Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Lisa Edison-Smith North Dakota employers need to take steps to comply with a new antismoking law that will take effect on December 6, 2012. On November 6, voters approved Measure 4 by a 2-1 margin. The law “prohibit[s] smoking, including the use of electronic smoking devices, in public places and most places of employment […]
We earlier reported on a new program that makes it easier for employers and benefit plan officials to voluntarily correct certain employee benefit plan violations and avoid enforcement actions and penalties. Now, the Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration has released guidance with FAQs about the VFCP program and useful hypothetical examples. The […]
By Chris Ceplenski, BLR Managing Editor, News “The pendulum for benefits responsibility has swung back over to the employer.” “We saw a drastic rise in enrollment in our high deductible health plan (HDHP) when we renamed it an HSA plan.” “Benchmarking against your competitors is important, but don’t be a copycat.” “Eliminate the benefits-speak and […]
by Sophie E. Zdatny Recently, the Employers Counsel Network (ECN) met in Alexandria, Virginia, where several notable speakers stopped by to provide their insights on current developments in the employment arena at the national level and to share their predictions for President Barack Obama’s second term. This is the second post in a three-part series […]
If you’ve seen The Shining you certainly remember the scene when Jack Nicholson’s character, now thoroughly possessed by the Overlook Hotel’s diabolical spirits, hefts an axe and chases his wife through the snowbound resort. Cornering her in a bathroom, he splinters the door and bellows, “Heeere’s Johnny!” Scary stuff, for sure. For me, though, I […]
At this time of year, we remember King Wenceslas, the 10th-century monarch who took food and firewood to the poor. That small decency was long ago, but author and company CEO Steve Harrison reminds us that small decencies, day after day, still build great companies. A CEO is the business leader, but a CEO is […]
Only self-insured plans that completely self-administer claims payments and plan operations will avoid paying onerous transitional reinsurance fees. If a self-insured health plan does no more than determine eligibility, it will have to pay, according to Jeffrey Endick, an attorney with Slevin & Hart in Washington D.C. An exception exists to the onerous fee $63 per-member-per-year fee: Self-insured […]
The U.S. Supreme Court left intact a landmark federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal ruling that has forced many employers to reassess how they deal with temporary workers. The federal court had ruled that Microsoft improperly treated as many as 10,000 temporary employees as independent contractors and illegally denied them the option of participating […]
After a 5-4 ruling delivered January 21 by the U.S. Supreme Court, corporations and labor unions will now be permitted to spend as much as they wish on independent activities in support or opposition of presidential and congressional candidates. The restrictions on campaign expenditures had been in place for decades. In Citizens United v. Federal […]