Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A reminder for New York employers: If you haven’t already completed the Notice of Wage Payment forms required under the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA), time is running out. The law, which took effect on April 9, 2011, requires covered employers to give written notice of wage rates to all new hires at […]
H1N1 (“Swine”) flu vaccination trials are underway in the United States, and so far, it appears that there are no major side effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That’s the good news. The bad news for employers is that the vaccinations likely won’t be available for distribution to most adults through employee health […]
Employers may need to prepare for an avalanche of paperwork if the U.S. Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) passes Congress in its current form (or a similar form). The comprehensive 2,074-page health care reform bill, if passed, would impose many additional burdens on employers. Changes to Health Plans Employers would be […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the federal government to provide an opinion on whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires employers to accommodate pregnant employees. The Court received a petition to hear Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., a case from earlier this year in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that […]
By Susan Schoenfeld, JD In late June, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires states to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed […]
Have you ever gotten the feeling that an employee claiming workers’ comp wasn’t really injured, or wasn’t really injured on the job? Here’s a list of “red flags” to watch out for, courtesy of Cathy Divodi of Artemis Claims Consulting in Santa Rosa. Divodi spoke at ERI’s recent 2008 California Employment Law Update conference in […]
By Martin J. Regimbal, JD, The Kullman Firm In a recent decision, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) addressed an employee’s claim of retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The employee alleged a litany of purported adverse actions, but she provided no evidence that the […]
IRS on July 9 announced that it intends to amend regulations to prohibit defined benefit retirement plans from replacing retiree benefits being paid through joint and survivor, single-life or other annuity benefits with lump-sum distributions or other accelerated payments. The change is effective immediately, IRS said. Notice 2015-49 will amend IRS required minimum distribution regulations […]
In the last Advisor, we shared several forbidden interview questions. Today, we hit a few more and also talk about an extraordinary interviewer’s training program to help avoid these costly miscues. Untrained supervisors sitting in the interview room—who knows what they’re going to ask applicants! One thing for sure, they are nervous, and that means […]
The medical cases that are bad news to self-funded plans are also bad news to stop-loss insurers. So the latest report by stop-loss insurer Sun Life Financial on the top 10 catastrophic health conditions it sees is instructive for self-funded plans. Two categories of cancer, end-stage renal disease and two categories complications related to newborns […]