The first day of the sold-out ASA Staffing Law Conference in Washington, DC, began with a speech by David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He told the standing-room-only crowd about OSHA’s national temporary worker safety initiative and staffing firms’ role in protecting the nation’s temporary workers.
At the end of Michaels’ session, he and ASA president and chief executive officer Richard Wahlquist announced a joint alliance in which OSHA and ASA will work together to enhance temporary worker safety.
Conference attendees also filled the room for sessions by Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report; immigration expert Helen L. Konrad, Esq.; and employment discrimination expert Gerald L. Maatman Jr., Esq.
The conference continued today with a panel discussion of attorneys who work for staffing companies and the highly anticipated “ACA Countdown: Are You Ready for the Employer Mandate?” ASA senior counsel Ed Lenz and several staffing industry experts eased attendees’ concerns about the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and gave them the knowledge they needed to make final preparations to ensure compliance with the law.
Get updates from today’s conference sessions on Twitter—follow ASA (@StaffingTweets) and check the hashtag #StaffingLaw for news and reactions. ASA members who were unable to attend this year’s Staffing Law Conference can order audio recordings, slides, and handouts from the sessions at americanstaffing.net.