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COLA and CPI: What’s the Difference?

By Sharon McKnight, CCP, SPHR, BLR Senior Editor I can remember when a candy bar cost a nickel. Now, it’s a challenge to find one under a dollar. The cost of placating my sweet tooth, however, didn’t just leap from five cents to nearly a hundred pennies all at once. It crept up in itty-bitty […]

Train Your HAZWOPER Responders in Their Specific Duties

Hazardous materials specialists are workers who respond and provide support to hazardous materials technicians. Their duties parallel those of the hazardous materials technicians, but they require more-specific knowledge of the various substances that must be contained. Hazardous Materials Specialists The hazardous materials specialist also acts as the site liaison with federal, state, and local authorities […]

The New ‘Wage Slaves’: Readers Talk Back

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady A few weeks ago, BLR’s CEO wrote an e-pinion in this space called “BlackBerry® at the Beach,” a reference to expectations that workers be available 24/7/365. He expressed his e-pinion that lower level exempts, ineligible for overtime, are the new “wage slaves.” Guess what? Readers agreed! Here’s Bob’s […]

Self-Funded Health Plan Can’t Shake Down Providers for Benefits Paid for Non-Enrollee

The sponsor of a self-funded health plan cannot escape its responsibility to ensure that only fully eligible people are enrolled. Illustrating this maxim is a self-funded plan’s sad quest to recover gigantic sums from health providers for services it paid on behalf of a non-beneficiary. The plan paid more than $1 million in claims for a […]

If I say ‘Settle,’ Take It as a Gift

In yesterday’s Advisor, we enjoyed Attorney Donna M. Ballman’s take on some of the dumbest moves HR managers make. In today’s issue, Ballman, who usually represents employees, shares more     HR bloopers. We’ll also take a look at an audit program that will keep Ballman and similar attorneys out of your workplace. “There are some badly […]

Trump puts final nail in the coffin: Blacklisting rule ‘gone forever’

President Donald Trump has signed a resolution voiding an Obama-era regulation that would have required federal contractors to disclose employment law violations to agencies that award contracts. His signature was the final step in the repeal process. “It was the stake through the heart of the blacklisting regs,” according to H. Juanita Beecher, of counsel […]

Bridgegate’s Lessons for HR Managers

‘Time for Traffic Problems’ It seems that one of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s top aides, Bridget Anne Kelly, sent an e-mail to a Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said Oswald in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Kelly’s e-mail said, “Time for some traffic problems in […]

Fears of Increased ‘Leakage’ Drive Efforts to Insure, Toughen Retirement Plan Borrowing

Concerns are mounting in the United States about the increase in retirement plan “leakage” — hardship early withdrawals and loans being taken against such plans during tough economic times. As more Americans deplete their retirement savings to meet emergency expenses resulting from long-term unemployment, tightened credit or high medical expenses, policy makers are seeking ways […]