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Tips are the property of the employee, whether or not that employee has taken a tip credit under the Fair Labor Standards Act. So states Labor Department Fact Sheet #15A, released by the Wage and Hour Division in February. The fact sheet reflects tip credit regulations DOL updated in May 2011. Under the regulation, an […]
The Supreme Court has refused to resolve competing appeals court views on the nature of donning and doffing, denying certiorari in Mountaire Farms Inc. v. Perez in late February. Perez is the latest in a series of cases in which petitioners ask for further clarification on when employees must be paid for putting on and […]
Many employers try hard to curtail employee claims against them, or at least to channel such claims away from the courts and into less costly forums. Some have done this by forcing employees to promise not to file a class action suit; others allow class actions, but require that they be resolved through arbitration. The […]
A 39-month prison sentence was handed down Feb. 1 for an Alabama woman who had pleaded guilty to stealing more than 4,000 patient records from a Birmingham hospital. A federal district court sentenced Chelsea Catherine Stewart to 15 months for wrongfully obtaining individual health information in violation of HIPAA, along with an unrelated bank fraud attempt […]
The Labor Department, in response to strong opposition from farm families, is revising its proposed rule restricting child labor on farms. As part of a package of child labor reforms unveiled Sept. 2, 2011, Labor proposed narrowing the so-called parental exemption that allows children of any age who are employed by their parent, or a […]
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced on Jan. 30 that the U.S. Department of Labor is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement new statutory amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act that would expand military family leave provisions and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees. The FMLA, […]
It pays to stay off the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s enforcement radar. Employers paid more than $100 million in fiscal 2011 to resolve disability discrimination claims enforced by the civil rights agency, it’s annual annual statistical summary. Payouts to workers alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act produced the highest increase in monetary relief […]
By Rich Glass. The IRS is hitting the ground running. Just a few days into 2012, we received Notice 2012-09, which addresses reporting health care coverage costs on Forms W-2. Following are a nine more things that Glass says we can expect from the federal government this year. Affordable Care Act (ACA), Part I: Health […]
Postcards are designed to provide a brief message, but it will be interesting to learn if such brevity is sufficient to adequately notify an individual of COBRA continuation coverage rights — particularly when the law identifies at least 14 content requirements for COBRA election notices. In a recent court case, an employer/plan administrator faced with […]
A new U.S. Department of Transportation rule reduces the number of hours a truck driver can work within a week. The new final rule, announced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration a few days before Christmas, reflects new research in driver fatigue to make sure truck drivers can get the rest they need to […]