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1. Break It Up. A recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling has clarified what may have been a previously gray area in workplace policy. Employees of Yellow Freight Systems, Inc., brought suit against their employer, claiming unpaid overtime because the company had not provided ten-minute breaks during two hours of daily overtime. The court ruled that, though the company had paid employees for the two full hours of work, the employees actually worked 10 minutes more than they should have for the same pay. Interestingly, the court also noted that employees--either individually or through collective union bargaining--cannot waive the right to a paid 10-minute break. The case also helped to expand regulations on another aspect of break-time: when the nature of the employee’s work allows him/her to take cumulative, intermittent breaks equivalent to the 10-minute break, those breaks do not need to be explicitly scheduled. You may want to discuss with labor counsel. 2. On Demand is In Demand. According to CAP Ventures, on-demand printing will be the single most significant capability for future fulfillment services. As average print run lengths decline and the demand for variable data printing continues to climb, print buyers will be looking for suppliers who can offer a wider range of products and services. The proliferation of new, digital technologies will make this possible, according to the CAP Ventures’ white paper entitled "Fulfillment Services: The Print On Demand Killer Application." You can order a copy by contacting Allison Hadley at 781-871-9000, ext. 208. 3. Not On Your Local Newstand. A survey by MAN Roland finds that printers continue to rate major expositions such as Graph Expo and PRINT as the most preferred sources of information in "live media." By comparison, regional trade shows and interactive web presentations rated much lower. As for print media, printers said they derived most of their news from trade magazines. And, in a rebuke to the interactive age, "static websites" and "email" ranked at the bottom of the list. 4. Going Once, Going Twice. Print firms from around the world can now trade surplus stocks of paper, inks, and other consumables via www.litho-world.com. The posting of available items and participation in this virtual market place is available free of charge, but consumers must set and negotiate their own prices with other customers. 5. Tip of the Week. Do you have adequate insurance for customer-owned materials on your floor? The July 24 edition of e-GAM reports that Quad/Graphics suffered a multimillion-dollar fire July 12, destroying a 10-story portion of its printing plant in Lomira, Wisconsin and causing one fatality. Also destroyed in the fire were approximately 30,000 pallets of work-in-progress production. Imagine the reproduction cost for 30,000 skids of printed matter. Now might be a good time to find out just what kind of coverage you have on customer-owned materials on your floor.
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