Overtime Rule Hang-Up Requires Careful Communication About Pay Decisions

If employers have announced employee raises or eligibility for overtime pay because of the Department of Labor's (DOL's) revised overtime rule, they may need to honor those commitments. Communications about the impact of a court's decision to temporarily block implementation of the overtime rule should honor any contracts created in prior messages about the rule.
           

The overtime rule was originally scheduled to take effect Dec. 1 and would have raised the exempt salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476. Employers were left with the choice of raising the salary of employees within the range of the old and new thresholds to $47,476 or reclassifying them as nonexempt. But after a judge on Nov. 22 barred the rule from taking effect, employers aren't sure what to do.

Promised Pay Increases

"Employers should carefully consider all communications to employees, particularly promised pay increases that may have triggered employee reliance," said Kathleen Anderson, an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg in Fort Wayne, Ind.

"If annual increases can be given to those employees who were expecting an increase to at least $47,476 per year, then that should be communicated as well," said Alfred Robinson Jr., an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Washington, D.C., and former acting administrator of the DOL's Wage and Hour Division.

Back-and-Forth Changes

But "if employers decide to undo already-implemented changes, they should emphasize the advantages of the original compensation method," Swartz said. "For example, they should emphasize the flexibility that exempt status affords and the benefits that come with exempt status. Of course, an employer's messaging will depend on the number of impacted employees and the company's internal assessment of employees' reaction to the back-and-forth changes."

The Global Search For Education: What Skills?

Employers want to hire people with 21st-century skills and they can’t find enough qualified candidates. The problem, says Charles Fadel, Founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, is that our education system “is biased for college entrance requirements via tests such as the SAT which are partially obsolete, and never reflected particularly well the needs of employability.” So given the dramatic transformations we are seeing in the workplace, what are the most effective ways to close the increasingly widening education-to-employment gap?
             

Today in Part 4 of The Global Search for Education 5-part series with Charles Fadel, our focus is on skills. The OECD’s Andreas Schleicher calls Fadel’s book, Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed, a “first of its kind organizing framework of competencies needed for this century which defines the spaces in which educators, curriculum planners, policy makers and learners can establish WHAT should be learned.”

Let’s talk about skills. What are the essential skills being left out of curriculum or that are not getting enough emphasis in curriculum?

First, let’s be clear in indicating that this is about skills not character qualities - these have been covered elsewhere before. The skills we are talking about are: creativity, critical thinking communication, and collaboration. They are essential for both the world of work and success in life.

Secondly, pedagogy needs to change - for instance, it is hard to imagine how a passive listener would learn how to communicate and collaborate.

Learning Arabic made easy

He was responsible for introducing Arabic as a second language in Indian schools here. His ‘Arabic for English Schools’ is a recommended series for CBSE schools in India and abroad.

And he delivers Arabic lessons as Radio Teacher on UAE-based Radio Voice of Kerala, followed by thousands of listeners worldwide.
And now Amanulla Vadakkangara has come up with another hands-on solution to learning Arabic, a language guide book that anyone can use to learn basic spoken Arabic at home.

Spoken Arabic Guide is the latest book in the series of language guides by the Doha-based Vadakkangara, who is also a writer, an academic and an entrepreneur. After teaching at local community schools, he has conducted multiple courses of Arabic learning for the local expatriate community members.

The book was officially released here recently at a ceremony at Friends Cultural Centre (FCC). Dr M P Hassan Kunhi, a long time Doha resident and a prominent Indian entrepreneur, released the book by handing over a copy to Muhammedunni Olakara, global chairman of Anti-smoking Society.

Dr Kunhi, in his speech, highlighted the importance of Vadakkangara’s initiative and how useful it will be for people coming to work in Qatar. He urged expatriates to take advantage of the opportunity and make the best use of the resource.

He also mentioned a recently announced decision by the Ministry of Economy and Trade, making it mandatory for all business tools including invoices, product labels, service lists, and warnings about health risks to be in Arabic.

His major books on Spoken Arabic are Spoken Arabic Made Easy, Spoken Arabic for All, Spoken Arabic Tutor, Spoken Arabic Master, A formula to speak Arabic and Spoken Arabic Gurunathan. He has successfully conducted several batches of Spoken Arabic programmes in Qatar.

Learn British Sign Language to help us all communicate

British Sign Language courses are on their way to Whitby so more people can communicate with deaf children. The ideahas come from Sara McLanaghan, a level three British Sign Language (BSL) who works in a mainstream school to support a profoundly deaf child, Alfie Blackwell. Currently, Sara and the boy’s parents are the only people in the area that can fluently communicate with him, aside from the teacher of the deaf and other professionals – but other than that he is very isolated. Sara said: “I want to change this and bring British sign language to Whitby.
                   

 
“BSL is such an amazing skill to have and can lead you down so many different paths.” Sara is running a course in Whitby on behalf of MeSign, British sign language specialists, which will run from September 22 until April at Eskdale school on a Thursday evening, 6-8pm. The course cost is £380 per person and this covers exam costs. At the end of the qualification, students will gain level 1 in signature British sign language. There are limited spaces on the course.

If it fills up, she is hoping to carry on to do another level 1 class and a level 2 class in Whitby as well, along with the linguistics of British sign language.

What Are the Best Strategies For Surface to Deep Learning?

If it's done correctly, teaching is both rewarding and complicated. The rewarding part is when we see students achieve or overcome some new learning, whether that's social-emotional or academic. In these days of social media, teaching is rewarding because we get to see students who we had in our classrooms long ago, grow up and find a passion in their choice of career.

However, teaching is also complicated because it's not just about teaching students "stuff." Teaching is about using a variety of strategies to help students learn information they need for the future, and it's about teaching students how to ask questions in order to have some level of control over their own learning, so they find a love for learning.

In the End

Why does all of this matter? In Hattie's research he found that project-based learning (PBL), something many teachers like to use, has an average effect size of around .15 which is well below the .40 which represents a year's worth of growth for a year's input. One of the reasons for the low effect size is that we often throw students into PBL without providing them with surface level learning first...nor do we provide the strategies needed when they come to a point that is very challenging.

Talking about surface level, deep level and transfer learning, as well as the strategies to use at each point and the questions to ask, will help strengthen the learning that happens in the classroom, and can ultimately lead to a higher level of student engagement.