by Stephanie Goldberg

Absenteeism among obese workers in the United States costs employers about $8.65 billion each year, according to a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Costs associated with obesity-related work absences vary from state to state, reflecting variations in average daily earnings, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine said Thursday in a statement.

Obesity accounts for about 9.3% of all absenteeism costs nationwide, ranging from 6.5% in Washington, D.C., to 12.6% in Arkansas, according to the statement. And the study found that obese workers miss an extra 1.1 to 1.7 days of work each year compared with overweight or normal-weight workers.

“Obesity is associated with high direct costs for medical care, but the societal costs due to health-related work absences and reduced productivity could be even higher,” according to the statement.

The study examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 1998 to 2008, and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2012.

Adults who have a body mass index of 30 or higher are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Courtesy of www.businessinsurance.com

By James Jaillet

The Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to grant drivers carrying loads that are oversize or overweight an exemption to the the 30-minute break requirement of the 2013 hours of service rule.

The 30-minute break requirement was instituted in July of last year, when the latest hours of service rule took effect. It requires drivers to take a 30-minute break within the first eight hours of their on-duty time.

Compliance with this requirement is “extremely difficult” for specialty loads haulers, SC&RA says, due to state permit restrictions that often limit when and where oversized/overweight loads can be transported.

The exemption is requested for all permitted loads, according to SC&RA’s application for exemption.

“The 30-minute break uniquely affects OS/OW loads and has exacerbated the number of instances in which drivers have had to park these loads at roadside, consequently impacting the safety of both the general public and the driver,” according to the application, posted Nov. 24 in the Federal Register.

Average oversize and overweight loads are 15-16 feet wide and longer than 100 feet, according to SC&RA. Finding parking for these loads is more difficult than with other loads, SC&RA says, and drivers of the specialty loads are often forced to park alongside highways or exit ramps during the required 30-minute break.

“SC&RA does not foresee any negative impact to safety from the requested exemption. It believes that granting the exemption would have a favorable impact on overall safety by reducing the frequency of drivers resorting to less than ideal parking options, thereby reducing the frequency of lanes being partially or fully obscured,” according to the application.

FMCSA is accepting public comment on the application for 30 days.

Courtesy of www.ccjdigital.com

Home Depot Inc., which suffered a data breach between April and September, said 53 million e-mail addresses were taken by hackers during the attack, in addition to the 56 million payment cards that were previously disclosed.

Home Depot also said that the criminals used a third- party vendor’s user name and password to reach the perimeter of its network, then gained additional rights to navigate the company’s systems. Hackers used custom-built software on Home Depot’s self-checkout terminals in the U.S. and Canada to access customer data, according to a statement.

“Customers should be on guard against phishing scams, which are designed to trick customers into providing personal information in response to phony e-mails,” the Atlanta-based company said.

Home Depot, which first acknowledged the attack in September, has become one of the biggest victims of hackers’ war on retailers. The world’s largest home-improvement chain has said it expects to pay about $62 million this year to recover from the incursion, including additional costs for call-center staffing and legal expenses. Insurance will cover $27 million of that tab, the company said.

The latest information stemmed from weeks of work by investigators, who are cooperating with law enforcement and information-technology experts, Home Depot said. The e-mail data that was stolen didn’t include passwords or other sensitive information, the company said.

New Malware
Home Depot began investigating the breach on Sept. 2, immediately after banking partners and law enforcement raised alarms that its systems may have been infiltrated. The malicious software used in the breach hadn’t been seen in previous attacks and was designed to evade detection by anti-virus software, the company has said. The vulnerability has been closed off, and Home Depot has eliminated the malware from its systems.

A third-party vendor was also the root of Target Corp.’s breach last year, when hackers stole about 40 million payment- card numbers at the height of the holiday season.

So far, Home Depot has weathered its breach more smoothly than Target, which suffered a decline in sales and was reprimanded by lawmakers. Home Depot today reiterated its financial targets for 2014, saying sales will grow about 4.8 percent and earnings will climb 21 percent to $4.54 a share.

The shares rose 1.6 percent to $97.29 today in New York before it made the statement. The stock has climbed 18 percent this year, outpacing the Standard & Poor 500 Index’s 9.9 percent gain.

The company is bolstering the security in all its U.S. stores, including encrypting more data and adding chip-and-PIN technology. Home Depot has almost 2,300 retail stores.

Congress has begun its “Lame Duck” session with a big list of unfinished business items. Number one on that list for REALTORS® is an extension of “The Mortgage Forgiveness Tax Relief Act.”

This bipartisan legislation would extend an expired provision that has helped millions of distressed American families by allowing tax relief for homeowners when lenders forgive some portion of the mortgage debt they owe. Today’s housing market is finally recovering. However, there are still too many homeowners unable to meet their mortgage obligations. Estimates show that about 5.3 million homes are still under water. In addition, there are still more than 1 million homes in the process of foreclosure.

If “The Mortgage Forgiveness Tax Relief Act” is not enacted, hundreds of thousands of American families who did the right thing by short-selling their home or received a much needed loan reduction from their lender will have to pay income tax on “phantom income.”

Urge your Member of Congress and Senators to act on “The Mortgage Forgiveness Tax Relief Act” before the end of 2014 and help provide certainty for struggling homeowners and stability for our nation’s housing markets.