Wellness & Well-being Highlights December 30

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of Dec 30, 2024

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at how Mexico is bracing for a possible US Military intervention following the 2025 US President’s inauguration—to how US homelessness increased in 2024—to a report on H-2B visas (The H-2B visa program was established to help U.S. businesses fill labor temporary shortages, especially during peak production periods…in non-ag jobs) status according to each state. This week I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on the withdrawal of the US-DOL’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) on Jan 17, 2024.

To refresh your memory, the US-DOL’s Office of Apprenticeship (OA)—early in 2024—opened the process to revise/update 29CFR29 and 29CFR30…the standards that govern RAPs. Among several other issues, “they sought to enhance worker protections and equity, improving the quality of registered apprenticeship programs….” During the “open comment” period that lasted through mid-March, the US-DOL received over 2100 comments of which 333 were unique comments while 22 were duplicates or not related to the subject of this rulemaking. If you recall, nearly one year ago, I kindly asked our readers to weigh in on the importance of including the subject of “Mental Health” as a mandatory training requirement for all RAPs going forward…more on this later!

Below is a brief summary of their findings:

The Department broadly notes that the breadth and diversity of stakeholders commenting, as well as the unique perspectives provided, is a testament to the strength and growth of the registered apprenticeship model overall as a solution to America’s workforce needs across a wide range of industries. The Department believes that the dialogue spurred by the NPRM demonstrates a need for a robust and modernized approach to registered apprenticeship with more clearly defined roles and responsibilities, more points of entry, and improved accessibility for employers to join or register programs and for job seekers to become apprentices in those programs….

By withdrawing the proposed rule, the Department is eliminating the pending nature of this rulemaking. The Department intends to engage with all interested parties to discuss and consider future enhancements and impacts for the quality and expansion of registered apprenticeship and the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in the National Apprenticeship System….

However, not all was lost in the process of making sausage! As noted above, the US-DOL did find a means to provide RAPs with a cup “half-full” when it came to the issue of providing Mental Health trainings. To this end, I was contacted by OA staff in Q1-2024 and asked to assist them in the development of 2 micro-videos for their learning library concerning Mental Health for Apprentices (Well-being) and What Sponsors need to know (Wellness). As noted earlier in this blog, these 2 videos were launched in Q3-2024 (See links below) for more information and PLEASE share as you see fit.

US-DOL OA’s Mental Health for Pre-Apprentices & Apprentices
Prioritizing Your Mental Health and Well-being
US-DOL OA’s Mental Health for Sponsors (Contractors, Unions, JATCs, etc.)
Promoting Worker Mental Health and Wellness

Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-12-27/pdf/2024-31078.pdf?utm_campaign=subscription+mailing+list&utm_medium=email&utm_source=federalregister.gov

Protecting US Miners & Taxpayers

Therapy Dogs / Doctors-Nurses / Trauma

States / Failures / ADA

Cocaine’s rise in EU

Teens / Pot / Dabbing

US Guns Fuel Mexico’s Drug Trade

Mexico / Drug Cartels / US Military

How Mexican Cartels Test Fentanyl

FDA Targets Edible Mushrooms