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By Dan Oswald President, M. Lee Smith Publishers Just My E-pinion If you’re a pilot or paratrooper or skydiver, you pretty much depend on the person who packs your parachute. In today’s e-pinion, M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC president Dan Oswald challenges you to ask, Who packs your parachutes? Charles Plumb was a Navy jet […]
With unemployment rates inching ever lower, employers are becoming more and more concerned with employee retention. Vacancies are getting tougher to fill, making it even more of a concern when an employee leaves.
An increasing number of employers are examining providing a low-benefits health plan that covers only preventive health services but not high-price major medical claims. Offering this type of low cost or “skinny” plan is allowed under the health reform law. The question is: Will skinny plans trigger a large-employer exodus to de minimis coverage, and if so, […]
by Daniel Mayer On June 16, important changes regarding union certification and decertification for federally regulated employers in Canada will come into effect. The federally regulated sector includes interprovincial and international transportation companies, airlines, railways, banks, and employees who work for the federal government.
New IRS guidance spells out more issues the agency plans to address in imposing the excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage (commonly known as the Cadillac tax). These include: (1) identifying taxpayers who may be liable for the excise tax; (2) aggregating several employers under one plan sponsor’s payment; (3) allocating the tax among […]
By Richard L. Rainey We often tell clients that not all lawsuits are filed because an employee has evidence of discrimination or believes she was discriminated against. Rather, sometimes they’re filed because the employee thinks she was treated unfairly. That concept is illustrated in a recent case out of Durham. Background Iretha Lawrence, an African […]
by Jason R. Mau Over the last three years, members of Congress have attempted to amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to improve and ensure its protection of individuals subject to pay discrimination on the basis of gender. Originally approved in January 2009 by the House of Representatives, the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA) failed to […]
I was amazed when I first learned that the Obama administration had requested the resignation of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I became dismayed. Did Rick Wagoner deserve to lose his job? I don’t know. But I do know that it is not the role of government to […]
I enjoy reading biographies. People’s lives fascinate me and most of the time are much more interesting than any piece of fiction. Over the years, I’ve read dozens, if not hundreds, of biographies of politicians, business leaders, and athletes.
By Alix Herber and Hadiya Roderique Across Canada, human rights legislation prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of age. This applies to all aspects of the employment relationship — job advertisements, application forms, job interviews, hiring decisions, denial of promotional opportunities, and termination decisions. Data from the Ontario Human Rights Commission for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 […]