As of August 1, 2016, OSHA penalties have increased as follows:

• Serious, Other than Serious, and Posting and Failure to Abate violations increased from $7,000 per violation to a new maximum of $12,471 per violation.
• Willful or Repeat violations increased from $70,000 to $124,709 per violation.
   

New Poster Required by DOL

• The DOL has issued revised employer posters that are required by Federal law for every employer to display as of August 1, 2016 due to changes in the overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and also changes related to the Employee Polygraph Protection Act. To obtain free posters, you may contact the U.S. Department of Labor at 1-866-4-USADOL (1-866-487-2365) or download and print them yourself from
  http://www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/posters.htm. 

It has taken many years of learning the hard way, thousands of hours, and thousands of dollars to create, develop, and refine the format of and information included in your responses to Requests for Qualifications and Requests for Proposals.  Your proposals are, of course, how you win projects.  Then you receive a letter from the government project owner stating that a Public Information Request has been made by one of your competitors that would release your proprietary information!  What should you do?

 

There is good news.  You should submit a written objection to disclosure to the government in accordance with the process set forth by Section 552 of the Texas Government Code.  Thanks to a 2015 Texas Supreme Court Decision in Boeing Co. v. Paxton, 466 S.W.3d 831 (Tex. 2015), your information that would give advantage to a competitor or bidder may now be withheld by the State. 

 

For many years prior to Boeing Co. v. Paxton, the Office of the Attorney General concluded that the terms of a contract and especially the pricing of a winning bidder were public and generally not excepted from disclosure.  Gov't Code § 552.022(a)(3) (contract involving receipt or expenditure of public funds expressly made public).  Now, however, pursuant to Boeing, § 552.104 it is no longer limited to "ongoing competitive situations."  You need only to show that release of your "competitively sensitive information" would give an advantage to a competitor regardless of when a contract is executed.  Boeing, 466 S.W.3d at 831, 839.  

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