audio. The same tools we applied to numbers we're now applying to words. GenAI analyzes literally millions, even billions, of data-points and makes predictions about the next letter in a word, the next word of the sentence, or the next sentence in a paragraph. It then comes up with a response to answer a query. Its predictive qualities usually produce good answers, but the possibility of hallucinations, which is what incorrect predictions resulting in wrong answers are called, is worrying.




bal

Goldberg Segalla Adds Attorneys in Philadelphia, Baltimore

Goldberg Segalla announced the addition of new attorneys to its workers' compensation defense offices in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Beteley T. Mulatu The firm added Angelina Nordeman to its work comp practice…




bal

Judge Whiffs in Calculating Pro Baseball Player's Average Weekly Wage

A Florida appellate court ruled that a judge of compensation claims erroneously calculated a minor league baseball player’s average weekly wage. Austin Sodders entered into a seven-year minor league contract with…




bal

Oklahoma State basketball team joins the Nation of Lifesavers

STILLWATER, Okla., October 28, 2024— The Oklahoma State University (OSU) men's basketball team participated in an American Heart Association Hands-Only CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training to learn the correct rate and depth of CPR ...




bal

5 health technology start-ups finalists in global heart disease solution competition

DALLAS, Nov. 8, 2024 – High blood pressure, obesity and other risk factors contribute to high rates of heart disease and stroke worldwide, including in the U.S. where cardiovascular disease is the leading killer.[1] While experts work to improve outcomes...




bal

Understanding cardiac arrest and emergency response following Damar Hamlin’s collapse during Monday Night Football

DALLAS, January 3, 2023 —While playing in the Buffalo Bills - Cincinnati Bengals game on Monday Night Football on January 2, Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after a hit and was administered CPR on the field before being transferred to...




bal

El equipo de baloncesto de la Universidad del Estado de Oklahoma se incorpora a Nation of Lifesavers

STILLWATER, Okla., 28 de octubre de 2024 — El equipo de baloncesto masculino de la Universidad del Estado de Oklahoma (OSU) participó en una capacitación de RCP (reanimación cardiopulmonar) solo las manos de la American Heart Association (la ...




bal

Photo Manipulate a Mystical Tribal Warrior

In today's tutorial you'll be brushing up on your photo manipulation skills, by creating a mystical tribal warrior. This tutorial is packed full of useful techniques, from blending tactics, to digital painting, lighting, layout sketching and much more.




bal

Bali 2011





Bali 2011, a set on Flickr.




bal

N.C. State quarterback Grayson McCall retires from football at 23 after concussions

North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall is retiring from football, he announced Wednesday after sustaining a head injury during a game earlier this month. "Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up," he continued. "I have done everything I can to continue, but this is where the good Lord has called me to serve in a different space."




bal

A Guide to Accessibility Resources for Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is May 16, 2024! GAAD was created to help bring attention and awareness to digital inclusivity. No matter your role on a project team, digital accessibility should always be a priority from start to finish. Why is accessibility so important?

  • Over 1 billion people worldwide have a disability, and that number is growing every day
  • 15% of people with disabilities say they never go online, compared to 5% of people without disabilities, according to Pew Research Center
  • According to a survey by Click-Away Pound, 71% of disabled users are forced to leave a website if they find it difficult to use

Digital accessibility directly impacts people’s ability to access information, buy products, apply for jobs, engage in discussion, and everything else that people do online that is becoming critical for modern life. Accessible spaces even benefit people without disabilities, as it allows anyone to take in content though their preferred method (reading the captions on a video instead of listening in a noisy environment, for example), and often breeds innovation as engineers work to find the best way to be sure everyone can access information equally.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in an effort to standardize digital accessibility. However, many websites unfortunately fail to meet these standards, leading to a lesser-quality user experience. WebAIM’s yearly report has highlighted some surprising statistics about WCAG across the top 1,000,000 home pages:

  • The most common accessibility failure across home pages is low contrast text
  • 98.1% of home pages have at least one WCAG 2.0 failure
  • On average, there are 56.8 accessibility errors per page (this increased 13.6% from 2023!) 
  • 16.8% of home pages had more than one <h1> tag

As you can see, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to create a more accessible web for everyone. If you’re interested in learning more about digital accessibility and how to improve accessibility on your own projects, there are plenty of resources and online courses available. Resources range from free, to paid courses, to professional certifications. Below are some courses and resources that we recommend.

Free Courses and Resources

If you’re looking to introduce yourself to digital accessibility, these free resources are a great place to start:  

  • A11ycasts with Rob Dodson - A series of video tutorials on YouTube that highlights topics including semantics, focus, the correct way to use a button, and a11y testing
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility - An article by Dequeue University that summarizes why digital accessibility should be a priority, and how to determine if your website is accessible
  • Common Mistakes with Using Colour in Accessibility - Digital designer Andrée Lange provides insights into how to take color contrast into consideration when designing for the web
  • Deque Accessibility Resources - Dequeue offers a variety of free accessibility resources, including webinars, blog posts, and their accessibility testing browser extension, axe DevTools
  • HTML Semantics and Accessibility Cheat Sheet - WebAIM provides a list of the most common HTML tags that have an impact on digital accessibility
  • MDN Accessibility Tutorials - MDN is an open-source project documenting web technologies, which also includes an informative section on web accessibility documentation and best practices
  • Section 508 ICT Testing Baseline - Outlines minimal accessibility testing requirements for federal agencies subject to Section 508
  • WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference - WCAG are a series of web accessibility guidelines released and maintained by the W3C, with 2.2 being the current version of the guidelines. This page provides a reference to standards that websites should meet in order to meet current accessibility standards
  • Web.dev Learn Accessibility Course - A series of informative articles ranging from beginning a11y topics, to more advanced topics including animation and motion

Deep Dives with Paid Tutorials

If you’re a developer who has experience in accessibility and want to dig more into the topic, these comprehensive tutorials will help you improve your a11y knowledge:

  • Accessible Web Academy - Accessible Web Academy includes more focused a11y courses for designers, developers, content creators, and marketers looking to target specific topics 
  • Inclusive Components - There is a free online summary of Heydon Pickering’s Inclusive Components, but you can also purchase an eBook on the topic. Heydon’s blog provides examples of a pattern library that bakes accessibility into each component
  • Practical Accessibility by Sara Soueidan - Sara Souedien is a prolific front-end developer who specializes in accessibility. Her course, Practical Accessibility, is a comprehensive guide for all developers, from those looking to familiarize themselves with accessibility, to experienced developers looking to expand their a11y knowledge.

Advanced Knowledge with Certifications

As the world’s population and number of disabled users continues to grow, it’s clear that implementing digital accessibility in your products is more important than ever. By implementing the information from these lists, you can help users of all abilities access the content that you share, ensuring a better internet for everyone.




bal

Balancing Image Speed and Quality with imgix

Users expect a website to load fast. An average web page loads in about 2.5 seconds. The longer the user has to wait, the higher the user bounce rate. There are a lot of factors that go into site speed, but images account for about 75% of the page weight on an application or website. Google’s Core Web Vitals uses several metrics to rank sites. Visual site speed or largest contentful paint affects ROI as slower sites have fewer repeat users and fewer sales.

Without properly sized images, both site speed and image quality are affected. Accordingly, we use several methods to deliver properly sized images. Our primary solution is imgix because it is easy to implement and saves managers and clients time and effort. 

Imgix Key Features

Imgix provides a lot of features — some we consistently use on projects, and others we use in very specific situations. 

Responsive Images

Setting up responsive images can be complex. As the variety of devices and their screen resolutions continue to expand, managing all the different image requirements is increasingly challenging.

Consider this scenario: a website’s images look crisp and clear on a high-resolution monitor. When that same page is viewed on a mobile device, the images are so large the page takes forever to load. A solution could be to upload a smaller image for mobile, right? It's not quite that simple. We need eight or more different sizes of the same image to account for different screen sizes and retina screens. Keeping track of all the image sizes and saving each size gets complex and would be nearly impossible to do manually on a site that has hundreds or thousands of images. 

One of our clients, National Park Foundation (NPF), wanted to clarify its message to better target major donors. Their gorgeous, large scenic images are essential to their website strategy.  NPF needed the images throughout their site to be crisp and clear at all screen sizes. Using imgix, NPF content managers can load high-resolution images to the CMS and not worry about the site's speed or performance. They rely on imgix to deliver the correctly resized image for any user's screen.

Imgix does this with their Device Pixel Ratio and Client Hints which automatically sets the pixel density for the image based on the user's device. Those API parameters can be easily set in the URLs for the image’s `srcset`. This allows developers to set an image width for an image `srcset` and then imgix delivers the right pixel ratio image to the user. We use `srcset` with imgix on other client sites like Bezos Earth Fund and Human Rights Campaign as well.

Resize and Cropping

Imgix allows you to crop images in addition to setting an image’s focal point. So, only one image needs to be uploaded and it can be used at multiple sizes and croppings throughout the site. Let's say we upload a large landscape image, but on some pages we only need to use a portion of the image cropped as a square. Imgix will crop the image and deliver the smaller versions on the pages we need while persisting the larger versions on other pages.

At Viget we use resizing and cropping on our own website, including our articles, to crop the staff photo to a smaller size at the top of the articles. This makes it possible for us to upload the staff photo once and the article image gets created automatically. 

Color Palette 

Another feature that we've used on client sites is the Color Palette API which allows you as many colors as you want from an image. For example, the Shedd Aquarium website that we built uses this feature by pulling a vibrant color from the image and setting it as the background color for the page hero. Aside from taking the manual work out of closely aligning photography with a page’s design, there’s an additional benefit: if you are on a slow connection, you will see a dynamic colored banner at the top before the image loads.

Image Upscaling

Another valuable feature is the ability to upscale images. Even if you upload an image that is low resolution, it can still be used at a higher resolution. This is especially useful for e-commerce sites or applications where users are uploading their images.  The upscale feature uses Generative AI to take a pixelated image and create a higher-resolution image. The final image will not be perfect, but it looks more professional. See the upscale demo on imgix.

Non-upscaled image
Upscaled image using Imgix

PDF Preview Images

There is also a PDF page to image option in imgix. The API enables the generation of a page-specific image preview from the PDF, which can serve as both a thumbnail and a full-size preview. When we built AHIP.org, they had a resources section for their members containing quite a few PDFs. To help with clarity and findability, we used imgix to show previews of the PDF documents to non-members. This feature allows AHIP to upload resource PDFs without having to also upload any thumbnail images. 

Face Detection

Another nice feature is a face detection parameter that you can pass to the API. This allows you to upload a photo and no matter the cropping or size it will keep the face as the focal point of the image. We used this feature on NEA for their team member page. It's great for user profile images that are used in different contexts throughout the site. 

Video Streaming

Videos have become a key design element on websites. However, determining which service to use for embedding those videos is an ongoing topic of discussion. Video platforms enable you to integrate the video onto the page, yet they introduce scripts that may impede page loading speed. Imgix offers a video embed service that allows content managers to keep all the images and videos in one place. The videos are automatically encoded to Adaptive Bitrate Streaming to get the best compression and video quality. So, videos load fast and look great on mobile and desktop. 

Imgix Video API with Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

Performance 

A lot of CMSs have image transformations built in. An image transformation encompasses everything for that image including responsive sizes, cropping, resizing, and face detection from the original. This is great for small sets of images, but transformations quickly get out of hand the more images there are on a site. For example, the homepage of the National Park Foundation has a minimum of 96 image transformations. 

Processing all of those image transformations uses a lot of server resources. Imgix saves the images and delivers them through their CDN. The imgix image CDN has an average of 0.15 milliseconds return on requests which enables images to load as quickly as possible. The CDN also caches the images on CDN edge nodes making them immediately available for future requests. 

Flexibility

Imgix is flexible enough to work with almost any site structure; including WordPress, Craft CMS, Shopify, React, Ruby on Rails, Python, and more (see the full list). So, whether a site is a WordPress site or a Rails application, imgix fits right into the ecosystem. And, even better: you don’t have to rebuild your web app or website to gain the benefits of image performance, which can save you a lot of time and money.

Setting up imgix on an existing website is easy. Imgix can connect to existing asset storage sources like AWS, Azure, or a web folder on the same domain. Once the image source is set up, a developer can start passing parameters to the API

Cost

Imgix is free for 1,000 images which makes it easy to integrate and grow with your site. Pricing goes to $750/yr for 5,000 images and $3,000/yr for 25,000 images. In their pricing structure, “images” are categorized as origin images, so the count only includes original images and not transformed ones. So, you could have hundreds of images and thousands of image transformations all being delivered through a CDN for free.

Conclusion

Ensuring fast site speed isn't just important. It is vital. It's the cornerstone of a successful online presence, directly influencing search engine rankings, user satisfaction, and ultimately, your return on investment. Properly sized and optimized images are key to ensuring your site loads quickly and displays correctly for users across various devices.

We have found that imgix enables our team to efficiently create projects with diverse image options, saving managers and developers valuable time. Our clients benefit from reduced server space and an increased site speed. Imgix’s API is comprehensive, so you can use one tool for all features and options around site images — from cropping and resizing to face detection and automated color palettes, to video and beyond. Having used imgix for the past five years to support the wide-ranging needs of our clients, we feel confident recommending it and using it again and again. 

Users expect a website to load fast, and imgix is a reliable way to make sure that happens. 




bal

Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera

This post: Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera was first published on Beyond Photo Tips by Susheel Chandradhas

Sony announced the Sony A9 iii on 07 November 2023, a 24.6 Megapixel Full-frame mirrorless camera with the world’s first global shutter full-frame stacked CMOS image sensor capable of shooting at 120 frames per second. The camera also boasts a processor, the BIONZ XR, that is 8 times faster than the previous Sony BIONZ X […]

This post: Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera was first published on Beyond Photo Tips




bal

Straw Bale Gardening

Article By Elizabeth Wahie University of Illinois ACES News Videos By Bonnie Plants & Rob Bob’s Backyard Farming For gardeners with limited mobility, poor soil conditions, or limited space to garden, straw bale gardening may be the way to go, … Continue reading




bal

Human Influence on Global Climate Traced Back to 1930’s

The Melbourne Newsroom The human impact on our global climate has now been traced back as far as the 1930’s Humans have triggered the last 16 record-breaking hot years experienced on Earth (up to 2014), with the new research tracing … Continue reading




bal

NASA Discovers a Global Electric Field After Decades of Search

A team of scientists has used data obtained from a suborbital rocket used in the NASA Endurance mission a to reveal an electric field that is as widespread



  • Space &amp; Astronomy

bal

New AI Method Reveals Impact of Global Warming on Extreme Weather Events

How can artificial intelligence (AI) help researchers plan and predict future extreme weather events resulting from climate change? This is what a recent s



  • Earth &amp; The Environment

bal

NASA Discovers a Global Electric Field After Decades of Search

A team of scientists has used data obtained from a suborbital rocket used in the NASA Endurance mission a to reveal an electric field that is as widespread



  • Earth &amp; The Environment

bal

Global Study Reveals Urban Areas Receive Significantly More Rainfall Than Rural Neighbors

How does an urban environment influence its rainfall? This is what a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hopes to



  • Earth &amp; The Environment

bal

Global Study Reveals Urban Areas Receive Significantly More Rainfall Than Rural Neighbors

How does an urban environment influence its rainfall? This is what a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hopes to




bal

Germany Seeks to Mandate Human Rights Due Diligence for Companies and Their Global Partners

In February 2019, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (“Development Ministry”) introduced a draft law (the “Draft Law”) that seeks to mandate human rights due diligence for German companies and their global business partners, including suppliers.




bal

Littler Lightbulb: Highlighting Global Human Rights Topics

Human rights issues increasingly require the assistance of experienced counsel who can help employers navigate very fluid and complex legal, business and societal considerations.




bal

Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

The scope and scale of many employers’ global operations and their global supply chains are expanding. This expansion has led to a greater focus on the risk of corporate human rights abuses such as forced labor, child labor, and other forms of modern slavery.




bal

The E.U. Advances a Watered-Down but Nonetheless Landmark Human Rights Draft Law – What This Means for Global Employers

  • The E.U. significantly advanced draft legislation requiring certain global employers to engage in wide-ranging human rights due diligence.
  • The scope of the law covers both E.U. and non-E.U. companies.
  • The draft law is expected to pass this summer, triggering E.U. Member States’ obligations to transpose it into local law. 




bal

How AI Will Make Global Supply Chains Smarter, and Alter the Employment Landscape in a Post-Pandemic World

Mickey Chichester and Natalie Pierce examine how companies may turn to AI and robotics to mitigate disruption and some of the employment implications of such initiatives.

Supply Chain Toolbox

View Article




bal

California’s New Deal: Employment Law Reform May Depend on the Ballot Box

What do you get when you combine a business-backed ballot initiative, the state legislature and governor’s office, and labor organizations? A deal. California style.




bal

States That Raise Minimum Wage May Counterbalance Inflation

Paul Piccigallo talks about considerations for employers when raising minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)




bal

Littler Releases Inaugural Report From Its Global Workplace Transformation Initiative

Report reviews the myriad forces transforming the workplace and formalizes Littler’s Global Workplace Transformation Initiative




bal

Poland and Other Central-Eastern European Countries Focus on Their Global Mobility & Immigration Policies

In February 2024, Poland’s government revealed that it is working on a comprehensive migration strategy for the years 2025-2030, advertised as a “responsible and safe” approach. The Ministry of Interior and Administration plans to spend the first half of 2024 conducting consultations to learn the preferences and expectations on migration and foreigners’ employment from various stakeholders, including the country’s biggest employers and their organizations, as well the trade unions.




bal

Littler Global Guide - Germany - Q2 2022

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2022 Global Guide Quarterly

Significant Tightening of the German Law on the Provision of Evidence

New Legislation Enacted

Author: Lioba Lamers, Associate – vangard | Littler




bal

Littler Global Guide - United Kingdom - Q3 2022

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q3 2022 Global Guide Quarterly

Court of Appeal Confirms that Conduct of a Whistleblower is Separable from the Fact of Making a Protected Disclosure

Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency




bal

Littler Global Guide - Italy - Q1 2023

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q1 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Extensions of Laws

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Carlo Majer, Partner, and Caterina Colombano, Associate – Littler Italy




bal

Littler Global Guide - Netherlands - Q1 2023

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q1 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Whistleblower Protection Act Has Entered into Force

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Dennis Veldhuizen, Partner, and Eric van Dam, Partner – Clint | Littler




bal

Littler Global Guide - Germany - Q2 2023

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

German Whistleblower Protection Act

New Legislation Enacted

Author: Matthias Pallentin, Partner – vangard | Littler




bal

Littler Global Guide - Hungary - Q2 2023

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

New Whistleblowing Act

New Legislation Enacted

Author: Zoltán Csernus, Attorney-at-Law – VJT & Partners Law Firm




bal

Littler Global Guide - Spain - Q2 2023

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Deadline for the Implementation of the Whistleblowing Reporting System

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Sonia Cortés, Partner, and Isabel Herrero, Attorney-at-Law – Abdón Pedrajas | Littler




bal

Growing trend of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I); global development pushing India too

Alecia Winfield explains what diversity means in corporate America and says the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests fueled a drive for change in corporate America, similar to that of the #MeToo movement. 

Apparel Resources

View




bal

Europe and Canada Seek to Mandate Human Rights Due Diligence and Transparency Obligations on Companies and Their Global Partners

This year has seen a number of international and regional legislative efforts imposing human rights due diligence and transparency obligations on multinational employers. 




bal

The Global Guide Quarterly (Quarter 3, 2024)

The Global Guide Quarterly (GGQ) is a newsletter published by Littler on a quarterly basis to provide high-level and concise coverage of global labor and employment (L&E) law developments in key countries across the Americas, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).




bal

Psychedelics and Marijuana on the Ballot: How Should Employers Prepare for Potential Legalization?

Voters in several states will decide whether marijuana or, in one case, psychedelic substances should be legal in the upcoming November 5, 2024 general election. Employers should keep their eyes on these ballot measures and prepare for questions regarding changes to workplace policies if some or all of them pass. A rundown of the ballot measures in these jurisdictions follows.




bal

What to do about "Global COVID Nomads" and Other Wandering Workers Who Telecommute from Abroad for Personal Reasons

Technology facilitates remote work in ways that, years ago, just were not possible. Take telecommuting. These days, all kinds of jobs that had to be performed at an employer site are now performed remotely. Some call center workers, for example, now work from home using home telephones no brick-and-mortar call center needed. Some secretaries now telecommute using laptops and the internet. Some teachers now teach remotely using laptops and video links.




bal

Inaugural Report of Littler’s Global Workplace Transformation Initiative

The COVID-19 pandemic required nearly every employer around the globe to take stock of its workforce, policies and practices, and adapt to a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment.  COVID-19 will eventually pass, but transformative issues laid bare by the pandemic—which were already in motion—will remain, likely at an accelerated pace.




bal

COVID-19 Vaccination: A Littler Global Guide on Legal & Practical Implications in the Workplace (January 2022 Update)

The Firm’s International Practice Group has once again updated its COVID-19 Vaccination: A Littler Global Guide on Legal & Practical Implications in the Workplace. Two years into the pandemic, experts agree that – in the absence of newly emerging and highly transmissible variants – COVID-19 might lose its pandemic status before the end of 2022 due to the development of various COVID-19 vaccines and increasing global vaccination rates.




bal

Global Non-Compete Reform – At a Glance

The United States is not the only country currently debating reform to the law on non-competes. Notably, the UK Government has announced legislation that would limit the duration of non-competes to a period of three months after the termination of employment.




bal

Global Non-Compete Reform – At a Glance Tracker (Updated March 2024)

The United States is not the only country currently debating a reform to the law on non-competes. Notably, the UK Government has announced legislation that would limit the duration of non-competes to a period of 3 months after termination of employment.




bal

NLRB Regional Director Says Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Players Are Employees, Can Vote in Union Election

On February 5, 2024, the NLRB’s Regional Director for Region 1, Laura Sacks, issued a written decision finding that Dartmouth’s men’s basketball players are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. Based on their status as employees, Regional Director Sacks found, Dartmouth’s men’s basketball players are eligible to vote in a union election petitioned for by Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, a labor union that already represents several other more traditional employee groups at Dartmouth.




bal

Dartmouth basketball vote shows unionization ‘can happen anywhere,’ attorney says

Tyler Sims discusses the potential wage-and-hour implications of Dartmouth College’s men’s basketball team voting to form what may become the NCAA’s first-ever athlete labor union.

HR Dive

View (Subscription required.)




bal

Missouri Appears to Have Approved Paid Sick and Safe Time Ballot Measure as Rumors of Potential Challenge Circulate

  • New statewide paid sick and safe time law would take effect on May 1, 2025.
  • Law would allow employers to limit annual use to either 40 or 56 hours, limit carryover to 80 hours, but is silent on accrual caps.
  • Notice obligations would begin before law takes effect.